Mention the words ‘Jewish
music’ to many people and the first
(and possibly only) thing that popped
into their heads would be Klezmer. Mention
‘Jewish Sacred music’ and you would
probably get no further than the Bloch
Sacred Service, Milhaud’s Jewish
sacred music and Kurt Weill’s Kaddish.
This disc, from the Naxos series based
on the Milken Archive of American Jewish
Music, helps to extend our knowledge
further. It is a selection of pieces,
usually of a sacred nature, written
for concert performance by Jewish cantors
in the first half of the 20th
century. To understand this repertoire,
sacred music written for and performed
in the concert hall, we must turn to
history.
The role of hazzan
or cantor in a Jewish service is to
intone and sing the liturgy as sh’liah
tzibbur (messenger of the congregation).
In the Ashkenazi tradition in the Hapsburg
and Russian Empires in the early 19th
century this role became professionalized.
The European Golden Age for the art
of the cantor is generally thought to
be period from the late 19th
century up to the First World War. After
the war, this art was brought to America
by touring and émigré
cantors. A curious side-effect of this
touring was the development of the sacred
concert, where the cantor would demonstrate
his essentially sacred art in a secular
concert hall. These concerts always
augmented the cantor’s primary liturgical
function, but away from the Synagogue
the cantor was able to perform with
instrumental accompaniment; something
generally forbidden during services.
The use of orchestral
accompaniment flourished particularly
during the American period, the period
represented by the pieces on this disc.
All but one were written for their own
use by virtuoso cantors and most would
have relied upon a professional to provide
the orchestrations. Some of these orchestrations
do survive, but for this recording entirely
new orchestrations were commissioned
by the Milken Archive. The disc’s line
notes do not explain whether these new
orchestrations differ in style from
the originals.
The cantor on this
disc is Cantor Benzion Miller, evidently
one of the few cantors who perform in
the virtuoso tradition of the 19th
and early 20th centuries.
The performance style requires the cantor
to provide elaborate flourishes, cadenzas
and highly virtuoso coloratura passages.
The concert atmosphere encouraged cantors
to create pieces that were longer and
far more elaborate than would be possible
in a service; vocal elaboration and
repetition of words is common to all
the pieces on the disc.
The opening piece,
Hayyom T’amtzeinu by David Roitman,
comes as a bit of a shock; the orchestration
is in the light music vein and if it
were not for Miller’s elaborate vocal
flights, the piece could be a piece
of Jewish musical theatre.
The following piece,
Sheyyibane Beit Hammikdash, is
more sober. The version performed
here is illustrative of another aspect
of the cantorial tradition; pieces were
changed and added to by subsequent performers,
the one performed here is based on the
version popularised by cantor Moshe
Koussevtizky.
Most of the music on
the disc is strongly indebted to the
romantic classical tradition. Pierre
Pinchik’s Der Hazn un der Gabe
and Pinchas Jassinowsky’s The Prophecy
of Isaiah illustrate this. Both
have big romantic ballad-like moments.
Pinchik’s piece is a Yiddish song, about
a Cantor and though narrative in form,
includes many traditional flourishes.
This is the only Yiddish piece on the
disc; all the remainder are Hebrew settings.
Aaron Tishkowsky’s Hammavdil
is an expansive choral arrangement,
by Maurice Goldman, of a sacred piece;
it features the Vienna Boys Choir.
Cantor Benzion Miller
has a remarkable technical facility,
executing some truly spectacular vocal
fireworks. He has a robust tenor voice,
which has a tendency to sound a bit
steely in the upper register and develops
a strong vibrato under pressure. But
of course, one does not listen to Miller
for just his vocal quality but for the
brilliant stylistic and virtuoso elements
that he brings to this music.
On most of the tracks
he is ably accompanied by the Barcelona
Symphony Orchestra under Elli Jaffe,
though the Oxford Philomusica and the
Vienna Chamber Orchestra ably stand
in for them on two tracks. Jaffe also
did some of the orchestral arrangements.
All the orchestrations are richly colourful,
employing a wide romantic palette. At
times I thought that they might have
been a little too elaborate for the
good of the music and Cantor Benzion
Miller’s art.
The booklet includes
an extensive essay on the music with
copious notes about each of the composers
and their background, providing an illuminating
window into the genre. Listening to
the entire disc at one sitting is probably
not recommended for those new to this
genre. Miller’s voice, expressive though
it is, can become a little wearing with
repeated exposure. But undoubtedly this
disc makes fascinating listening, opening
up an area of musical repertoire which
is probably quite unknown to many people.
Robert Hugill
Cantor Benzion Miller 
