Customer Reviews

Golijov: Yiddishbbuk

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's extraordinarily hard to comprehend what other people "hear" when they listen to music, or to guess what they expect to hear when they listen to new music. The reviews of this CD are dramatically polarized and confrontational. Okay, I should have expected as much, since Golijov, like many contemporary composers, takes a confrontational stance toward his audience. Golijov DOES make his Jewish musical identity/heritage as assertive as he can, even though most goyim around the world have no listening experience of klezmer clarinet to reference. Golijov, like Schnittke, makes the modern composer's interface with musical memories - the presence of the past - a matter of shared confrontation; "in an era of access by recording to all the history of music," he seems to say, "we can't help hearing fragments of everything old in everything new." So we listeners have to share that confrontation with him. And of course there's the huge confrontation of European music, in all its elaborate imperial self-assurance, with the music of "others".
With so many options of confrontation, perhaps the smallest ensemble offers the best vehicle for the composer to make the biggest statement about "sound". For these relatively small compositions, Golijov uses only the expanded string quartet. Of course, for a contemporary to write a string quartet is already a confrontation with 250 years of great music. Then to write a clarinet into the quartet format is inherently to take on the memories we sophisticated Euro-musicians have of Mozart and Brahms. Well, so be it: music exists in the memory, both short-term and long. The instant of sound is made significant by the memory of the phrase. To make an analogy: you can't read one word at a time; you need to remember enough words long enough to constitute a thought. Golijov formulates thoughts in his music; he composes in phrases, and that's what I like.

Attention to simple sonority is also relevant in listening to Golijov. The use he makes of the double bass in Last Round is "profound" in two senses. The clarinet parts in Lullaby and in Dreams and Prayers would be immense fun to play! (Even if you don't play a clarinet, or any instrument, don't you get much of your pleasure in music from "playing along"? I certainly do.) By the sometimes abstruse canons of modern music, the works of Golijov are accessible, offering pleasures on the first listening. But there are also depths which I have heard only on later listenings.

Other reviewers have suggested this CD as a "starting place" for hearing Golijov. I'd go a bit farther. I'd say this CD represents Golijov at his best and most musically focused. More than a starting place, it's an end in itself.

Golijov's music speaks to his Jewish roots as a man raised in a Latin American Country. As a result, we hear a range of beautiful sounds and emotions from sadness to joy, darkness to light. What comes across most clearly is his committment to the Jewish soul as heard in his Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind where the clarinet solo is like a call to and of the Jewish spirit. The Lullaby and Donia too are great testiments to this composer's roots. Yiddishbbuk is the most powerful piece on the CD, written as a tribute to the children interned by the Nazis at Terezin. In the Last Rounds, Golijov's Latin (Argentinan) heritage shines in a joyful, playful and exciting way. This deeply felt CD is a great addition to any musical collection.

This CD is a must for anyone who loves Golijov's music. Even more so a must for someone that wants to start wading into the surprisingly warm waters of contemporary music. Golijov is about as good as it gets and he deserves every iota and ink drop of praise ascribed to him.

As do the performers. The Ying and St. Lawrence Quartets have been playing and laughing and collaborating together for over a decade now and you hear the warmth of their relationship (MOST present on stage) in this work.

Oh, and Todd Palmer pretty much ROCKS, too. When I saw him and the St. Lawrence do this live a little over a year ago he sang and grunted his way through the piece's motley clarinet scoring with elegance, pathos, and humor. And the same vibe is as much in the recording as it was that night.

I've only recently discovered the work of Osvaldo Golijov, but I think he is the most interesting new composer I have come across in the last ten years. His music manages to be melodic, harmonic and passionate without ever really sounding derivative. Mind you, not every piece is equally successful, but at least two works on this album are. The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind for klezmer clarinet and string quartet is deeply moving, as is the Lullaby and Doina (the latter influenced by Taraf de Haidouks). I'm less convinced by the tango tribute of the Last Round and I haven't quite come to terms yet with Yiddishbbuk itself. But this album is highly recommended nonetheless.

And what great cover photos!

If there is one disc out there that can convince you that Osvaldo Golijov is worth hearing, spending your money on, and part of the future of "serious" music, this is the one. His other major works- the St. Mark Passion and the opera Ainadamar included- make vibrant use of his folk and latin music influences, but I've felt sometimes that his use of these elements has tended to overshadow his prodigious compositional ability in places. Not so here. The Golijov pieces presented over the course of "Yiddishbbuk" is a risk taking modern voice who has something new, daring, and thought provoking to say. His other works are certainly worth looking into with an open mind, but to be convinced, please treat yourself to this recording.

I heard this first in concert played by Tood Palmer, and I can honestly say that it was one of the most amazing performances ever. Once I heard that, I just had to get the CD. The CD is strange and moody with a strong Yiddish flavor, but it is original enough to stand up on its own. This CD is worth it, if only to get "Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind."

The performances are excellent and often stirring, but the compositions are basically reworkings of familiar melodies, tropes, and techniques. "Yiddishbuk" is the standout piece among these, employing some of the same techniques that Schnittke and Penderecki used in the 1970s; the rest is milder stuff, evocative but unoriginal. If you have a taste for John Adams or Darius Milhaud, you'll probably like this--it's rich, melodic, emotional, and kitschy. But Golijov is no Bartok--when it comes to folk material, he's simply not astringent enough for my taste, and when it comes to original ideas, I'm not sure if he has any. There's quite a bit of Jewish and Eastern European content here, but I'd rather listen to old klezmer recordings or Communist-era Romanian pop (not to mention almost anything by Bartok, Schnittke, Ligeti, or Gubaidulina) than this. It's too second-hand.

I had the chance to become acquainted with Golijov's music in a concert by the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (México), Directed by Carlos Miguel Prieto, the program played included Golijov "Last Round" and Astor Pizzolla "Estaciones Porteñas", the soloist at the violin was Phillipe Quint, so that made a hard to forget remarkable performance,.

After that I found this CD, which includes "last Round", the music its moving and the performance flawless, it may require a few listening session to really grasp the music but its worth it. I especially like "last round" and "prayers of Isacc the Blind", but all disc its good, I will begin looking for more music composed by Golijov.

When I was listening to this recording I could feel my nerves going raw. It was a cry and it was a joy. It was a calling from the past. It was full of memory.

I consider Golijov the Britanny Spears of new music. He re-hashes what others have done,albeit with less originality than Britanny, all the while making me nod off.