Forward.com

Ignaz Friedman: Great Jewish Pianist

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:10:00 EST

The Polish Jewish pianist Ignaz Friedman may not be a household name, but his majestic artistry, honored by a brilliantly researched new biography, “Ignaz Friedman: Romantic Master Pianist” makes him of urgent interest to anyone who loves piano music.

Anything You Can Do

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:23:00 EST

In jazz terminology, it’s known as “call and response”: The trumpet section plays a few notes, which are answered immediately by the saxophones. Or, a soloist will give out with a four-bar phrase and then hear it echoed back at him by the full ensemble. Call and response is as essential to big band swing as the idea of “theme and variations” is to classical music.

Asher Roth Raps Suburbia, Campus Life

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:26:00 EST

Success has been easy for Asher Roth, but respect is proving more elusive. A 21st century MySpace star, Roth owes his success almost entirely to the Internet. Hailing from suburban Morrisville, Pa., Roth — and his educated flow, was first discovered on MySpace by the producer Steve Rifkind. Without a song on radio or a video on TV, Roth had a widget of his infectious song “I Love College” downloaded 2.7 million times.

Pale Dreadlock Sabra

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:12:00 EST

The idea that Raichel would become a de facto ambassador of Ethiopian music to Israel seems somewhat incongruous. The fact that he’s taken that role one step further to become an ambassador of Israeli music to the world, in contrast, seems comparatively logical.

Arthur Laurents: Broadway’s Last Ferocious Man Opens a New Version of 'West Side Story'

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:38:00 EST

In a showbiz world, where backbiting and hissy fits are a way of life, Arthur Laurents, who has directed a revival of “West Side Story” that opens on March 19 on Broadway, stands apart. Laurents, who wrote the original book of “West Side Story,” among many other plays and screenplays, will be 92 on Bastille Day (July 14), but he is no patriarch in the sere and yellow leaf.

Felix Mendelssohn: Music That ‘Keeps Working’

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:12:00 EST

Felix Mendelssohn was still alive when the New York Philharmonic was founded in 1842. “He most certainly influenced our orchestra from its inception,” Philharmonic archivist Barbara Haws told the Forward. “Our very first program featured Mendelssohn. In fact, before his death in 1848, a total of six Mendelssohn works were performed in our first 14 concerts. And we gave the U.S. premieres of most of Mendelssohn’s works, like the Violin Concerto.”

Leonard Cohen: Ambiguous Hallelujahs

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:43:00 EST

On February 19, famed Canadian Jewish singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, 74, will be performing his first New York concert in more than 15 years.

Murray Perahia: An Eternal Sephardic Jewish Recital

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:00:00 EST

A New York native who relocated to London a couple of decades ago, pianist Murray Perahia is about to launch his latest American recital tour. At 61, Perahia remains a lifelong student with a quest for emotional depth that has expanded steadily over the years. Unlike other pianists who merely record Beethoven, he is preparing his own edition of the sonatas and has always claimed that music’s spiritual challenges far outweigh any technical obstacles.

Treasuring Felix, Embodying Moses’ Enlightenment in Music

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:39:00 EST

Why do we still feel the need to defend Felix Mendelssohn even in this, the bicentennial year of his birth? In his all too brief lifetime, he was deeply appreciated as the musician most admired by other musicians: as a person, as a colleague, as a performer, but especially as a composer. Mendelssohn was perhaps the greatest musical prodigy who ever lived (Mozart was still imitating others at an age when Mendelssohn was already composing mature masterpieces). In his 38 years, he wrote a huge body of major works that have never disappeared from concert stages.

Inner Fire, Outer Ice: The Willful Magic of János Starker

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:43:00 EST

Legend portrays some Hungarian-Jewish musicians as belligerent extroverts, like the late conductors Georg Solti, nicknamed “the screaming skull” by his Chicago Symphony musicians, and George Szell, dubbed “Doctor Cyclops” by his Cleveland Orchestra ensemble. Yet, the mighty cellist János Starker, born in 1924 to a Hungarian-Jewish family in Budapest, has always looked impassive, in total control, when performing.

A Euphonic Union of Klezmer and Punk

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:30:00 EST

Scattered about T.T. the Bear’s, a hole-in-the-wall club in Cambridge, Mass., were plastic dreidels, bags of chocolate gelt and jelly-filled donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts. It was a feeble attempt to play up the show’s Hanukkah theme, and as demonstrated by a performance by the band Golem that had the audience dancing a dervish-like hora, it was probably unnecessary.

