A Hebrew Liederabend An Evening of Hebrew Song Tuesday, June 4, 2019 ANNE E. LEIBOWITZ MEMORIAL CONCERT Program 6:00pm Pre-Concert Lecture Including music by 7:00pm Concert JOSEPH ACHRON JOEL ENGEL Performed by ALEXANDER KREIN ILANA DAVIDSON PAUL BEN-HAIM RAPHAEL FRIEDER OFER BEN-AMOTS ELIZABETH SHAMMASH and poetry by YEHUDI WYNER and guest artist RONN YEDIDIA SHAUL TCHERNICHOVSKY AVIGDOR HAMEIRI Devised by YEHUDA HALEVI NEIL W. LEVIN LEAH GOLDBERG RACHEL HAYIM NAHMAN BIALIK This event is part of the Smithsonian Year of Music. and others… YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH in the Center for Jewish History 15 WEST 16TH STREET · NYC PROGRAM INTERMISSION אומרים: ישנה ארץ | THEY SAY THERE IS A LAND נעמי שמר | Music by Naomi Shemer | 1930-2004 שאול טשרניחובסקי | Words by Shaul Tchernichovsky | 1875-1943 כיבוי אורות | LIGHTS OUT נעמי שמר | Music and Words by Naomi Shemer | 1930-2004 אומרים: ישנה ארץ | THEY SAY THERE IS A LAND מנחם ויזנברג | Arranged by Menachem Wiesenberg | 1950- יואל אנגל | Music by Joel Engel | 1868-1927 שאול טשרניחובסקי | Words by Shaul Tchernichovsky | 1875-1943 שיר ליקינתון | THE HYACINTH רבקה גוילי | Melody by Rivka Gwily שני מכתבים | TWO LETTERS לאה גולדברג | Words by Lea Goldberg | 1911-1970 יואל אנגל | Music by Joel Engel | 1868-1927 מנחם ויזנברג | Arranged by Menachem Wiesenberg | 1950- אביגדור המאירי | Words by Avigdor Hameiri | 1890-1970 הנך יפה רעיתי | BEHOLD, THOU ART FAIR גלות | IN EXILE ידידיה אדמון | Music by Yedidiya Admon | 1894-1982 היינריך שליט | Music by Heinrich Schalit | 1886-1976 שיר השירים | Words from the Song of Songs יהודה הלוי | Words by Yehuda HaLevi | 1075-1141 הנך יפה רעיתי | AH, YOU ARE FAIR MY DARLING שנת עולם | LONGING עופר בן־אמוץ | Music by Ofer Ben-Amots | 1955- היינריך שליט | Music by Heinrich Schalit | 1886-1976 שיר השירים | Words from the Song of Songs יהודה הלוי | Words by Yehuda HaLevi | 1075-1141 כוכב נפל | A STAR FALLEN DOWN שלג על עירי | SNOW ON MY CITY פאול בן חיים | Music by Paul Ben-Haim | 1897-1984 נעמי שמר | Music and Words by Naomi Shemer | 1930-2004 מתי כץ | Words by Matti Katz | 1944-1964 רפאל פרידר | Arranged by Raphael Frieder אפיריון | CANOPY קול דממה | THE SOUND OF SILENCE איתן פסן | Music by Eytan Pessen | 1961- דב זמיר | Music by Dov Zamir | 1928-2002 יונתן רטוש | Words by Jonathan Ratosh | 1908-1981 פניה ברגשטיין | Words by Fania Bergstein | 1908-1950 חנן וינטרניץ | Arranged by Hanan Winternitz לפנות ערב | AT TWILIGHT סשה ארגוב | Music by Sasha Argov | 1914-1995 יום ניסן | DAY OF NISAN יעקב שבתאי | Words by Yaakov Shabtai | 1934-1981 דב זמיר | Music and Words by Dov Zamir | 1928-2002 Arranged by Arbel מירי זמיר קפסוטו | Arranged by Miri Zamir-Capsouto אורות חולמים | CANZONETTA: DREAMY LIGHT יין עתיק | ANCIENT WINE יוסף אחרון | Music by Joseph Achron | 1886-1941 יחזקאל בראון | Music by Yehezkel Braun | 1922-2014 אברהם בן יצחק | Words by Avraham Ben-Yitzhak | 1883-1950 לאה גולדברג | Words by Leah Goldberg | 1911-1970 באצבעות ענוגות | WITH GENTLE FINGERS מחלוני | FROM MY WINDOW אלכס װייזר | Music by Alex Weiser | 1989- יחזקאל בראון | Music by Yehezkel Braun | 1922-2014 דוד פוגל | Words by David Vogel | 1891-1944 לאה גולדברג | Words by Leah Goldberg | 1911-1970 הנה אקח | NOW I’LL TAKE מחלוני | FROM MY WINDOW אברהם שבדרון (שרון) | Music by Abraham Schwadron (Sharon) | 1878-1957 נורית הירש | Music by Nurit Hirsh | 1942- רחל | Words by Rachel Bluwstein | 1890-1931 לאה גולדברג | Words by Leah Goldberg | 1911-1970 ממולי השמיים | THE SKY IS ACROSS FROM ME בקר תעירני דמעתי | IN THE MORNINGS TEARS WAKE ME רון ידידיה | Music and Words by Ronn Yedidia | 1960- אלכסנדר קריין | Music by Alexander Krein | 1883-1951 אברהם אפרת | Words by Abram Markovich Efros | 1888-1954 לא ביום ולא בלילה | NEITHER DAY NOR NIGHT Folksong עקרה | BARREN WOMAN חיים נחמן ביאליק | Words by Hayim Nahman Bialik | 1873-1934 רבקה לוינסון | Music by Rivka Levinson | 1906-1951 רחל | Words by Rachel Bluwstein | 1890-1931 לא ביום ולא בלילה | NEITHER DAY NOR NIGHT שמואל אלמן | Music by Samuel Alman | 1887-1947 כנרת | SEA OF GALILEE חיים נחמן ביאליק | Words by Hayim Nahman Bialik | 1873-1934 מרק לברי | Music by Marc Lavry | 1903-1967 אביגדור המאירי | Words by Avigdor Hameiri | 1890-1970 באה מנוחה | THERE COMES PEACE קורט וייל | Arranged by Kurt Weill | 1900-1950 למדבר | TO THE DESERT דניאל סמבורסקי | Melody by Daniel Sambursky שטפן וולפה | Arranged by Stefan Wolpe | 1902-1972 נתן אלתרמן | Words by Nathan Alterman | 1910-1970 אנה הלך דודך | WHITHER YOUR BELOVED באנו | Melody by Emanuel Amiran-Pougatchov; Gil Aldema WE’VE COME אהרן קופלנד | Arranged by Aaron Copland | 1900-1990 עמנואל עמירן-פוגצ’וב; גיל אלדמע יואל ולבה | Melody by Joel Walbe מנחם ויזנברג | Arranged by Menachem Wiesenberg | 1950- נתן אלתרמן | Words by Nathan Alterman | 1910-1970 שיר השירים | Words from The Song of Songs NOTES ON THE COMPOSERS Composer and violinist JOSEPH ACHRON (1886– fostered by the Haskala. 