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Jewish Cabaret In Exile / New Budapest Orpheum Society
Cedille

Jewish Cabaret In Exile / New Budapest Orpheum Society

$9.99
$19.99 Save 50%

Details

Composer
VARIOUS
Artist
New Budapest Orpheum Society
Format
CD
Label
Cedille
Released
May 26, 2009
Catalog #
CDR 110
UPC
735131911023

About

"The beautifully produced Çedille album of Jewish cabaret music broke new ground. Yet more depths were revealed in a ravaged culture: modest, entertaining, and humane." -- Paul Ingram, Fanfare

The booklet accompanying this release is so thick that it requires a double jewel case to accommodate it and the single CD it documents. So extensive are the essay, annotations, and bibliography to this production—assumed to have been authored by the New Budapest Orpheum’s director, Philip V. Bohlman, though nowhere is he credited as the author—that I will not even try to summarize their contents, which cover the history, politics, and poetics of Yiddish song in stage, screen, vaudeville, and cabaret. The program of Jewish cabaret songs contained herein complements some of the volumes that appeared in the massive Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, though the composers represented on the current CD were not necessarily transplants to American soil. Of those who enriched the Jewish cabaret literature, some did make it to U.S. shores, notably Hanns Eisler, Kurt Weill, and Arnold Schoenberg. But others, such as Viktor Ullmann and Pavel Haas, perished in the Holocaust.

The disc is divided into seven sections: (1) “The Great Ennui on the Eve of Exile,” featuring songs by Edmund Nick and Erich Kästner; (2) “The Exiled Language—Yiddish Songs for Stage and Screen,” featuring unattributed songs, but at least one by Abraham Ellstein; (3) “Transformation of Tradition,” presenting songs by the aforementioned Eisler; (4) “The Poetics of Exile,” offering songs by Kurt Tucholsky, as well as additional songs by Eisler; (5) “Traumas of Inner Exile,” featuring songs by Ullmann; (6) “Nostalgia and Exile,” presenting additional unattributed songs; and (7) “Exile in Reprise,” offering songs by Friedrich Holländer.

The songs were chosen to reflect the various phases of exile—physical, emotional, and psychological—that European Jewry experienced in the period leading up to and during WW II and its immediate aftermath, roughly 1935 to 1945, a period that accounts for the second great exodus of Jews from Europe. Primarily then, these are songs from the smoke-filled nightclubs and entertainment halls of Berlin and other European cities before the rise of Hitler, from the barracks of the concentration camps during the Holocaust, and from the months and years following the liberation. The before, during, and after the Shoah aspects of the recorded material frame and reflect the corresponding attitudes, mindsets, and living conditions of the times—from a song like Elegy in the Forest of Things, expressing a kind of resigned world weariness; to Ellstein’s Deep as Night that tries to deaden the senses to the pain of the outside world with the surrogate internal pain of a longed for love; to the bitter sarcasm of Eisler’s Sweetbread and Whips and Georg Kreisler’s Poisoning Pigeons, a song about spreading arsenic on graham crackers and feeding them to the birds in the park; and finally to I’m an Irrepressible Optimist, a song from the aftermath which cannot erase memories and finds optimism only in the release of death. 

The New Budapest Orpheum Society is an ensemble-in-residence at the University of Chicago. A mixed group of vocalists (Julia Bentley, mezzo-soprano and Stewart Figa, baritone) and instrumentalists (Iordanka Kisslova, violin; Stewart Miller, string bass; Hank Tausend, percussion; and Ilya Levinson, piano), the NBOS performs regularly at Chicago’s universities, synagogues, and cultural institutions, and has also appeared at the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum and the American Academy in Berlin. Philip V. Bohlman is the group’s artistic director; and Ilya Levinson, in addition to her role as pianist, also serves as music director and arranger.

Readers who acquired and enjoyed the three volumes from the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music titled “Songs of the American Yiddish Stage” (Naxos 8.559405, 8.559432, and 8.559455) will find much in “Jewish Cabaret in Exile” to their liking. One needn’t necessarily be Jewish, however, to appreciate this material, much of which had its origins in the dives, dance halls, and strip joints of Bertolt Brecht’s, Kurt Weill’s, Lotte Lenya’s, and Marlene Dietrich’s Berlin. Some of it is pretty heady stuff, with the gender-bending sexual stereotyping and absurdist satire of a decadent, Dada-costumed culture on the verge of imploding. Recommended then if you love it. If you don’t, best leave it.
-- Jerry Dubins, Fanfare

Track listing details:

