Jewish Composers

[Wieland]

There is a brand-new CD by the Emerson String Quartet with Renee Fleming containing a Wellesz piece  for Soprano and string quartet: Sonnets By Elizabeth Barrett-Browning

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[vandermolen]

It is fairly well accepted that his symphonies can be divided into two groups: 1-4 and 5-9 with the second half of his output exhibiting a different style.  If you like the 2nd, then I would suggest that 3 and 4 would also be enjoyable for you.  However, his later works might be somewhat less to your taste.  I happen to prefer the later works, but enjoy them all.

The disc with 4, 6 and 7 might be a good place for you to try next since it bridges the two stylistic periods.

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Many thanks.

[San Antone]

There is a brand-new CD by the Emerson String Quartet with Renee Fleming containing a Wellesz piece  for Soprano and string quartet: Sonnets By Elizabeth Barrett-Browning

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I was listening to it earlier to day.  Very good.

[vandermolen]

Some sources suggest that Saint-Saens was of Jewish origin but he was baptised.
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[San Antone]

I do not know if she identifies as Jewish, however her mother is Jewish, and she does use Jewish texts and Hebrew in her compositions.

Roxanna Panufnik : using music to bridge religious differences

Panufnik is the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Polish Catholic father, the composer Sir Andrzej Panufnik; the co-existence of religions and cultures is an essential part of her identity.

She says, "there's so much common ground between the monotheistic faiths. Obviously there are some fundamental differences in the way we practice. But I think that too much time and energy is spent on the differences and not enough on the things that we all share. That's what I want to do musically - to highlight those universal elements."

Read more and hear audio samples here.

[vandermolen]

I do not know if she identifies as Jewish, however her mother is Jewish, and she does use Jewish texts and Hebrew in her compositions.

Roxanna Panufnik : using music to bridge religious differences

Panufnik is the daughter of a Jewish mother and a Polish Catholic father, the composer Sir Andrzej Panufnik; the co-existence of religions and cultures is an essential part of her identity.

Read more and hear audio samples here.

I totally agree with her quote.

[San Antone]

At last, Lukas Foss : Complete Symphonies



Released last month by the  Boston Modern Orchestra Project, this 2 disc recording collects all of the symphonies by Lukas Foss.  Even if these were not good performances - they  are - this would be a valuable recording since Foss's symphonies have been unjustly neglected.

[Scion7]

That is a very nice cover - would have been great on an LP.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Yes.  There are a number of 20th century composers whose Jewish identity may not be widely known.  For example:

Alfred Schnittke
György Ligeti
György Kurtág

Wow! Al and the two Györgys! Big fan here, but I didn't even know this!

[vandermolen]

At last, Lukas Foss : Complete Symphonies



Released last month by the  Boston Modern Orchestra Project, this 2 disc recording collects all of the symphonies by Lukas Foss.  Even if these were not good performances - they  are - this would be a valuable recording since Foss's symphonies have been unjustly neglected.

Oh no! More temptation. 

[San Antone]

Alexander von Zemlinsky : combining the divergent tendencies of Brahms and Wagner.



Alexander Zemlinsky (October 14, 1871 – March 15, 1942) was one of the most powerful musical voices of his time.  A remarkably influential musician, he had connections with both the more traditional and the Second Viennese School.  Although his work was nearly forgotten after the war, he has recently been recognized as one of the 20th century's significant compositional voices.

https://www.youtube.com/v/JxjBNCnxcqE

[San Antone]

Elam Rotem : Early Music performer, scholar and composer



Since about the mid-19th century, classical music has been governed by a narrative of historical progress. Composers have been taken seriously only if they write in a modern, new-sounding style; composers who continued to write in traditional styles were considered less "important," and when they wrote in frankly historical styles - as when Mendelssohn wrote fugues in the style of Bach - the results were considered exercises or trifles. But with today's expansion of cultural pluralism, that narrative of musical progress is being questioned. A composer can, without losing respect, draw on virtually any style from any era to create something new.

