This is the third of Zina Schiff's CDs
for 4TAY. It continues her exploration
of music on the theme of Jewish legends.
The other two are The Golden Dove
4Tay CD-4022 and King David's
Lyre 4Tay CD-4002. In each of these
discs she is most artistically accompanied
by Cameron Grant.
The single most substantial work in
this collection is the only Violin Sonata
represented. It is by David Amram
a composer who also has a CD in
the wide-ranging Naxos Milken series.
Amram provided the music for Joseph
Papp's famous Shakespeare in the Park
productions. He has been an active jazz
musician and wrote the scores for the
1960s feature films Splendor in the
Grass and The Manchurian Candidate.
The Amram Sonata is an early and very
cohesive piece from the 1950s. It has
an impressive central andante espressivo
with a faintly bluesy inflection;
overall the 'signature' is distinctively
Jewish. The finale has an additional
'sway' inspired by the music-making
of Charlie Mingus. The result could
have been ill-assorted but it works
well. Amram is free with his tonal scheme,
happy to draw modestly on atonality
but by no means doctrinaire. It is a
fascinating sonata and one that makes
me keen to hear more. Hearing that first
movement again prompts parallels with
works such as the florid second violin
sonatas by John Ireland and Thomas Dunhill.
Ellstein is a name now familiar
from his operettas enjoyably represented
in two volumes of the Naxos Milken series.
Haftorah is loving, impassioned
and reverential. It smokes with sinuous
ululation.
Menahem Avidom was a Galician
Jew who emigrated to Palestine in 1925.
The three movement Concertino is a worldly
sweet lilt of a piece with a sort of
Havanaise air to it. It was written
for Heifetz (Schiff is a Heifetz protégé)
and performed by him in a controversial
concert in Jerusalem in 1953 at which
the violinist's inclusion of the Richard
Strauss violin sonata resulted in a
physical assault on the violinist. The
version recorded here is as edited by
Heifetz.
Zimbalist was born in Rostov-on-Don
and studied with Leopold Auer who premiered
the Tchaikovsky violin concerto. He
debuted in the USA with the Glazunov
concerto in Boston in 1911. Zimbalist
joined the staff of the Curtis Institute
in 1928 becoming its director in 1941
and retiring in 1968. His Orientale
combines Russian exoticism and Jewish
atmosphere.
Ben-Haim was born in Munich and
emigrated to Palestine in 1933. The
Arabic Song has that typical
Saharan sway and ululation followed
by the exciting Improvisation and
Dance with its dervish and Tzigane
allusions all viewed through a shimmering
heat-haze.
Chajes was born in Poland but
emigrated to the USA and specifically
Detroit in 1937. His needily imploring
and trembling Tefilah and Hechassid
are reverential pieces.
Apart from the fact that his four pieces
were performed at the Theresienstadt
concentration camp we know nothing of
Paul Kirman. After the spirituality
and worshipful haze of the Sephardic
Song comes the dignified graceful
play of Galician Dance, the pensive
and subtle Palestinian Song and
the earnest and then glintingly euphoric
and impassioned Yemenite Song.
The notes are thorough though they do
not always date the works played. The
only other downbeat is the slightly
too close hot-house recording balance.
An attractive and unhackneyed selection
of music by Jewish composers much of
it with an exotic edginess. With one
or two exceptions it steers clear of
the salon.
Rob Barnett
Zina Schiff (violin) 