I. The Great Ennui on the Eve of Exile
Edmund Nick (1891–1973) & Erich Kästner (1899–1974)
1 Die möblierte Moral / The Well-Furnished Morals (1:48)
2 Das Wiegenlied väterlicherseite / The Father’s Lullaby (4:49)
3 Die Elegie in Sachen Wald / Elegy in the Forest of Things (3:29)
4 Der Gesang vom verlorenen Sohn / The Song of the Lost Son (5:13)
5 Das Chanson für Hochwohlgeborene / The Chanson for Those Who Are Born Better (2:43)
6 Der Song “man müßte wieder . . .”/ The Song “Once Again One Must . . .” (3:59)

II. The Exiled Language — Yiddish Songs for Stage and Screen
7 Moses Milner (1886–1953): In Cheider / In the Cheder (5:46)
8 Mordechai Gebirtig (1877–1942): Avreml, der Marvikher / Abe, the Pickpocket (5:12)
9 Abraham Ellstein (1907–1963): Tif vi di Nacht / Deep as the Night (3:07)

III. Transformation of Tradition
Hanns Eisler (1898–1962):
From Zeitungsausschnitte, Op. 11 (Newspaper Clippings)
10 Mariechen / Little Marie (1:49)
11 Kriegslied eines Kindes / A Child’s Song of War (2:32)

IV. The Poetics of Exile: Songs by Hanns Eisler and Kurt Tucholsky (1890–1935)
12 Heute zwischen Gestern und Morgen / Today between Yesterday and Tomorrow (2:35)
13 Bügerliche Wohltätigkeit / Civic Charity (3:01)
14 Zuckerbrot und Peitsche / Sweetbread and Whips (2:20)
15 An den deutschen Mond / To the German Moon (2:46)
16 Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit / Unity and Justice and Freedom (1:53)
17 Couplet für die Bier-Abteilung / Couplet for the Beer Department (1:26)

V. Traumas of Inner Exile
Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944)
Three Yiddish Songs (Brezulinka), op. 53 (1944)
18 Berjoskele / The Little Birch (4:18)
19 Margaritkele / Little Margaret (1:37)
20 Ich bin a Maydl in di Yorn / I’m Already a Young Woman (1:30)

VI. Nostalgia and Exile
21 Georg Kreisler (b. 1922): Tauben vergiften / Poisoning Pigeons (2:46)
22 Hermann Leopoldi (1888–1959) and Robert Katscher (1894–1942): Ich bin ein unverbesserlicher Optimist / I’m an Irrepressible Optimist (3:46)
23 Misha Spoliansky (1898–1985) / Marcellus Schiffer (1892–1932): Heute Nacht oder nie / Tonight or Never (3:22)

VII. Exile in Reprise
Friedrich Holländer on Stage and Film
24 Friedrich Holländer (1896–1976): Marianka (2:32)
25 Wenn der Mond, wenn der Mond . . . / If the Moon, If the Moon . . . (3:00) Lyrics by Theobald Tiger (Kurt Tucholsky)

