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Vienna Boys Choir: A Jewish Celebration in Song

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Naxos Milken Archives

Vienna Boys Choir: A Jewish Celebration in Song

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VIENNA CHOIR BOYS VIENNA CHOIR BOYS A JEWISH CELEBRATION IN SONG SHOLOM KALIB:� THE DAY OF REST (Excerpts)� (1978) ABRAHAM KAPLAN: PSALMS OF ABRAHAM �...

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VIENNA CHOIR BOYS

VIENNA CHOIR BOYS

A JEWISH CELEBRATION IN SONG

SHOLOM KALIB:� THE DAY OF REST (Excerpts)� (1978)

ABRAHAM KAPLAN: PSALMS OF ABRAHAM� (1980)

Bridging several decades, thousands of miles and distinct religious and cultural differences, this recording represents a unique artistic connection forged by the Milken Archive between a venerable European institution and Jewish music written for the children's choir of a Midwestern American synagogue.� It features the Vienna Choir Boys, a venerable ensemble founded in 1498 and associated for more than five centuries with the Roman Catholic Hapsburg Imperial Chapel, singing two works originally commissioned by and written for the Beth Abraham Youth Chorale.� Founded at a Dayton, Ohio congregation in the 1970s, the Solomon Schechter Award-winning Beth Abraham Youth Chorale is well known for commissioning new works of Jewish music, many of which are considered classics. This CD marks the very first time that the Vienna Choir Boys have recorded music of the American Jewish experience.

Both of these compositions, Shalom Kalib's The Day of Rest--a setting of prayers from the Sabbath liturgy--and Abraham Kaplan's Psalms of Abraham, were originally scored for treble voices only.� At the suggestion of the Vienna Choir Boys, the Milken Archive commissioned the two composers to rework some of the settings in a four-part SATB configuration, combining boys' and adult men's voices with solo cantorial parts in the medium typical of virtually all Eastern European synagogue choral music that was transplanted to America.� On this disc, recorded in Vienna, the Choir Boys are joined by the Chorus Viennensis, an adult ensemble of Choir Boys alumni; Naftali Herstik, Chief Cantor of the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem; Cantor Shimon Craimer; and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gerald Wirth.

The recording fulfills several goals central to the Milken Archive's mission.� First, it encourages performances of Judaically related repertoire.� Since the recording sessions for this CD, the Vienna Choir Boys have performed this music frequently and will sing selections from it on their upcoming, 35-city United States tour from October through December 2004.� Further, this release revitalizes and brings to light specific areas of American Jewish music that might otherwise have been neglected, as illustrated by the work of Sholom Kalib, who has preserved in his own compositions the rich Eastern European synagogue music tradition that constitutes one of the surviving legacies of a now vanished world.

Sholom Kalib's Day of Rest is a concert service that includes prayer settings from three sections of the Sabbath liturgy: Friday evening, Saturday morning and Saturday evening.� The six movements heard on this recording reflect a variety of moods evoked by the texts: reflective and tranquil, joyful and triumphant, nostalgic and majestic.� Musically, as Milken Archive Artistic Director Neil Levin explains, this work "was intended deliberately to recall and incorporate cantorial idioms, melodic contours, modal practices and an overall emotional ambience of the Eastern European cantorial-choral tradition that developed in the Czarist and Hapsburg empires from the 17th to the late 19th centuries." Certain characteristics of that tradition were transplanted in America by immigrant cantors and choirmasters, and are clearly evident in Kalib's sophisticated reinterpretation.� In addition, Levin points out, one can also hear in certain passages of this work echoes of the grandiose and majestic style more commonly associated with the music of the 19th-century western Ashkenazi--or "German"--synagogue, a style greatly influenced by Western classical music models and seen notably in the works of Sulzer and Lewandowski.�

Abraham Kaplan's Psalms of Abraham is a cantata comprising original settings of 12 texts or excerpts from the Book of Psalms, scored for various combinations of cantorial soloist, choir and chamber orchestra.� Discussing this work, the composer noted that the Psalms reflect the contrasting emotions of joy and sadness, faith and insecurity that mark human nature, and remarked that he sought to capture these qualities and utilize them as unifying themes throughout.� The texts he chose include Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my Shepherd"), Psalm 24("Lift up your gates"), Psalm 137 ("By the rivers of Babylon"), Psalm 121 ("I will lift my eyes to the hills"), and Psalm 150 ("Praise God in His sanctuary").

Both composers represented on this disc are also distinguished choral directors and arrangers.� Sholom Kalib, who was a choirmaster at a major Chicago synagogue at the age of 14, has held several cantorial posts, and is a noted Jewish music scholar who has embraced Shenkerian analysis.� He has especially championed the Eastern European cantorial and synagogue musical tradition, seeking to perpetuate it through historical analysis and the creation of new works.� Israeli-born choral director and conductor Abraham Kaplan, who studied at Aspen, Juilliard and Tanglewood, has led numerous important premieres and recordings of works by composers including Robert Starer, Vincent Persichetti and George Rochberg.� Director of choral studies at Juilliard for 16 years, he prepared the School's chorus for the inaugural concert at Lincoln Center under Leonard Bernstein, with whom he often collaborated in ensuing years.� Kaplan has led his own choral and instrumental ensembles and also served for more than 30 years as choral director of New York's Park Avenue Synagogue.

Disc 1

The Day of Rest

(more info)

Performed by: Vienna Chamber Orchestra
Composed by: Sholom Kalib
Conducted by: Gerard Wirth
Naftali Herstik, cantor
Recording date: May 2001

Shalom Aleikhem - 3:59
Uv'nuho Yomar - 8:12
Mimm'komo - 2:35
Prelude - 2:11
Havdala - 5:05
Eliyahu Hannavi - 3:09

Psalms of Abraham

(more info)

Performed by: Vienna Chamber Orchestra
Composed by: Abraham Kaplan
Conducted by: Gerard Wirth
Shimon Craimer, cantor

Overture - 1:53
Al Naharot Bavel - 5:09
Tov L'hodot - 1:22
Hodu Ladonai - 5:32
Hal'luya - 1:38
Essa Einai - 2:52
Shir Hamma'alot - 2:22
Hinne Ma Tov - 1:59
Enosh Kehatzir Yamav - 3:43
Tov L'hodot - 1:26
Hazorim B'dima - 3:41
Adonai Ro'i - 5:56
S'u Sh'arim - 3:15

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Composer(s):
Kalib, Sholom; Kaplan, Abraham

Conductor(s):
Wirth, Gerard

Orchestra(s):
Vienna Chamber Orchestra

Artist(s):
Craimer, Shimon; Herstik, Naftali

Label: Naxos Milken Archives/American
UPC: 636943941928
Item Number: 8559419
Release Date: Sep 21, 2004