Customer Reviews

Jewish Choral Music

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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This is one of my favourite Jewish Choral CDs of all time yet I agree with other reviewers that this is not representative of the Jewish choral tradition of the UK. This should have been a double CD set with the first featuring really traditional music and the second exposing us to the new genre of mainly modern Reform choral and organ music.
Both Moshe and the choir excel themselves. The master mixing is not good and one can hear obvious retakes and splits in the music which is unfortunate. I've not idea what Oseh Shalom by Nurit Hirsh is doing on the CD!
The music of the modern mainly reform composers Lipkin, Josephs, Singer is wonderful. If I had to choose three pieces to take to a desert island, I would take Ma Yedidot by Charles Salaman, Aneh Ani by Verrinder and Psalm 23 by Rideout. Three magnificent works.
I believe the company, Olympia, no longer functions so there won't be many more CDs available. If it's still available, grab one!

I'm sorry to say this CD is not very representative of Jewish liturgical music in England. There are far too many modern pieces by contemporary Jewish composers, many of which would be considered quite out of place in an actual English synagogue service, particularly of the more traditional style. The leading composers of the Anglo-Jewish liturgical tradition such as Samuel Alman and Abraham Saqui are very poorly represented; even Israel Mombach, the English equivalent of Solomon Sulzer or Louis Lewandowski, only has 3 pieces on the album - and only one of those is typical. Finally, several of the pieces are instrumental (for organ) without any singing at all, which has little relevance to the choral music of the album's title.

I have heard the Zemel Choir live, and on this CD they seem rather recessed and timid. Overall, a disappointing release.

Very interesting items sung by the beautifull Moshe Hachel's voice.I regret the quality of choirs work.The compositions for choirs are very modern and don't seem to be matching a sacred service requirements.The only reason why I would buy this CD is the Moshe Hachel's performance which is wonderfull and outstanding.