Grigori Krejn’s Prélude is an ambitious, 12-minute work of some complexity; it is sporadically interesting but can’t sustain its allotted span. The Children’s Suite by Joseph Achron consists of 20 lightweight, supposedly humorous pieces, none reaching two minutes in length; it needs another Ogden Nash to write verses like those for Carnival of the Animals. Julius Chajes’s Palestinian Suite is alternately solemn and lively music that doesn’t fit this ensemble well; it seems to demand larger forces. Scher is quite lovely but lasts less than two minutes. The second piece from Achron’s “Kiddush Hashem,” “Women Dance,” has considerable vivacity and charm. Mitya Stillman’s Fantasy is another ambitious piece, but it can’t decide if it wants to be Gershwin or Brahms, too-strange bedfellows.

The history of Zimro, related in detail in the notes, is more interesting than the music. Six Russian Jewish musicians—a clarinetist, pianist, and string quartet—formed an ensemble, Zimro, in 1918. They then toured the world, starting in Russia and China, often traveling in boxcars on freight trains. They came to America the following year, and a Carnegie Hall concert made their fame. The 28-year-old Prokofiev, then in New York, chose two Jewish themes from their collection and wrote his Overture on Hebrew Themes for them. It was the first piece written for such an ensemble; they had been playing quintets, quartets, and so on down the line. Many other composers followed suit, so the clarinet-piano-string quartet combination began to have a Jewish connotation. Oh, yes—the “Broken Concert Tour.” They were so successful that each took a more remunerative position in America, leader Simon Bellison becoming principle clarinet of the New York Philharmonic.

The disc suffers from an egregious fault when presenting unfamiliar music: one piece follows the next with no greater pause than between movements, forcing the listener to keep one eye on the booklet and another on the track indicator. Most performances of the Prokofiev strike me as being square, even self-conscious; this outing is wonderful: spirited, colorful, and teeming with life. So I have to recommend this CD.

-- James H. North, FANFARE [11/2008]