Shana Tova! Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and sweet new year. Because of last week’s 9/11 memorial, I’m only finally getting around to acknowledging the Jewish High Holy Days. This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we mark the observance with two complementary works.
Jacob Weinberg’s String Quartet, Op. 55, of 1950, falls into three movements: “Rosh Hashana,” “Yom Kippur” and “Sukkot.” “Yom Kippur” is based on the cantorial chant “Kol Nidre.” (You know, the same melody employed by Max Bruch in his famous cello piece.)
Ernest Bloch’s “Israel Symphony,” composed between 1912 and 1917, is more like an orchestral rhapsody in three sections – “Prayer in the Desert,” “Yom Kippur” and “Succoth” – played continuously and culminating in parts for four vocal soloists.
Sukkot, which follows Yom Kippur by only five days, is the harvest festival, during which temporary dwellings (or sukkot) are erected to commemorate the Jews’ 40 years wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt. In modern times, these are decorated with fruits and vines. In contrast to the austerity and fasting of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Sukkot is a celebration of life and abundance. But in ancient Israel, it was a solemn affair, with sacrifices offered at the temple.
The High Holidays are a period of reflection, ten days of awe and repentance. Welcome the year 5782, on “Totally Awesome” – one hour later than usual, due to the length of today’s opera (Wagner’s “Parsifal”?????) – this Sunday night at 11:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
