February 25, 2004

MILKEN ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN JEWISH MUSIC NEW CD RELEASES

New Releases from Naxos: HERMAN BERLINSKI'S AVODAT SHABBAT (CD #8.559443) and
MARVIN DAVID LEVY'S MASADA (CD #8.559427)

================================================== HERMAN BERLINSKI'S AVODAT SHABBAT (CD #8.559443) "I don't think I can write a piece of music, no matter what I do and what I will try, that does not have the stamp of my Jewish existence," said Herman Berlinski during the recording session for his masterpiece AVODAT SHABBAT, one of only three complete Sabbath services ever written for soloists, chorus, and large orchestra. The eighty-nine-year-old Berlinski returned to his native Germany to attend the world-premiere recording of this major 20th-century sacred work, which he created during the course of many years in America. For more information, go to http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf?cdid=14

MARVIN DAVID LEVY (CD #8.559427) The legendary defense of the desert fortress Masada by a small band of Jewish Zealots against a massive Roman army inspires awe nearly 2,000 years after the historical occurrence. Marvin David Levy's dramatic retelling of the Masada story, originally written for the great operatic tenor and cantor Richard Tucker, here receives its world-premiere recording. Also recorded by the Milken Archive for the first time is Levy's haunting CANTO DE LOS MARRANOS, a dramatic scene for soprano (in four languages: English, Ladino, Hebrew, and Latin) that reveals the passions and conflicts of the 15th-century Spanish Jews who outwardly converted to Christianity while secretly practicing their Jewish beliefs "under penalty of death." For more information, go to http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf?cdid=13 Posted by jmwc at February 25, 2004 07:17 PM