NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- Legendary violinist Itzhak
Perlman and renowned cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot join forces for a
musical exploration of liturgical and traditional works in new
arrangements for both chamber orchestra and klezmer settings on
THIRTEEN's Great Performances, airing Thursday, August 28 at 9
p.m. on PBS. (Check local listings.) (In New York,
THIRTEEN will air the program Sunday,
September 21 at 7 p.m.)
The music of Rejoice with Itzhak
Perlman and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot showcases
the confluence between the violinist's famed classical technique
and Helfgot's magnificent voice, and is the result of a mutual
admiration society. "It was a dream to someday sing with him,"
remarks Helfgot. "And now the dream has become real." Also
featuring reminiscences by Elie
Wiesel, Joel Grey,
and Neil Sedaka, the program
is directed by Joshua
Waletzky, whose earlier collaboration with Perlman,
In the Fiddler's House, won a Primetime Emmy in 1995.
For Perlman, the collaboration represents "the completion of a
cycle" of accompanying three great voices—Placido Domingo, Luciano
Pavarotti, and now Helfgot, who serves as Chief Cantor at
Manhattan's Park East Synagogue.
The special also represents for him, "the fulfillment of a dream."
Perlman and Helfgot recently collaborated in a couple of
show-stopping performances featured in Great Performances
40th Anniversary Celebration. In Rejoice
with Itzhak Perlman and Cantor
Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, these two incomparable virtuosos
unite for an evening of cantorial masterpieces, Yiddish folk and
theater tunes, Hassidic melodies, and klezmer instrumentals.
Joined at the piano by music director Dr. Hankus Netsky (Chair
of Boston's New England
Conservatory Improvisation Department), Netsky's Klezmer
Conservatory Band, and the Rejoice Chamber Orchestra under the
direction of conductor Russell Ger,
Perlman and Helfgot present a program of songs that are alternately
joyful and intensely moving, but always concluding with a buoyant
climax.
Between numbers, Perlman provides elucidating and historical
commentary, humorously interacting with Netsky, Helfgot and the
audience.
It's a varied program, ranging from Jack
Yellen and Lou Pollack's "A
Yidishe Mame" (immortalized by the legendary Sophie Tucker) to Shlomo Carlbach ("The Singing
Rabbi")'s "Adir Hu" and Cantor
Israel Schorr's "Sheyibone Beys Hamikdosh," which has become the
most popular melody written for a Jewish liturgical text.
Khazones (cantorial music) comprises the original
repertoire of the traditional Eastern-European Jewish prayer
leader. Born of a culture whose primary theater was the
religious sanctuary, the cantorial art focuses on texts that
express both a deep longing for a return to a homeland and a
powerful glorification of all that is divine.
"It's roots music – big-time roots music," Netsky
explains. "It's Romanian, Ukrainian, Russian and gypsy-influenced
folk music with a very strong Jewish accent – as if it's a Jewish
prayer. I liken it to the blues…It has just the right amount of
happy and sad – laughter through tears."
By the 1700s, khazones had spawned a florid vocal style
that caught the attention of the most sophisticated composers and
performers of that time. Cantorial music continued to develop
through the middle of the 20th century, when extraordinary tenors
including Jan Peerce and
Richard Tucker made the transition
from the synagogues of Brooklyn to
the Metropolitan Opera.
The concert's full musical program is as follows:
Yism'Khu (They Shall Rejoice)
Rumenische Doyne (Romanian Doina)
Shoyfer Shel Moshiakh (Ram's Horn Of The Messiah)
A Dudele (A Song To You)
Sheyibone Beys Hamikdosh (May The Holy Temple Be Rebuilt)
A Yidishe Mame (A Jewish Mother)
Adir Hu/Moyshe Emes (Mighty Is
He/Moses Is True)
Yism'Khu (closer)
In the folksong, "A Dudele" (A Song To You) the legendary
Hassidic Rabbi Levi Yizchok of Berditchev (Ukraine), ponders the intimate nature of his
relationship with the Master of the Universe. "Everything I do,
everywhere I go, you are with me."
"Rumenische Doyne," an actual traditional shepherd's lament,
follows and reminds us just how closely the music of the cantor and
klezmer (traditional Jewish folk instrumentalist) are linked.
"Yism'Khu" (Rejoice) embodies the theme of exultation, as it
appears in the liturgy of the Sabbath, the day of rest. A
traditional Hassidic-style setting based on a klezmer rendition by
the great clarinetist Shloimke Beckerman, leads into a spirited
dance tune. "Sheyibone Beys Hamikdosh" (May The Temple Be Rebuilt),
based on a meditation that observant Jews express in the Amidah
prayer three times each day, shows how a fairly simple folk melody
can spawn an elaborate composition.
Rejoice with Itzhak Perlman
and Cantor Yitzchak Meier Helfgot will be released on DVD
by C Major Entertainment, distributed by Naxos of America.
Rejoice with Itzhak Perlman
and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot is produced by THIRTEEN
Productions LLC for WNET. Directed by Joshua Waletzky, the sets are by David Korins
with lighting by Ken Billington.
For Great Performances, John Walker, Mitch
Owgang and Richard R.
Schilling are producers, Phil
Hack is line producer and David
Frost is audio producer; Bill
O'Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer.
Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond
Fund, The Starr Foundation, Jody and John
Arnhold, The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Agnes
Varis Trust, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, and PBS.
Visit Great Performances Online at
www.pbs.org/gperf for additional information about this and
other programs.
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