Click here to view all available releases in the Milken Archive Series at ArkivMusic.

R E V I E W S

Lazar WEINERYosl Klezmer. Yidish. Ergets vayt. Ikh hob far dir a Sod. A Nign. Shtile Likht. Got geyt mir nokh umetum. Khoyves. Got un Mentsh. Tsela-Tseldi. Der Sholem-Zokher. Toybnshtile. Viglid (text, Shumiatcher-Hirshbein). Fun vayte Teg. Bald vet zayn a regn. A Papir vil bageyn zelbstmord. Der Yid mint Fidl. Baym bentschen Likht. A Gebet. Shtile Tener. A Foter tzu zayn Zun. Volt mayn Tate raykh geven. Dos Reyd funem Novi. Ovnt-Lid. Gramen geshribn in Zamd. Ikh hob dikh shoyn lang. Viglid (text, Markish). Dos Gold fun dayne Oygn. Di Mayse mit der Velt. Ikh bin der Vaynrib. Unter dayne vayse Shtern. Yidn zingen ani • Raphael Frieder, Ida Rae Cahana, Meir Finkelstein, Elizabeth Shammash, Robert Abelson, David Ossenfort, Harold Orbach, Re’ut Ben Ze’ev, Susan Davenny-Wyner (voc); Yehudi Wyner, Barry Snyder (pn) • NAXOS 8.559443 (74:14)

This would appear to be the last of the three volumes of Yiddish songs promised by the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music. There are 32 songs on this CD, assigned variously to nine singers and two piano accompanists. To cross-reference each with the corresponding song titles by means of superscripts would be more likely, I think, to add clutter rather than clarity. Even the enclosed booklet, so thick with Neil Levin’s detailed notes and the texts and translations of every song that it can barely be pried from the jewel case, concedes the impossibility of including any further details by referring readers to the Milken Archive’s Web site for information on the artists. Taking my cue then from the CD itself, I visited www.milkenarchive.org for the first time, and was quite delighted to find a Web site not unlike Fanfare’s own Archive, with extensive cross-referencing and search capabilities. I would therefore encourage you to visit this site for bios on the individual artists and more information on this and other Milken Archive CDs.

Aptly titled, “The Art of Yiddish Song” differs from its earlier companions (8.559405 and 8.559432) in a couple of respects. The first is that the entire disc is devoted to the work of a single composer, and the second is that these are not songs of the Yiddish theater and stage, but rather Yiddish “art” songs in the tradition of the German Lied and the French chanson or mélodie.

Ukrainian-born Lazar Weiner (1897–1982) came to the US in 1914. Finding employment as an accompanist in the voice studio of Lazar Samoiloff, the young Weiner learned the vast vocal repertoire and became interested in composition. At the same time, a fortuitous meeting with violinist Nahum Baruch Minkoff introduced Weiner to a literary circle of modern Yiddish poets and writers. The die was cast. From this point forward, Weiner would immerse himself in the endeavors of Yiddish choral societies, cantorial organizations, and the synagogue. His musical contributions to the Workmen’s Circle Chorus and to the Central and Park Avenue Synagogues in New York are many. But Weiner’s reputation rests mostly on his output of over 200 songs, set to the Yiddish verses of poets mainly contemporaneous with himself—Naftoli Gross, Yakov-Yitskhak Segal, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Jacob Glatstein, to name just four.

A first hearing left me with the impression that the poetry is better than Weiner’s musical settings. The idiom is what I would call first-half-of-the-20th-century modern, more declamatory and “sing-songy” than lyrical-melodic. But on a second hearing, I realized I was listening with the wrong ears. Weiner’s allegiance, musically speaking, is not at all to the German Lied tradition of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, et al, but to a more generalized French Impressionism and beyond. Debussy is to the fore, but strains of Chabrier, Ibert, Vierne, and Widor echo aft, while scents of Poulenc, Roussel, and Séverac hint at slightly later and different influences. Were the language not Yiddish, anyone listening to these songs would guess a French provenance. This should not be in the least shocking, given that Weiner would have been exposed to this entire repertoire as accompanist in Samoiloff’s studio, when much of it was hot off the presses.

Heard in this context, Weiner’s vague harmonies, Impressionistic washes of color—listen to track 28, Dos Gold fun dayne Oygn (“The Gold in your Eyes”), the irregular rhythms, and a-melodic vocal lines take on a whole new dimension. I suppose what I am saying is that it took me more than one hearing to connect with these songs, but once I did, they really grew on me, and I’m pretty sure they will grow on you too.

I would not wish to diminish the contributions of any of the artists involved in this production by singling out any one of them for special commendation. Truly, they are all excellent. On the whole, the Milken Archive’s vocalists have been a mixed bag, but for this release, they are all without Khoyves (debts). The poems are quite exceptional too, wide-ranging in subject and emotion. Recommended.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins