MILKEN ARCHIVE SAMPLER CD "INTRODUCING THE WORLD OF AMERICAN JEWISH MUSIC" This "Sampler CD" is a microcosm of the vast recorded panorama of music related...
MILKEN
ARCHIVE SAMPLER CD
"INTRODUCING THE WORLD OF AMERICAN JEWISH MUSIC"
This "Sampler
CD" is a microcosm of the vast recorded panorama of music related to the Jewish
experience in America that will be released by the Milken Archive of American
Jewish Music on Naxos American Classics over the next several years. Comprising
19 excerpts from rare, new and rediscovered works, it reflects the broad spectrum
of the more than 600 original compositions representing a wide range of genres,
styles, periods and purposes--both sacred and secular--that have been newly
recorded for this series. Composers include giants of 20th-century
music, award-winning contemporary figures, and older composers whose legacies
are being "re-discovered," as well as less familiar but enduring figures from
the worlds of liturgical and popular music.
Works heard on this
introductory sampler disc include a rarely heard liturgical setting by Leonard
Bernstein, part of a world-premiere recording of his little known
Jewish-inspired compositions to be released in October; selections from the
colorful world of Yiddish musical theater; excerpts from instrumental concert
works on Jewish themes by composers including Darius Milhaud, Paul Schoenfield,
Joseph Achron, and Yehudi Wyner; settings of Ladino poems by Bruce Adolphe;
cantorial showpieces with orchestra and traditional prayers in choral settings;
selections from Kurt Weill's The Eternal Road, Milhaud's Service Sacre and a Passover cantata by Ernst Toch; and an excerpt
from Dave Brubeck's cantata The Gates of Justice, which explores shared
experiences between Jews and African-Americans in a plea for brotherhood, one
of several works recorded for the Milken Archive by non-Jewish composers
inspired by Jewish ideals and texts.
The sampler disc features
performances by the BBC Singers, The Dave Brubeck Trio, Czech Philharmonic,
Tovah Feldshuh, Eliot Fisk, The Juilliard String Quartet, David Krakauer, Yoel
Levi, Ana Maria Martinez, Cantors Benzion Miller, Alberto Mizrahi and Simon
Spiro; Elmar Oliveira, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Gerard Schwarz,
Richard Stoltzman, Robert Vernon, Vienna Boys Choir, Fritz Weaver, and many
others.