Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Jewish High Holy Days

Shofar Concerto for a Sweet New Year

The Jewish High Holy Days snuck up on me this year. As the sun set on Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah was only just getting underway, kicking off the Jewish new year. 5782! How time flies. I hope it’s a happy, healthy, and sweet one for all of you who observe it.

In searching for something unusual to share, I happened across this Concerto for Violin, Horn, Shofar and Orchestra by Brazilian-born, Vienna-based composer Miguel Kertsman. Kertsman is a multidisciplinary musician. He founded the Amazonica Universal Orchestra, a Brazilian jazz ensemble, in 1989. He’s also interested in progressive rock, electronica, theater, film, and interactive video games. And of course, classical concert music. One thing’s for sure, he knows how to call up some colorful orchestrations.

I wouldn’t say the concerto is a festive-sounding one, necessarily, but it is romantic and evocative, incorporating plaintive tekiot on the ram’s horn (or perhaps the antelope’s), heard so prevalently on Rosh Hashanah and at the close of Yom Kippur. Three tuned shofarot are played during the course of the concerto.

Enjoy the music, and L’shana tova!

The composer’s website:

https://miguelkertsman.com/

By merest coincidence, today is also Brazilian Independence Day!

PHOTO: Soloist Gergely Sugar sounds the shofar

At his home in Budapest:

September 7, 2021
Yom Kippur Music on WPRB

Yom Kippur begins on Friday evening. The holiest day of the Jewish calendar caps ten Days of Awe and Repentance, which began with the Jewish New Year on Rosh Hashanah. This Thursday morning on WPRB, we’ll mark the Jewish High Holy Days with a full playlist of music on Jewish themes.

We’ll begin with some evocations of the shofar, in Aaron Minsky’s “Judaic Concert Suite” and David Stock’s “Tekiah,” then progress through several arrangements of the Yom Kippur prayer Kol Nidre — by Jacob Weinberg, Arnold Schoenberg, Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek (of “Donna Diana Overture” fame), and of course Max Bruch — and arrive finally at Thomas Beveridge’s “Yizkor Requiem,” which beautifully consolidates the Jewish and Catholic liturgies for the dead. Along the way, there will be a symphony, some dances, and even a collection of tone portraits of the stained glass windows of Abell Syagogue at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, which depict the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

If you’re looking for music for the High Holidays, I’m your goy, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Wishing you a sweet and happy 5778, on Classic Ross Amico.

September 28, 2017
Steve Reich Tehillim on WPRB Radio

Last minute programming decision!

In honor of Steve Reich’s 80th birthday (which fell on Monday), and to tie in with our observance of the Jewish High Holy Days, I’ve decided to play “Tehillim,” the composer’s setting of four Hebrew psalms, in the 10:00 hour (EDT). You can hear it this morning on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

October 6, 2016
Jewish High Holy Days Music on WPRB

Already three days into the Jewish New Year, and all I can think to say is, “Shofar, so good.” If a blast on the ram’s horn sends you into ecstasies, have I got a show for you!

Tomorrow morning on WPRB, there will be shofars aplenty, as we listen to music by Jewish composers and/or on Jewish themes, in honor of the High Holy Days.

There will be works by composers such as Paul Ben-Haim, Herman Berlinski, Ernest Bloch, John Duffy, Lukas Foss, Louis Gesensway, John McCabe, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, Arnold Schoenberg, Paul Schoenfield, David Stock and Jacob Weinberg.

We’ll also uphold an annual WPRB tradition, initiated by Teri Noel Towe, of listening to Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei.”

A number of these composers aren’t even Jewish – and a few of the pieces aren’t particularly “Jewish” sounding – but all of them pay tribute to the creativity and soulfulness of the Jewish experience.

That’s music for the Days of Awe – the period from Rosh Hashanah (the New Year) through Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) – tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. The playlist will be totally Awesome, on Classic Ross Amico.

October 5, 2016
Jewish High Holy Days Music on “The Lost Chord”

A belated “L’shana tova!”

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll have selections for the Jewish High Holy Days. We’ll hear a string quartet by Jacob Weinberg, dating from 1950. The work falls into three movements, which bear the respective subtitles “Rosh Hashanah” (the Jewish New Year), “Yom Kippur” (the Day of Atonement) and “Sukkot” (the harvest festival).

Weinberg’s “Yom Kippur” is based on the familiar declaration of “Kol Nidrei,” best known to gentiles, probably, through the setting for cello by Max Bruch. Bruch, though not Jewish, always had a good ear for characteristic melodies of different cultures (e.g. the “Scottish Fantasy,” the “Swedish Dances,” the “Suite on Russian Themes,” etc.).

Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek – he of “Donna Diana Overture” fame – was likewise moved by the Yom Kippur melody, on which he wrote a large-scale set of orchestral variations, which we’ll also hear. Interestingly, in contrast to the reverential setting by Bruch, Reznicek puts the theme through a befuddling array of permutations, pivoting back and forth from light to serious. It’s not synagogue music, but it is fascinating.

We’ll conclude the hour with a moving arrangement by Patrick Sinozich of ”Avinu Malkeynu” (“Our Father, Our King”) by Max Janowski, performed by Chicago a cappella.

Join me for “Tones of Atonement,” tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat Friday morning at 3. Or enjoy the show later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, begins at sundown on Friday. The solemn occasion will conclude at nightfall on Saturday with a long blast on the shofar.

September 28, 2014

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS