JOACHIM STUTSCHEWSKY (1891-1982): Klezmers’ Wedding Music for Piano Trio, Hassidic Fantasy for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Cello and Piano: Agada, Freilachs, Kinah, Hassidic Suite, Kaddish, Jolly Dance, Shir Yehudi, Israeli Melodies Nos. 1 and 6 (arr. Stutschewsky).

Description: A cellist born in Ukraine, Stutschewsky studied with Julius Klengel and graduated from the Leipzig Conservatory and, from 1924-38 lived in Vienna where he associated with members of the Second Viennese School while being drawn strongly toward the study of Jewish music and composition of the same. Three of his cello-and-piano pieces here date from that period while the remainder of the music on this disc dates from after his emigration to Palestine in 1938. Everything is based on actual eastern European Jewish folk music - cantorial, nigunim or freilachs - with the piano providing enough harmonic surprises to bring the music up to concert-piece standards. Musicians of the Pittsburgh Jewish Festival.