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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Powerful choral tone poem of the Jewish Ghetto, 25 Jul 2006
This is a World Premiere recording of Max Helfman's Di Naye Hagode (The New Haggada), composed in 1948, and is a choral interpretation of an epic poem by Yiddish poet Itsik Fefer about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, `Di shotns fun varshever geto' (The Shadows of the Warsaw Ghetto). The Haggada is the biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt which Jews are required to retell every year. So too, did Fefer want Jews to retell the tragic tale of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising to honour the victims of Nazi persecution. Di Naye Hagode focuses on the physical act of Jewish armed heroism against evil. This work celebrates the fact that, under certain death, the Jewish ghetto fighters took their fates into their own hands. Di Naye Hagode is interwoven with narrated text of Fefer's poem translated into English, which recounts the horrors of the ghetto. The text is narrated by Theodore Bikel, the famed Jewish actor and folksinger, most known for his work in The Sound of Music and Fiddler on the Roof. The narration begins with an image of the night the Jews were forced into the Warsaw Ghetto.
Max Helfman was a talented composer of religious, choral and classical music, but had his most long lasting effect as an educator. He was not one of the most prolific composers, partly because he could never quite determine his own artistic priorities and partly because in many ways he was first and foremost a pedagogue who devoted his time and energy to his work with youth and to lecturing. He continually allowed his passion for choral organizing and conducting to take precedence over composing.
This is an extraordinary powerful work, even if you do not subscribe to the Jewish religion. The beautiful and powerful choral arrangements, sung by the Los Angeles Zimriyah Chorale and the Choral Society of Southern California, as well as the music by the YMF Debut Orchestra, intensify the somber text of the narration, and succeed in providing a moving and lasting impression of lost childhood and persecution.
The recording is completed with two other pieces by Max Helfman, Festival of First Fruits - A Pageant for Shavuot and excepts from The Holy Ark (Torah Service)
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