A HANUKKA CELEBRATION

Hugo Chaim Adler (Composer), Samuel Adler (Composer), Solomon Ancis (Composer), Herbert Fromm (Composer), Raymond Goldstein (Composer), Michael Isaacson (Composer), Leo Low (Composer), Aaron Miller (Composer), Alexander Olshanetsky (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Hugo Chaim Adler, Samuel Adler, Solomon Ancis, Herbert Fromm, Raymond Goldstein, et al.
• Audio CD (April 16, 2009)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Milken Archive
• ASIN: B0000TSQLQ
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #330,645 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great collection of things unrecorded, January 31, 2004

By 

Erik L. Contzius "fan of all trades" (White Plains, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A HANUKKA CELEBRATION (Audio CD)

I have been nothing but impressed by not only the sheer volume of things recorded by the Milken foundation, but the quality of their recordings. This collection of Hanukkah music is no exception. Dr. Adler brings the best out of his choirs, the performances are all very solid, and the recording quality is something rarely heard in the Jewish world. It is a pleasure to hear an arrangement by the very talented Raymond Goldstein, who should have his work recorded more often, imho. I don't think this album was intended to be a resource as much as a collection of works that deserved to be brought to the public's attention. Oh, and Isaacson's works are so much better when orchestrated!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A strangely mixed bag, excellent craft, February 4, 2004

By 

David M. Zajic (Columbia, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A HANUKKA CELEBRATION (Audio CD)

This album comprises a very disparate collection of Chanukah music. The selections include settings of liturgical texts, settings of non-liturgical holiday poems, skillful arrangements of popular holiday songs, and original holiday pops. The program notes are comprehensive but somewhat challenging to read. They are divided into 4 sections, dealing with Chanukah, the composers, the compositions, and the performers. Some diligence is required to make the correct connections, but if you take the time you'll be rewarded by some insights into how arrangers re-hear familiar material while musicologists discover the original essence that we recognize.
Samuel Adler's "To Celebrate a Miracle" is a brilliantly orchestrated suite of well-known tunes. With interesting and unexpected harmonies, counter melodies, bridge material, and a stunning command of wind sonorities, it is a ear-opening treat if you already know the songs, and stands alone as a concert work if you don't. "The Flames of Freedom," also by Adler, mixes original material, liturgical texts and popular melodies in a deliberate homage to Britten's Ceremony of Carols.
Michael Isaacson's "Aspects of a Great Miracle" strikes me as a rather slick pops piece. The speaking chorus in the 2nd movement owes more to Meredith Willson's Music Man than Ernst Toch's Geographical Fugue.
Leo Low and and Zavel Zilberts provide alternate settings of the same Yiddish poem, and Herbert Fromm presents a brilliant madrigal based on Mi y'mallel. I would love to hear the other 5 madrigals in the set.
Liturgical music is represented by Goldstein's lovely setting of the Chanuka candle-lighting blessings, Adler's Hanerot Hallelu, Miller's refreshingly up-beat Ma'oz Tzur, a Hallel piece by Olshanetsky, and a work for the Shabbat that falls within Chanuka in the best men's choir tradition by Ancis.
The performances range from quite good to excellent. There's a lot to learn and enjoy here.

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Jewish holiday music between the cracks., January 11, 2004

By 

Ivan W. Caine "ravkein" (Richmond, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A HANUKKA CELEBRATION (Audio CD)

The Milken Archive series is quite remarkable, but this album is misbegotten. The research is extensive and impressive, but it matters little to even the learned listener. The disc has 22 cues in 73 minutes, but that information is nowhere found in the plethora of microprint. As a rabbi familiar with the material, I was unable to match the selections with titles or the other data, in various columns that are not co-ordinated. The TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS have only the latter; no Semitic originals. There is no indication of Israeli or the dominant European (Ashkenazi) pronunciation. To add insult to injury, the town near the infamous death camp known as Auschwitz is also written in Polish (p. 11) but the diacritics are wrong so the name is misspelled.
The real problem is that the music falls between the cracks. The florid arrangements and the poor information booklet make it useless as a family or Hebrew school resource, and the material does not warrant consideration as classical music.