1943) belongs to the school of musicians, ethnologists, Achron’s brief Gesellschaft experience turned folklorists, and other artists and intellectuals in the out to be his guiding inspiration for much of his artistic Tsarist Russian Empire who, during the first decade life. Though a relative latecomer to the group, he was of the 20th century, attempted to establish a new one of the leading musical personalities to come out Jewish national art music based on ethnic as well as of its milieu. religious heritage. Intrigued and encouraged by both Achron was born in Losdzey [Lozdzieje], in the the Russian and the more recent Russo-Jewish nation- Suwalky region of historic Lithuania (then part of Rus- al-cultural pursuit of folklore, that coterie—founding sian Poland; now Lazdijai, Lithuania) into a comfortable the New Jewish National School in music—formal- middle-class family. His father was an amateur violin- ized itself in 1908 as the Gesellschaft für jüdische ist as well as a lay ba’al t’filla (amateur precentor, or Volksmusik (Society for Jewish Folk Music) in St. Peters- cantor). Joseph’s younger brother, Isadore, was an burg. Branches followed in Moscow, Riga, Odessa, accomplished pianist who later became Jascha Heif- and elsewhere in the Tsarist Empire as well as, later, etz’s accompanist for a time in America. The family in Vienna albeit only unofficially connected there moved to Warsaw, where Joseph began violin lessons and under a different appellation. The name of the at the age of five. He soon emerged as a child prodigy, St. Petersburg society and its branches, however, is and at seven years old he wrote his first known compo- misleading. Although the initial phase of its activities sition—a lullaby for violin (an unpublished manuscript centered around harmonizing and arranging Jewish now in the British Museum). He made his debut at the folk music collected from various parts of the Rus- age of nine (reviewed in a St. Petersburg newspaper) sian Empire, its long-range purpose turned out to be and his first tour at thirteen, which took him to many more artistic than ethnological. Its second transitory European parts of the Russian Empire: Kiev, Odessa, stage involved shaping such arranged folk mate- Lødz, Bialystok, Grodno, and St. Petersburg, where rial for concert rendition, and in its ultimate stage, he played at one of the imperial palaces at a birthday the New Jewish National School aimed at original celebration of the Tsar’s brother, Grand Duke Michael. composition—based on or inspired by that Jewish On that occasion he he was presented with a gold heritage—which its members and proponents saw as watch by the Tsar’s mother, Tsarina Maria Fedorovna. accumulating eventually to become a national Jewish In 1898 the family relocated again, this time to St. art (read ‘classical’) music. Musical publication was Petersburg, where Achron entered the conservatory therefore an important part of the society’s efforts. with monetary assistance from the Grand Duke and It founded its own press, which published three of joined the class of the legendary violin teacher, Leo- Achron’s early works. pold Auer, whose other students included at various To some extent, the “Russification” path among times Jascha Heifetz, Mischa Elman, Efram Zimbalist, Russian composers and in the Russian classical music Nathan Milstein, and Tascha Seidl. Achron also studied world became a model for a Jewish counterpart. But composition with Anatoly Lyadov, best known today the mission espoused by the Gesellschaft and New outside Russia for his descriptive orchestral pieces Jewish National School composers also had been and for his rejection of Diaghilev’s commission for a kindled and bred by a number of deeper forces oper- Firebird ballet score, which then went to Stravinsky ating among the Jewish intelligentsia in the Russian and launched his brilliant career. sphere, including the awakening of a national con- By the time Achron graduated from the conser- sciousness, the revival of Hebrew and the rejuvenation vatory in 1904, he had written a dozen compositions. and reinforcement of Yiddish, the interest in a secular He demonstrated an affinity for Judaic themes well Hebrew as well as Yiddish literature, and, of course, before his Gesellschaft association. His Variations on Zionism, with its cultural and historical ramifications. Kamarinskaya, op. 12, for example, has a theme and Underlying those currents were the powerful cultural variation (no. 9) marked “Hebraique.” He went to forces of the movement known as the Haskala—the Germany for three years, where his concerts met with Jewish “Enlightenment”—which had sought to implant great success. His performance of Beethoven’s violin secular culture and literature, humanistic thought, concerto with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, conducted and Western European-style social liberalism within by Arthur Nikisch, incorporated his own cadenza.