Ernest Bloch - Israel Symphony; Schelomo (Maurice Abravanel; Zara Nelsova)

Information

Composer: Ernest Bloch

• Schelomo, Hebraic Rhapsody for cello & orchestra
• Israel Symphony

Zara Nelsova, cello

Blanche Christensen & Jean Basinger Fraenkel, sopranos

Christina Politis & Diane Heder, altos

Don Watts, bass

Utah Symphony Orchestra

Maurice Abravanel, conductor

Date: 1967

Label: Vanguard

-----------------------------------------------------------

Review

Schelomo receives its mead of barbarous splendour at the hands of Nelsova and Abravanel. The recording is a shade too warm but Nelsova (who recorded far too little) who studied the piece with the composer demonstrates her familiarity and sympathy with the piece. This is essential as Schelomo is one of those works that can easily seem nondescript if the artists involved are unengaged. In that sense it is rather like the Bax cello concerto (still awaiting its ideal exponent on disc). This is Nelsova's second, recording of the work (1). The feverish grip of the music is strongly asserted.

The Israel Symphony, like Schelomo, is a single movement although the work falls into sections each of which Vanguard have banded. It does not share the gaudy barbarity of Schelomo. I would place it in the company of the symphonies of Respighi (Drammatica) and Dohnanyi (1 and 2) or indeed Bloch's epic C Minor Symphony. He uses five solo voices in the finale and provided words only to give the voices syllables to sing rather than the usual vocalisations. In fact the score directs that the singers are to be placed among the orchestra. The music is less self-consciously Semitic than in Schelomo. Sidney Finkelstein's notes claim the splendour and turbulence of Biblical times. I hear none of that but there is no mistaking the concise excitement and generalised splendour (almost Mahlerian) of the Allegro agitato. The Symphony is not otherwise available.

This decently recorded disc is certainly well worth seeking out.

— Rob Barnett

-----------------------------------------------------------

Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer known for blending post-Romantic and neoclassical styles with Jewish musical themes. He studied in Switzerland and Belgium, taught at the Geneva Conservatory, and moved to the U.S. in 1916. Bloch became the first director of the Cleveland Institute of Music and later led the San Francisco Conservatory. He taught at UC Berkeley until retiring in 1952. Bloch's compositions, influenced by Debussy, Mahler, and Ravel, include Schelomo, Baal Shem, Avodath Hakodesh, Concerto Grosso No. 1, and Israel Symphony, among others.

***

Maurice Abravanel (January 6, 1903 – September 22, 1993) was a Greek-born American conductor of Portuguese Jewish descent. Initially studying medicine, he shifted to music and studied under Kurt Weill in Berlin. Abravanel conducted in Germany and Paris before debuting at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1936. He later worked on Broadway, winning a Tony in 1949. In 1947, he became music director of the Utah Symphony, a post he would hold for over 30 years. With the orchestra, Abravanel made over 100 recordings, including the first complete Mahler symphony cycle by an American conductor.

***

Zara Nelsova (December 23, 1918 – October 10, 2002) was a Canadian-American cellist of Jewish-Russian heritage. Born in Winnipeg, she began performing at age five and later studied in London with Herbert Walenn, receiving further guidance from Pablo Casals. She served as principal cellist of the Toronto Symphony during WWII. After moving to London in 1949, she championed contemporary composers like Bloch and Shostakovich. Nelsova was the first North American cellist to tour the Soviet Union in 1966. A Juilliard professor for 40 years, she performed and recorded on the 1726 "Marquis de Corberon" Stradivarius.

-----------------------------------------------------------