Entertainment
CLASSIC JOY page 95
revealing photograph, Shosta-
kovich's music seems to freeze-
frame the lives and feelings of
fellow Jews from a different
place and time.
Not surprisingly, emotions
run raw throughout. "Lament
for a dead infant" in which the
soprano and alto mourn a little
boy named Moyshele is ab-
solutely heartbreaking, and we
also feel the pain of a father
whose daughter, Tsirele, has de-
serted her family to run off with
a policeman.
In a much happier vein, there
is a philosophical woman ex-
tolling the joys of nature, music
and collectivized agriculture as
she contemplates "The Good
Life." And who cannot share the
joy of the cobbler's wife who has
found the true measure of hap-
piness: A husband who will ac-
company her to the theater and
sons who have become success-
ful doctors! Her pleasure is
punctuated by — what else? —
rapturous "Oys" from the so-
prano and tenor.
What wonderful music this
is, and each and every bar of it
seems to illuminate some aspect
of the Russian Jewish soul.
Recommended: Bernard
Haitink, Concertgebouw
Orchestra (London). "From
Jewish Folk Poetry" is cou-
pled with Dmitri Shosta-
kovich's Symphony No. 15
performed by Maestro
Haitink and the London
Philharmonic Orchestra.
10 Mile at Southfield Road
559-4230
Extends Best Wishes
For A Joyous And
Healthy
Passinier
Schelomo
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As much as I didn't want
these selections to be pre-
dictable, with Schelomo, Ernest
Bloch's "Hebraic Rhapsody" for
solo cello and orchestra, I had
no choice. When music gets so
thoroughly to the heart of the
matter, unpredictability must
yield to honesty.
Bloch (1880-1959), the Swiss-
born composer who immigrat-
ed to the United States during
World War I, was a musician
captivated by the whole of Ju-
daica. His output reflects that
love. His "Avodath Hakodesh"
(Sacred Service) is the lone can-
tonal cantata to have cracked
the mainstream repertoire.
Other religiously charged works
include his "Israel" Symphony,
the "Baal Shem" for violin and
piano (there is an orchestrat-
ed version as well), 'Three Jew-
ish Poems" and the "Suite
Hebraique."
But Schelomo is the center-
piece and no Jewish desert is-
land should be without it.
Schelomo was inspired by Ec-
clesiastes. Indeed, Bloch initially
gave some thought to setting
texts from Kohelet for voice and
orchestra but abandoned the
projected baritone soloist for the
cello. A felicitous choice it was
too, for the emotional intensity
of the piece is intoned with
unique eloquence by this most
expressive of instruments.
Like the book of the Bible
that inspired it, Schelomo is a
turbulent, complex work that
runs the gamut of emotions
from meditative introspection
to anger, sadness, pessimism,
loneliness and eventual resig-
nation. It is an episodic piece
given impetus and structural
coherence by the humane wis-
dom of the cello, which repre-
sents the voice of Solomon —
Schelomo — the sagacious king
to whom the book of Kohelet is
traditionally attributed.
The opening cadenza, a
yearning interlude the cellist
must davin as much as play,
sets the introspective tone im-
mediately and the journey pro-
ceeds from there.
The careful listener will note
numerous modal references to
the cantonal liturgy in the al-
ways dignified solo line, as well
as from the English horn, bas-
soon and oboe. As moments of
bristling intensity are reached,
you might even hear an allusion
Every bar of it
seems to illuminate
some aspect of the
Russian Jewish
soul.
or two to the teruah blast of the
Shofar courtesy of the trumpets.
Schelomo is far more than
Jewish "soul food for the ear."
The segments of the rhapsody
are fit together by the hands of
a master musical craftsman
and the brilliance of Bloch's or-
chestration attests to the pres-
ence of a marvelous colorist.
Recommended: Many of
the world's greatest cellists
have recorded Schelomo
and you certainly won't go
wrong with any of the usu-
al suspects — Rostropovich,
Fournier, Nelsova and Har-
rell among them. I'm very
much taken with the Israeli-
born Canadian cellist Ofra
Harnoy on RCA accompa-
nied by Sir Charles Mack-
erras and the London
Philharmonic. Tucked in
among the disc's other of-
ferings is a beautiful ac-
count of Bruch's setting of
"Kol Nidrei."
Chichester Psalms
A desert island should never
be a place of "all work and no
play," and, for the sheer fun of
it, I would take along the de-
lightful Chichester Psalms of
Leonard Bernstein.
When the dean of Great
Britain's Chichester Cathedral
commissioned a work from
Bernstein back in the early