BESSARABIAN BALLADS AND MORE FROM MOLDOVA
When clarinetist German Goldenshteyn (pictured here) left his native Moldova behind, he brought with him to the United States a trunk full of klezmer songbooks and a mind brimming with the songs he played for years at weddings in Bessarabia and Ukraine. Goldenshteyn is himself a living bridge of the history of klezmer music, one connecting the pre- and postwar periods there. Here in the United States, too, he has sated the hunger of musicians for authentic Old World sounds. As part of an afternoon of “Moldovan Masters of Jewish Music” at Tonic, Goldenshteyn performs with fellow Moldavan Aron Gershman. Their set is followed by a rare appearance in New York by Yefim Chorny, visiting from Kishinev (now called Chisinau), who is that seldom-seen hybrid: a living Yiddish composer. For his latest project, Chorny sings the words of one of his Bessarabian landsmen — the late Yiddish poet Meir Charatz — which he has set to the melodies of traditional Jewish Moldavan songs.
Tonic, 107 Norfolk St.; March 9, Goldenshteyn 1:30 p.m., Chorny 3 p.m.; $10, $15 both sets. (212-358-7501 or www.tonicnyc.org)