It's Rosenberg vs. Goldberg in Cleveland

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:55:00 EST

It’s Rosenberg vs. Goldberg, and the world of classical music criticism is trembling. The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s classical music critic Donald Rosenberg filed suit this month, several weeks after he was taken the Cleveland Orchestra beat after writing about the ensemble for 18 years. Rosenberg’s suit names the newspaper and the Musical Arts Association, which runs the orchestra, as defendants. Also named are Plain Dealer editor Susan Goldberg and some of the orchestra’s directors. Goldberg has been quoted stating that Rosenberg’s job transfer is an “internal personnel matter,” yet the controversy, taken up by journalists and bloggers, has become highly external and even angrily vehement.

Shtick and Awe: Daniel Barenboim in New York

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:39:00 EST

You’d think Godzilla, or at least an enemy flotilla, had stormed the gates of the city, the way the media has trumpeted the news; the Financial Times announces, “Daniel Barenboim has invaded New York.” The 66-year-old pianist-conductor, born in Buenos Aires to a family of Russian Ashkenazic Jews who later immigrated to Israel, is definitely in town.

The Teapacks Push the Envelope

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:49:00 EST

This past May, the Teapacks were eliminated in the semifinals of the Eurovision song competition along with bands representing 17 other countries. Their elimination capped a months-long saga in which pop music collided with geopolitics, garnering international headlines for the six-member, ska-inflected, band originally hailing from the now-embattled Israeli town of Sderot.

What Does Gay, Jewish R&B Sound Like?

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:25:00 EST

What does an openly gay, Jewish R&B singer sound like? Thanks to Ari Gold, a formerly Orthodox kid out of the Bronx, the question isn’t speculative. On his newest album, “Transport Systems,” out this week, he answers that an openly gay, Jewish R&B singer sounds much like any good R&B phenom: a sexy, honey-tinged voice and lyrics about falling in love.

D.J. Without Borders

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:42:00 EST

Sam Hopkins, aka DJ Balagan (Balagan is Hebrew for tumult), is a mixer, drummer and producer. His newest album, “Funny Accent,” is a mix tape in the most classic sense. Rather than simply sample older songs for his own aggrandizement, Hopkins removes himself from the process — acting more like a museum curator than an artist. The result is one of the most fascinating documents of 2007. Funny Accent is the statement of a fan toting around a crate of LPs, and in the process of showing them off, Hopkins tells the story of a Jewish musical history.

Death Metal for a ‘Dying Language’

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:42:00 EST

In his 1978 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Isaac Bashevis Singer said: “Yiddish may be a dying language, but it is the only language I know well. Yiddish is my mother language and a mother is never really dead.”

A ‘-palooza’ for the Rest of Us

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:36:00 EST

What can you say about a Jewish music festival that rounds up nine eclectic musical acts, puts them on the same 9-hour bill and then holds the festival the Sunday before Rosh Hashanah? Ambitious, to say the least. When you attract over a thousand people to a festival that combines the Do-It-Yourself aesthetic of the Warped Tour and the oy-vey aesthetic of New York Judaism, your event is an unqualified success. When dusk fell on Riverside Park, against the backdrop of hundreds of bodies swaying, a single yarmulke was lifted into the air like a lighter, and it was clear that Michael Dorf and his Oyhoo Festival achieved something far more elusive with Jewzapalooza: They had put together Jewish concert that spoke to the zeitgeist.

Shining Light on Celan’s Dark Words

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:34:00 EST

What do you do after pioneering Barbez, a combination Slavic cabaret and Jewish New York punk band? If you’re Dan Kaufman, Barbez’s frontman, you set aside anything pop-oriented or melody-bound and fling yourself over the avant-garde bridge. “Force of Light,” a series of compositions reinterpreting Paul Celan’s poetry, makes no effort to be listener-friendly.

Northern State’s Rap Against J.A.P.

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:05:00 EST

Young Jeezy may prefer Cristal and Northern State may “enjoy a lemonade spritzer with Eliot Spitzer,” but outside of alcohol choices, stereotypes concerning hip-hop stars and J.A.P.’s are surprisingly similar. That theme is one that concerns Northern State, a trio of female rappers from Long Island (two of whom are Jewish). Instead of dwelling on the racial and sexual implications of that dichotomy though, Northern State play it for humor. “You have a sweat suit and you’re dripping in diamonds/Tell me are you a rapper or a mom from Long Island?” Hesta Prynn (aka Julie Potash) rhymes in a deliciously bratty cadence on the group’s new album “Can I Keep This Pen?”