Laughter & Tears: A Jewish Saga [Import]

Jacob / Levenson, Boris / Fitelberg, G. Weinberg (Composer), Ivan Rosenblum (Composer), Boris Levenson (Composer), Carl Anton Wirth (Composer), Elwood Derr (Composer), Jewish Traditional (Composer), Paul Ben-Haim (Composer), Irving Berlin (Composer), Stephanie Friedman (Performer), Sylvie Braitman (Performer), Ivan Rosenblum (Performer), Kathleen Nitz (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Stephanie Friedman, Sylvie Braitman, Ivan Rosenblum, Kathleen Nitz
• Composer: Jacob / Levenson, Boris / Fitelberg, G. Weinberg, Ivan Rosenblum, Boris Levenson, Carl Anton Wirth, Elwood Derr, et al.
• Audio CD (June 26, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Centaur
• ASIN: B00005LZQQ
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,904 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Hebraic Pictures (4), for clarinet & piano (arr. Bellison): Grandmother's Stories

2. Hebraic Pictures (4), for clarinet & piano (arr. Bellison): To the Wedding (Preparing the Bride)

3. Hebraic Pictures (4), for clarinet & piano (arr. Bellison): Procession

4. Shtetl Voices, for voice, saxophone & piano: Yentel I

5. Shtetl Voices, for voice, saxophone & piano: Dvayre II

6. Hebrew Dance, for saxophone & piano

7. Jephthah: Invocation & Dance

8. I Never Saw Another Butterfly for soprano, alto saxophone & piano: Terezin

9. I Never Saw Another Butterfly for soprano, alto saxophone & piano: The Butterfly

10. I Never Saw Another Butterfly for soprano, alto saxophone & piano: The Old Man

11. I Never Saw Another Butterfly for soprano, alto saxophone & piano: Fear

12. I Never Saw Another Butterfly for soprano, alto saxophone & piano: The Garden

13. Eli Eli

14. Songs (3) without Words, for voice or instrument & piano: Arioso

15. Songs (3) without Words, for voice or instrument & piano: Ballade

16. Songs (3) without Words, for voice or instrument & piano: Sephardic Melody

17. Hebraic Pictures (4), for clarinet & piano (arr. Bellison): Maypole

18. Sadie Salome (Go Home), song

19. Yiddle on Your Fiddle, Play Some Ragtime, song

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laughter & Tears: A Jewish Saga, August 1, 2003

By 

Ellen Isler (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Laughter & Tears: A Jewish Saga (Audio CD)

7/30/03

This is the first "review" of a CD I have ever written for posting on CD Now on Amazon, and I am moved to do so because of the special quality of "Laughter and Tears, a Jewish Saga," by The Wolford/Rosenblum Duo, Centaur CRC 2521.

The range of feeling exhibited by all the selections of music, both purely instrumental and with voice, is particularly evocative of the length and complexity of Jewish experience. The selections include stunning original compositions by pianist Ivan Rosenblum and rarely heard contemporary songs from Israel by composer Ben Haim. The delightful, humorous and previously unrecorded early Jewish vaudeville songs by Irving Berlin are wonderfully amusing and the presence of the ragtime idiom in them is a further indication of how much of the world's music has been absorbed into thematically "Jewish" compositions.

The section of the CD devoted or named Holocaust Remembrance, comprised of songs by Ellwood Derr, was haunting and poignant but I found even more touching somehow the eloquent instrumental rendition of the traditional prayer, Eli Eli. The performance had a wonderful equilibrium of sound and an appropriately timeless quality.

Klezmer music is always fun, but it is played here with clarity and verve. All in all, this is a rewarding smorgasbord of Jewish temperament expressed in highly professional and creative musicianship.