Meet Elam Rotem, a veritable Renaissance man: Rotem is a notable performer of the early Italian Baroque and also a distinguished scholar of the era. That combination is not unusual among early-music specialists, but Rotem adds a third endeavor that is quite rare among his colleagues: he composes ambitious new works.

[San Antone]

Paul Dessau : Agitprop? No; Abstract music? Yes.



His politically inspired works have not fared well, today sounding dated, which is true for most political art which generally has a short half life.  However, his purely instrumental (abstract) music is worthwhile.  He wrote seven string quartets which are in an  expressionistic style and well worth hearing.  The complete set has been recorded by the Neues Leipziger Streichquartett  on CPO.

[Daverz]

At last, Lukas Foss : Complete Symphonies

Other than the wonderful Time Cycle, I only recall a Clarinet Concerto and the children's opera Griffelkin.  Looking forward to hearing these symphonies.

[Mirror Image]

Looking forward to hearing these symphonies.

+1 I'm looking at my new acquired set right now.

[San Antone]

Miriam Gideon : Composer



"As far as I am concerned," she said, "I must see whether what I am writing comes from a musical impulse, and whether I am responding to it. What I write has to mean something to me.... It has to seem new. I have to be surprised by it, and it must register as feeling." "I didn't know I was a woman composer until 'the movement' in the 1960s," she reminisced in the mid-1980s. "I knew I was a young composer, and then, suddenly, an older composer. But never a woman composer."

[Cato]

Alexander von Zemlinsky : combining the divergent tendencies of Brahms and Wagner.



Alexander Zemlinsky (October 14, 1871 – March 15, 1942) was one of the most powerful musical voices of his time.  A remarkably influential musician, he had connections with both the more traditional and the Second Viennese School.  Although his work was nearly forgotten after the war, he has recently been recognized as one of the 20th century's significant compositional voices.

https://www.youtube.com/v/JxjBNCnxcqE

James Conlon has championed Zemlinsky's music, and his recordings are an all-around fave! 

e.g. still available used

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[San Antone]

Yehuda Yannay : composer,conductor, filmmaker and performance artist



Yannay moved from Romania to Israel in 1951, where he studied with Alexander Uriya Boskovitch, who influenced him greatly. After completing his studies at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv, he pursued postgraduate studies in America, enabled by a Fulbright Fellowship. At Brandeis University (MFA 1966), he studied with Arthur Berger and Ernst Krenek, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (DMA 1974) he studied with Salvatore Martirano, among others. In 1968 he settled permanently in the USA.

[San Antone]

Aaron Avshalomov : A Jew in China



As early as 1924 Avshalomoff began to study ancient Chinese classical music, folk and temple music and street cries. His own melodies were based on the various pentatonic modes and on the whole-tone scale. Around 1940 he also began to experiment with Indian modes. His Chinese-style melodies were combined with secondary melodic lines, using simple duple or triple metres. At the same time he made full use of the range of Chinese percussion instruments and ornamentation, supporting his pentatonic melodies with interesting chordal harmonies. In orchestration he followed the example of Rimsky-Korsakov and in structure the traditional forms of Western music, although experimenting with remoter modulations in order to add interest to pentatonic melodies, thus creating a highly personal musical language.

Marco Polo Records has released three recordings of his orchestral music. 

[vandermolen]

I impulse bought this in a shop last week and was delighted to discover it. Maurice Jacobson (1896-1976) is largely unknown but on the strength of this deserves to be heard. I liked all the piano pieces (performed by his son) but the highlights were the moving 'Lament' from 1941 and, above all the 'Theme and Variations' (1943-47) which was originally for orchestra and I'd love to hear the orchestral version too. This, at twenty minutes is by far the longest work on the CD and the most impressive. I have already listened to it three times with increasing enjoyment. The 'Lament' has a rather Bloch-like quality to it but elsewhere the music has echoes of the English pastoral tradition and admirers of Vaughan Williams and John Ireland might well enjoy it. Certainly worth exploring:
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