World Premieres of Works by Weill, Milhaud, Wolpe, Others
Chicago, Nov. 26, 2002 -- Like the southern African-Americans who migrated to the big cities of the North, poor rural Jews of the early twentieth century trekked from the hinterlands and isolated villages of Central and Eastern Europe to seek a better life in the cosmopolitan metropolis of Imperial Vienna.
In both cases, the new arrivals made a lasting and far-reaching impact on the world's music.
An adventurous new release from Cedille Records, “Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano" (Cedille CDR 90000 065), revives the long-overlooked genres of Jewish cabaret, popular, and political songs from 1900 to 1945.
Performers are the (all-American) New Budapest Orpheum Society, featuring Chicago-area cantors Stewart Figa, baritone, and Deborah Bard, soprano; and mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley, a celebrated young classical singer especially noted for her interpretations of contemporary repertoire.
The program is a two-disc set, with an 80-page booklet, priced as a single CD. The first CD presents songs in their original languages; the second offers many of the same songs in English translations. Together, there are more than two hours of songs ranging from broadly comical jabs at Jewish cultural stereotypes to sultry romantic ballads and rousing political calls to arms, to heroic anthems and quiet celebrations of the emerging Jewish homeland in the Middle East.
Musically, the songs illustrate a rich range of styles, including tango, samba, traditional Jewish folk tunes, jazz, and late German Romanticism. In these songs one also hears the stirrings of modern musical theater and nightclub cabaret.
The program unfolds in four broad, roughly chronological themes. Songs arising from the Jewish urban migration poke fun at the nouveau riche, the privileged, and Jewish cultural stereotypes. The second group of songs includes sophisticated and poignant popular ballads of romantic love and longing, including two ultra-romantic entries by Friedrich Holl
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