Shanah tovah!
Once again, if you’re Jewish, allow me to wish you a sweet and happy new year. If you’re not, I hope you’ll sit back and enjoy the music, as tomorrow morning on WPRB, I’ll be offering works by Jewish composers and/or on Jewish themes.
By request, I’ll continue a WPRB tradition, initiated by the great Teri Noel Towe, of airing a recording of Pablo Casals in Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei.” I also have “Kol Nidre” settings by Jacob Weinberg, Arnold Schoenberg and Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek. That’s right – he, of “Donna Diana” fame.
Not all of these composers were Jewish, of course. I’ll give the goys some poise with music on Jewish themes by Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Maurice Ravel, and John McCabe’s “Chagall Windows,” inspired by the stained glass creations that frame the synagogue of the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.
And let’s not forget John Duffy’s Emmy Award-winning music for the PBS television series “Heritage: Civilization and the Jews.”
I’ve got a box full of CDs featuring works by Paul Ben-Haim, Herman Berlinski, Leonard Bernstein, Ernest Bloch, David Diamond, Matthew H. Fields, Lukas Foss, Srul Irving Glick, Alexander Krein, Paul Schoenfield, Leon Stein, David Stock, Franz Waxman, and Philadelphia natives Louis Gesensway and Amanda Harberg.
Just how much of this music I’ll actually be able to get on the air remains to be seen. Prepare to be awed by music for the Days of Awe, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM or at wprb.com. We’re all sticky with apples and honey on Classic Ross Amico.
PHOTO: Learn the proper way to make a shofar here:
https://sites.temple.edu/historynews/2013/09/04/from-the-philadelphia-jewish-archives-shana-tova-happy-jewish-new-year/
