Composer: Joachim Stutschewsky
Performer: Aron Zelkowicz, Luz Manriquez, Jennifer Orchard, Marissa Byers, Musicians of Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0314
Release: 2016
Size: 299 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Agadah
3 Pièces hébraïques
02. No. 3, Freilachs (Improvisation)
03. No. 1, Kinah (Lament)
04. Klezmer’s Wedding Music
Hassidic Suite
05. I. Bessarabic Song
06. II. Latvian Song
07. III. Nuts & Wine
08. IV. Dance
09. Kaddish
10. Jolly Dance
11. Shir Yehudi
12. Hassidic Fantasy
6 Israeli Melodies
13. No. 1, Legend
14. No. 6, Wanderer’s Song
Joachim Stutschewsky (1891–1982) confronted his identity as a Jewish musician by melding the Mediterranean sounds of his adopted Israel with the early klezmer influences of his youth in Ukraine. He gave his own instrument, the cello, rhapsodic treatment in the explicitly cantorial and folk-infused short pieces on this disc (the first dedicated to his music from a western label), with the piano providing enough harmonic surprises to elevate these simple melodies to sophisticated concert works. The two trios, The Klezmer’s Wedding and Hassidic Fantasy, are expertly arranged suites of nigunim (tunes) and freilachs.