Jewish Cabaret in Exile

Dr. Edmund Nick (Composer), Moses Milner (Composer), Mordechai Gebirtig (Composer), Abraham Ellstein (Composer), Hanns Eisler (Composer), Viktor Ullmann (Composer), Georg Kreisler (Composer), Hermann Leopoldi (Composer), Mischa Spoliansky (Composer), Friedrich Hollaender (Composer), New Budapest Orpheum Society (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: New Budapest Orpheum Society
• Composer: Dr. Edmund Nick, Moses Milner, Mordechai Gebirtig, Abraham Ellstein, Hanns Eisler, et al.
• Audio CD (March 10, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Cedille
• ASIN: B001R4KQLG
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #245,739 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Musicweb-International.com, Dominy Clements, August 2009

This is a sumptuous production. Following on from the 2 CD 'Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano' album, this new recording from the New Budapest Orpheum Society is housed in a double jewel case to cope with the 64 page booklet included. Half of this is taken up with all song texts in the original languages of German and Yiddish. All of the songs are sung in the original languages, but English translations are provided. The rest covers historical context, tradition, themes and content, language and musical forms. The composers and authors lives are referred to more in passing than specifically described in detail, but there is enough information on the many unfamiliar names to give some idea of their place in this rich vein of musical discovery.

What does Jewish Cabaret sound like? This is a different animal to the 'klezmer' phenomenon which exists around feasts and dancing, themes such as the traditions of matchmaking, the festivals of weddings, individual significant characters such as the Rabbi, the naive fathers or the frightening mother-in-law, or such party themes such as food and the results of drinking. The cabaret songs in this programme have something of a relationship with certain types of 'salon' music from the early years of the 20th century, but frequently comment on life in exile, poking satirical fun at authority and the woes of society. As further reference, they can in some ways be set against more familiar but similar sounding works such as Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera. There is a certain amount of sentimental nostalgia in these songs, but any such heartfelt expression is balanced with fortitude, and is frequently transformed within the duration of the song into one or other kind of more audience-pleasing humour. With examples such as ballad, tango and other typical strophic forms of song, the compact but effective instrumentation of the arrangements provide a kind of directness which has great clarity, sometimes to the point of almost belligerent confrontation. The combination of romantic musical setting and texts which pull no punches create a powerful impression in the section under The Poetics of Exile section with the reference to Franz Lehár in Zuckerbrot und Peitsche, 'Sweetbread and Whips', and the tango lampoon of ignorance in Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit, 'Unity and Justice and Freedom', with lines such as 'Stupid is stupid, and pills don't help.... German is German, and pills don't help.'

Another highlight of the disc is the pair of songs from Zeitungsausschnitte or Newspaper Clippings by Hans Eisler, with their grim comment on human frailty and the futility of war. Victor Ullman's Three Yiddish Songs are also superbly crafted but based on the more tenderly traditional themes of love and longings. With only piano accompaniment they provide a bit of a break from the percussion in most of the other songs. I had to think of Tom Lehrer with Georg Kreisler's Poisoning Pigeons. On the crassest of Viennese waltzes, the text comes very close to Lehrer's, while the music has more affinity with his Alma.

There is plenty of fun to be had from the upbeat opposites of ein unverbesserlicher optimist, and in a sense this figure stands as exemplar for the entire collection: the pains of daily life against a background of tragedy, expressed in an irrepressible tradition of narrative and communal experience. The New Budapest Orpheum Society is ensemble-in-residence at the University of Chicago, and its artistic director Philip V. Bohlman is engaged in serious research, rescuing and reconstructing this Jewish cabaret music and then bringing it vibrantly to life with an excellent ensemble; spreading the word with this fine recording. Such efforts deserve great success - a fine production.

Product Description

25 Jewish and Yiddish cabaret songs by Edmund Nick, Hanns Eisler, Friedrich Holländer, Moses Milner, Abraham Ellstein, Viktor Ullmann, Georg Kreisler & Misha Spoliansky

"A fascinating ... valuable addition to the lore of cabaret ... Settle in with this album for a lively--and occasionally provocative--evening." -- Fanfare [CED 65]

This follow-up to the New Budapest Orpheum Society's highly successful debut album Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano covers a wide variety of Jewish songs. The disc is being released in time for Passover.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars JEWISH CABARET-IN BLACK AND WHITE, September 23, 2009

By 

Jerrold Fink "ProfessorJF" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jewish Cabaret in Exile (Audio CD)

JEWISH CABARET - IN BLACK AND WHITE (Review by Professor JF )

This disc comes seven years after this group's first disc Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano. I have not heard that disc, but based on the album description of that disc and listening to this one, the New Budapest Orpheum Society (referred to subsequently as NBOS ) takes their disc preparation and artistry seriously .

This 80 minute CD is divided into seven distinct sections:

1.) The Great Ennui on the Eve of Exile - six songs by Nick and Kastner

2.) The Exiled Language- Yiddish Songs for Stage and Screen-three songs by Milner, Gebirtig, and Ellstein

3.) Transformation of Tradition- two songs from Hanns Eisler's Zeitungsausschnitte (Op.11)

4.) The Poetics of Exile-six songs by Hanns Eisler and Kurt Tucholsky

5.) Traumas of Inner Exile -Three Yiddish Songs by Viktor Ullman Op. 53 (1944-Terezin)

6.) Nostalgia and Exile -three songs by Kreisler, Leopoldi, and Spoliansky

7.) Exile in Reprise-Friedrich Hollander on Stage and Film (two songs)

As can be seen from the ambitious program, the NBOS has a comprehensive view of what they consider to be Jewish cabaret music. To me, much of this program is 20th century Jewish art song (some of the Eisler and the Ullman).Some of the Yiddish film music is not real cabaret, either. The author's concept of what Jewish cabaret music is is described in an intellectually interminable essay at the beginning of the CD booklet. More preciseness, clarity, and brevity may have made me comprehend better what the author is actually after. I appreciate the scholarship, just not how it is presented. These are supposed to be liner notes, not a Master's thesis.

The music itself is nostalgic, satirical, and very political -all part of the Jewish profile of the cabaret scenario following World War One. The musicianship of NBOS is excellent but the arrangements are a bit colorless. They could use a greater variety of instrumentation in many of the songs (a trumpet, trombone, clarinet and accordion may have helped). The vocalists are very good, but they do not sound like real cabaret singers (they're not). They still sing the music stylishly.

The repertoire represented on the CD makes this disc almost indispensible and my criticisms are really my wishes for the NBOS to improve their presentation for popular Jewish cabaret and art songs of the early 20th century for their future recordings.

Please keep up your important work NBOS, but next time could you give us some cabaret music in COLOR instead of BLACK and WHITE. We Jews like sex, cigar and cigarette smoke, the smell of cheap perfume, and dark lighting in our cabaret music, too!!!!