Note: This set is a collection of previously released recordings.

It was apparently Rimsky-Korsakov, himself a member of the “Mighty Handful” of Russian nationalist composers, who encouraged his students at the St. Petersburg Conservatory to go out and collect Jewish folk music and music sung in the synagogues, getting thus the ball rolling for a specific Jewish classical music. The movement led in 1908 to the founding of the St. Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music and, in 1923, of the Society for Jewish Music in Moscow. The success of the latter and its members was however, short-lived. The antisemitic, anti-cosmopolitan forces that started to brew under the new soviet regime led many potential members of the society to emigrate. The ones that remained were forced to focus on proletarian themes and, even when complying to the requirements, still found themselves often repressed or incarcerated outright.

The last notable concert with the society’s music in the Soviet Union took place in Moscow, in April of 1929. Most of this music had then lain dormant for decades until the pianist Jascha Nemtsov (himself the son of a Gulag survivor) and his musical collaborators unearthed it in the last few years of the 20th century. The present collection contains on five discs the recordings – many of them world premieres – realized between 1999 and 2004.

REVIEWS:

One of the real strengths of this program is the number of pieces that received their world premiere recordings here and it’s probably the case that many of them can still only be heard in these performances. I make it around 42 pieces in total – which includes the individual movements of suites and cycles – made their disc premieres here, a tribute to the industry, application and ardent appreciation shown principally by Nemtsov.

Fortunately, these discs make an appeal on recital-by-recital basis. Yes, there are generic settings and yes, nothing is developed extensively so that the pleasures here are of a localised, focused and specialised nature. Nemtsov may be disheartened by the relative obscurity of much of this music still, feeling it, perhaps, funnelled to the outlying ethnic borderland where folk, cabaret and lighter classical meet and mingle. He, however, in particular, and his disc confreres, have made a real contribution to the vivacious and continuing life of this music on disc and are deserving of high praise.

-- MusicWeb International

This is a fascinating five-disc collection that shines light on a short-lived movement in early 20th-century Russia to bring about a Jewish classical music idiom. Fine performances, too, from the likes of Tabea Zimmermann, Jascha Nemtsov, and Wolfgang Meyer.

-- BBC Music Magazine

SWR’s imaginative five-disc chamber collection From Jewish Life (recorded 1999-2004) should be of interest to listeners whether or not you’re religious or indeed of the Jewish faith. The excellent line-up of performers consists of Jascha Nemtsov (piano), Wolfgang Meyer (clarinet), Tabea Zimmermann (viola), Ingolf Turban (violin), David Geringas (cello) and Helene Schneiderman (mezzo-soprano). The chosen repertoire includes Bloch’s masterly Suite for viola and piano, Joseph Achron’s Stempenyu and other works, music by Julian and Alexander Krein, Alexander Weprik, Joachim Stutschewsky and Solomon Rosowsky and much more. This is, musically speaking, a most nourishing collection, and the digital sound is excellent. 

-- Gramophone

For Nikolaus Brass, the "concrete confrontation with the existential fragility of human existence, with new beginnings and happiness, but also pain, infirmity and death" acted "like a compass in the search for expression." He refers to his music as characterised by "flowing time processes, questions of order and disturbance, the scanning of the acoustic outer surface for what it harbours as an echo, as well as aspects of human existence, " within a "permanent circle of losing and finding again." This musica viva CD features three of his compositions, created between 2012 and 2023. Nikolaus Brass studied medicine and composition in Munich and Berlin, and with Helmut Lachenmann in Hanover. He took part in the Darmstadt Summer Course from 1980 to 1986. His works have been regularly performed at festivals since 1981. In addition to his profession as a medical doctor, which he practised for many years, he has composed numerous works, including several commissioned by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (as part of the musica viva series), the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Donaueschingen Music Days and the Wittener Tage fur neue Kammermusik. In 2009, Brass was awarded the Music Prize of the City of Munich. He has been a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts since 2014. Brass' composition "In der Farbe von Erde" ("In the colour of earth") - music for viola, 44 strings and two percussionists" was first performed on February 17, 2023, with Tabea Zimmermann and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni. The work was commissioned by musica viva of Bayerischer Rundfunk. The title of the composition refers to a short text by the French-speaking Swiss poet Philippe Jaccottet (1925-2021). "Der goldene Steig" ("The Golden Path") - A narrative for soprano and orchestra" is based on a text by Peter Kurzeck. The fourth part of his novel cycle "Das alte Jahrhundert" has an impressionistic feel to it - and served as a mood painting for Brass' sound fantasies. In addition to the richly scored percussion, the entire orchestra also contributes to the sound development with meticulously prescribed tapping and rattling instructions. The work was commissioned by musica viva of Bayerischer Rundfunk and first performed on December 16, 2016, with Sarah Maria Sun and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Peter Rundel. Brass' "Der Garten" ("The Garden") - music for orchestra with four obbligato male voices (vocalises)" was also commissioned by musica viva of Bayerischer Rundfunk. The first performance, with the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Eotvos, took place on June 16, 2012. The new BR-KLASSIK CD documents the live recordings of each of the three first performances, recorded in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz.