Gil Shaham releases “Nigunim,” his new Jewish violin album, June 25

Grammy and Avery Fisher Prize-winner Gil Shaham returns to his roots with Nigunim: Hebrew Melodies, an album of Jewish and Jewish-themed music for violin and piano. Recorded with his sister and frequent musical partner, Orli Shaham (hailed by the New York Times as a “brilliant pianist”), the new disc is due for release on the violinist’s own Canary Classics label on May 28 and will be available for digital download in April. Alongside the world-premiere recording of the title track – which was written for the Shahams by Israeli composer Avner Dorman – Nigunim presents classics of the genre from Ernest Bloch, Joseph Achron, Josef Bonime, and Leo Zeitlin, as well as the suite from John Williams’s film score to Schindler’s List. Additionally, on April 15, New Yorkers will be able to sample live selections from the Shahams’ program at a special event in the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WQXR, which will stream live as a video webcast to viewers worldwide on WQXR.org.
 
Serving as their new album’s centerpiece is the Shahams’ world-premiere recording of Avner Dorman’s Nigunim (2011), which they co-commissioned. The composer explains the genesis of his new work:

“The Nigun is a fundamental musical concept of traditional Jewish music. According to Habbad literature, the Nigun serves as a universal language; it ascends beyond words and conveys a deeper spiritual message than words can; a Nigun sung in Yiddish will reach and affect someone who only speaks Arabic and vice versa. … I found that there are some common musical elements to North African Jewish cantillations, Central Asian Jewish wedding songs, Klezmer music, and Ashkenazi prayers. Though I did not use any existing Jewish melodies for Nigunim, the main modes and melodic gestures of the piece are drawn from these common elements.”
 
Dorman’s composition shares the universal appeal of the wordless melodies for which it was named. “He has created a masterpiece, and in my experience everybody who hears the piece falls in love with it – they’re electrified by it,” Gil Shaham explains. Indeed, when he recently toured the work, San Diego Today affirmed that “it was hard to miss [its] visceral excitement and structural elegance,” while the Boston Globe admired its “uncommonly intriguing sounds,” and found “one wistful, treacherous passage…especially lovely.”
 
When the Shaham siblings first premiered Nigunim at New York’s 92nd Street Y, the New York Times admired their “dynamic performance,” adding:
 
“Mr. Shaham plunged into the virtuosic thickets of the Scherzo with aplomb, revealing its improvisatory melodies with flair. The concluding Presto unfolded in a kaleidoscopic blaze, a frenzy of jazzy rhythms and explosive energy.”
 
The new album also presents earlier masterpieces by Ernest Bloch (1880-1959), Joseph Achron (1886-1943), Leo Zeitlin (1884-1930), and Josef Bonime (1891-1959). As their idiomatic writing for the instrument might suggest, Bloch, Achron, and Zeitlin all started their musical lives as child prodigy violinists. After the 92nd Street Y duo recital, the New York Times observed: “The Shahams were equally convincing with more traditional Jewish music, including a ‘Hebrew Lullaby,’ ‘Hebrew Melody,’ and ‘Hebrew Dance’ by Joseph Achron. They also offered beautifully wrought interpretations of [works including] Bloch’s Baal Shem.”
 
The most important film composer of recent decades, John Williams won his fifth Academy Award with the score to Schindler’s List. Although he is the only composer represented on the new album who does not share the Shahams’ Jewish heritage, his mastery of the material is such that, according to Orli, “he has absolutely captured the feeling of ghetto life and what that looked like and how people interacted – the pieces from Schindler’s List are so authentic that they are really just a part of this tradition.” The composer has gone on record as admiring Gil Shaham’s “gargantuan talent,” and after the siblings’ rendition of the Three Pieces from Schindler’s List, the New York Times reported that “Mr. Shaham’s lush tone did full justice to the suite from John Williams’s score.”
 
Jewish repertoire has always played an integral part in Gil Shaham’s life; as he recalls, like any young Jewish violinist, he grew up playing Achron’s Hebrew Melody, works by Bloch, and the like. Such music vividly evokes its troubled origins. “When I think about the time, people lived such hard lives in such poverty in the shtetl, and I think the literature and the music was an incredible escape for them,” the violinist reflects, confessing: “It’s hard for me to hear the music without seeing that ghetto in my mind.” Yet the Hebrew melodies’ potency is such that they transcend the world from which they sprang. “One very powerful aspect of this music is its soulfulness,” Orli Shaham says. “I don’t care what background you come from, I don’t think you can listen to it without feeling that connection.” Her brother concludes: “As Jews we are very lucky to have this rich musical heritage.”
 
The siblings’ musical partnership is a lifelong one. The violinist recounts: “Orli and I used to play together at home when we were kids, but we didn’t give concerts together until we were in our 20s. We avoided that for a long time because we were afraid it would look a bit too much like Donny and Marie Osmond! But finally we tried – and we loved it.” Their collaborations take in two previous Canary Classics recordings, The Prokofiev Album and Mozart in Paris; a recording for Deutsche Grammophon titled Dvorák for Two; and numerous live concert appearances. As the Washington Post observes, “The ESP of their musical collaboration, unbroken since early childhood, is a delight to watch.” After a performance in Cleveland, the city’s The Plain Dealer was similarly impressed, reporting:
 
“The violinist…was in characteristic polished, warm and virtuosic form. Ditto his sister, a pianist whose clarity and elastic phrasing complements her brother’s musical personality. An air of equality pervaded Tuesday’s concert. Neither Shaham dominated. They deferred to one another when necessary and made sure that shared material sounded crucial.”
 
On April 15, the violinist and his sister will appear together again – in conversation and in performance – at a special Nigunim event presented by WQXR. This will take place at the station’s performance studio, the Greene Space, in downtown Manhattan, and will be presented as a live video webcast on WQXR.org at 7pm. Tickets and further information can be found at www.greenespace.org.
 
Nigunim’s program is provided below, and additional information about Gil Shaham is available at his new website, www.gilshaham.com.
 
 
Gil and Orli Shaham
Nigunim: Hebrew Melodies
Label: Canary Classics
Release date: June 25, 2013
Digital downloads: available in April
 
Josef Bonime (1891-1959): Danse hebraïque
Joseph Achron (1886-1943): Hebrew Melody, Op. 33
Avner Dorman (b.1975): Nigunim (Violin Sonata No.3) [world premiere recording]Joseph Achron (1886-1943): Two Hebrew Pieces, Op. 35
   (i) “Hebrew Lullaby”
   (ii) “Hebrew Dance”
John Williams (b.1932): Three Pieces from Schindler’s List
   (i) “Theme from Schindler’s List”
   (ii) “Jewish Town (Krakow Ghetto – Winter ’41)”
   (iii) “Remembrances”
Leo Zeitlin (1884-1930), trans. Joseph Achron: Eli Zion
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959): Baal Shem – Three Pictures of Chassidic Life
   (i) “Vidui” (Contrition)
   (ii) “Nigun” (Improvisation)
   (iii) “Simchas Torah” (Rejoicing)
 
 
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© 21C Media Group, March 2013