Tracklist 25 tracks

  1. 1 Die moblierte Moral (The Well-Furnished Morals) 01:48
    Track
    1
    Title
    Die moblierte Moral (The Well-Furnished Morals)
    Duration
    01:48
    Composer
    Edmund Nick
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  2. 2 Das Wiegenlied vaterlicherseite (The Father's Lullaby) 04:49
    Track
    2
    Title
    Das Wiegenlied vaterlicherseite (The Father's Lullaby)
    Duration
    04:49
    Composer
    Edmund Nick
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  3. 3 Die Élégie in Sachen Wald (Elegy in the Forest of Things) 03:29
    Track
    3
    Title
    Die Élégie in Sachen Wald (Elegy in the Forest of Things)
    Duration
    03:29
    Composer
    Edmund Nick
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  4. 4 Der Gesang vom verlorenen Sohn (The Song of the Lost Son) 05:13
    Track
    4
    Title
    Der Gesang vom verlorenen Sohn (The Song of the Lost Son)
    Duration
    05:13
    Composer
    Edmund Nick
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  5. 5 Das Chanson fur Hochwohlgeborene (The Chanson for Those Who Are Born Better) 02:43
    Track
    5
    Title
    Das Chanson fur Hochwohlgeborene (The Chanson for Those Who Are Born Better)
    Duration
    02:43
    Composer
    Edmund Nick
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  6. 6 Der Song, "man musste wieder …" (The Song, "Once Again One Must … ") 03:59
    Track
    6
    Title
    Der Song, "man musste wieder …" (The Song, "Once Again One Must … ")
    Duration
    03:59
    Composer
    Edmund Nick
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  7. 7 In Cheider (In the Cheder) 05:46
    Track
    7
    Title
    In Cheider (In the Cheder)
    Duration
    05:46
    Composer
    Moshe Milner
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  8. 8 Avreml, der Marvikher (Abe, the Pickpocket) 05:12
    Track
    8
    Title
    Avreml, der Marvikher (Abe, the Pickpocket)
    Duration
    05:12
    Composer
    Mordecai Gebirtig
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  9. 9 Tif vi di Nacht (Deep as the Night) 03:07
    Track
    9
    Title
    Tif vi di Nacht (Deep as the Night)
    Duration
    03:07
    Composer
    Abraham Ellstein
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  10. 10 No. 1. Mariechen 01:49
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 1. Mariechen
    Duration
    01:49
    Composer
    Hanns Eisler
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  11. 11 No. 4. Kriegslied eines Kindes 02:32
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 4. Kriegslied eines Kindes
    Duration
    02:32
    Composer
    Hanns Eisler
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  12. 12 Heute zwischen Gestern und Morgen (Today between Yesterday and Tomorrow) 02:35
    Track
    12
    Title
    Heute zwischen Gestern und Morgen (Today between Yesterday and Tomorrow)
    Duration
    02:35
    Composer
    Hanns Eisler
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  13. 13 Bugerliche Wohltatigkeit (Civic Charity) 03:01
    Track
    13
    Title
    Bugerliche Wohltatigkeit (Civic Charity)
    Duration
    03:01
    Composer
    Hanns Eisler
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  14. 14 Zuckerbrot und Peitsche (Sweetbread and Whips) 02:20
    Track
    14
    Title
    Zuckerbrot und Peitsche (Sweetbread and Whips)
    Duration
    02:20
    Composer
    Hanns Eisler
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  15. 15 An den deutschen Mond (To the German Moon) 02:46
    Track
    15
    Title
    An den deutschen Mond (To the German Moon)
    Duration
    02:46
    Composer
    Hanns Eisler
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  16. 16 Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit (Unity and Justice and Freedom) 01:53
    Track
    16
    Title
    Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit (Unity and Justice and Freedom)
    Duration
    01:53
    Composer
    Hanns Eisler
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  17. 17 Couplet fur die Bier-Abteilung (Couplet for the Beer Department) 01:26
    Track
    17
    Title
    Couplet fur die Bier-Abteilung (Couplet for the Beer Department)
    Duration
    01:26
    Composer
    Hanns Eisler
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  18. 18 No. 1. The Little Birch 04:18
    Track
    18
    Title
    No. 1. The Little Birch
    Duration
    04:18
    Composer
    Viktor Ullmann
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  19. 19 No. 2. Little Margaret 01:37
    Track
    19
    Title
    No. 2. Little Margaret
    Duration
    01:37
    Composer
    Viktor Ullmann
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  20. 20 No. 3. I'm Already a Young Woman 01:30
    Track
    20
    Title
    No. 3. I'm Already a Young Woman
    Duration
    01:30
    Composer
    Viktor Ullmann
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  21. 21 Tauben vergiften (Poisoning Pigeons) 02:46
    Track
    21
    Title
    Tauben vergiften (Poisoning Pigeons)
    Duration
    02:46
    Composer
    Georg Kreisler
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  22. 22 Ich bin ein unverbesserlicher Optimist (I'm an Irrepressible Optimist) 03:46
    Track
    22
    Title
    Ich bin ein unverbesserlicher Optimist (I'm an Irrepressible Optimist)
    Duration
    03:46
    Composer
    Hermann Leopoldi, Robert Katscher
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  23. 23 Heute Nacht oder nie! 03:22
    Track
    23
    Title
    Heute Nacht oder nie!
    Duration
    03:22
    Composer
    Mischa Spoliansky
    Performer
    Stewart Figa
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  24. 24 Klabund: Marianka 02:32
    Track
    24
    Title
    Klabund: Marianka
    Duration
    02:32
    Composer
    Friedrich Hollaender
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society
  25. 25 Wenn der Mond, wenn der Mond (If the Moon, If The Moon) 03:00
    Track
    25
    Title
    Wenn der Mond, wenn der Mond (If the Moon, If The Moon)
    Duration
    03:00
    Composer
    Friedrich Hollaender
    Performer
    Julia Bentley
    Ensemble
    New Budapest Orpheum Society