VA - Engel: Chamber Music & Folksongs (2017)

The Russian composer Joel Engel (1868–1927) is unofficially considered ‘the father of Jewish music’. He paved the way for a nationalist movement that used Yiddish and Hebrew folk songs as the basis of a serious art-form. Well before Kodály and Bartók in Hungary, Engel went out to the shtetls of eastern Europe, writing down the villagers’ songs and then composed music inspired by his excursions. This first-ever album of his music reveals the melodic immediacy of these songs and instrumental pieces, capturing the soul of a people and a centuries-old vanished culture. The musicians of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival are the highest-calibre local professionals; players for the orchestral and chamber-music concerts include members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestras, and faculty members of the music departments from Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne Universities. The Festival was founded in 2004 by the cellist Aron Zelkowicz. In its eleven seasons, it has programmed over 130 pieces of classical chamber and orchestral music inspired by Jewish traditions. The recordings on this CD series represent a six-year project devoted to the St Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music and its affiliated Russian composers.

TRACKLIST

01. Air (Jewish Melody) - Daniel Andai
02. Adagio misterioso (Chabad), Op. 22 - Daniel Andai
03. 3 Yiddish Songs (Arr. L. Danto): No. 1, Nor nokh dir - Rachel Calloway
04. 3 Yiddish Songs (Arr. L. Danto): No. 2, Ritshkele - Rachel Calloway
05. 3 Yiddish Songs (Arr. L. Danto): No. 3, Akh! Nit gut! - Rachel Calloway
06. Dybbuk Suite, Op. 35: I. For What Reason?-From Song of Songs - Daniel Andai
07. Dybbuk Suite, Op. 35: II. Beggars' Dances - Ron Samuels
08. Dybbuk Suite, Op. 35: III. Wedding March - Ron Samuels
09. Dybbuk Suite, Op. 35: IV. The Veiling of the Bride - Ron Samuels
10. Dybbuk Suite, Op. 35: V. Hassidic Melody - Ron Samuels
11. Dybbuk Suite, Op. 35: VI. From Song of Songs-For What Reason? (Reprise) - Ron Samuels
12. Jewish Folksongs: No. 14, Hen hu hivtiach li - Rachel Calloway
13. 2 Violin Pieces, Op. 20: No. 1, Chabad nigun (Arr. U. Vardi for Cello & Piano) - Aron Zelkowicz
14. 2 Violin Pieces, Op. 20: No. 2, Freylekhs - Nurit Pacht
15. 50 Children's Songs: No. 9, In der Suke - Rachel Calloway
16. 50 Children's Songs: No. 8, Shavues - Rachel Calloway
17. 50 Children's Songs: No. 1, Morgengebet - Rachel Calloway
18. 11 Children's Songs, Op. 36: No. 10, Zumerfeygele - Rachel Calloway
19. Az ikh volt gehat dem keysers oystres, Op. 4 No. 2 - Rachel Calloway