The hourglass

Description

Admirably performed by Sarah Iancu (cello) and David Bismuth (piano), this CD gathers 30 melodies inspired by liturgical, hassidic, yiddish and ladino themes : from the well-known Kaddish by Ravel to Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei and from Ernest Bloch’s cycle From the Jewish Life to Hebraic Popular Songs by Darius Milhaud. It also includes less known pieces, but nonetheless very pleasant, by Joseph Achron, Léon Algazi, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Fernand Halphen, Simon Laks, Joaquin Nin-Culmell, Dimitri Chostakovitch, Joachim Stutschewsky or Viktor Ullmann

This project was led by the the talented cellist Virginie Constant, with Simon Zaoui (piano) and Katarzyna Alemany (cello). Most of the pieces chosen for this album were written in the first half of the twentieth century by composers searching for a Jewish musical identity, be it Ernest Bloch, Lazare Saminsky or Joseph Achron. Some, like Gideon Klein, died tragically. Others, like Mievzyslaw Weinberg or Serge Kaufmann, perpetuate their memory. So, like an hourglass that counts out Time and History, and of which we are the grains of sand, this record aims to take us through the wanderings of the Jewish soul in its most universal expression: its music!”

Extraits :

03 – Mieczyslaw Weinberg – Sonate n° 1 – Allegro

06 – Ernest Bloch – Voix dans le désert – Moderato

10 – Lazare Saminsky – Conte hébraïque

12 – Joseph Achron – Mélodie Hébraïque

14 – Serge Kaufmann – Duo n° 10

15 – Mark Warschawsky – Oyfn Pripetchik

16 – Gideon Klein – Lullaby