The cello has long been the instrument of the intense but modestly carried smart: see the swan of Saint-Saëns. At the same time, the instrument is increasingly associated with Jewish culture; to be precise, the almost lost pre-war culture of the Jewish minorities in Eastern Europe. Someone who undoubtedly contributed to this strong association (no documentary or film about the persecution of the
… Jews is complete without a piece of cello music somewhere) is the composer Ernest Bloch (1880-1959). The cello rhapsody Schelomo is his best-known work, but it is by no means the only one in which Bloch used the cello as a medium to present Jewish tradition and religion to a large audience. This CD contains some of those other works. These include the Méditation hébraïque, the suite From Jewish life and Baal Shem, which has the subtitle 'Three pictures of Chassidic life'. All these works were created in the years 1923/1924. They are nice and colorful works, although not always of equal quality, which in fact belong to the endless collection of character pieces with exotic (non-western) traits. This music is well performed here by cellist Peter Bruns and pianist Roglit Ishay. The former supplements the CD with three Suites for solo cello, also by Bloch. They were written in the years 1956/1957 and have a completely different atmosphere than the repertoire already discussed. Here a neoclassicist is speaking and the landmark not to be missed is Bach's cello solo repertoire. In terms of level, the suites differ little from the character pieces; it is fairly good music and many chamber music fans will enjoy listening to this CD. (JvG)more
