Jewish East

Description

After the critical success of their previous album “Jewish Vienna” (ONYX4253), the Munich Jewish Chamber Orchestra and its conductor, Daniel Grossmann, turn to the repertoire of two composers almost forgotten by history. One of them, Jozef Koffler, a Polish Jew, was captured with his wife and young son by German troops in Lviv in 1944, deported to the Wieliczka ghetto, and murdered by a member of the Einsatzgruppen near Krosno, where he had taken refuge with his family after the liquidation of the ghetto. Engel was born in Ukraine and moved to Palestine in 1924. He had difficulty adapting and his health deteriorated; he died in 1927. He made a major contribution to preserving the traditions of European Jewish music and, during his stay in Germany, moved in circles that included Heifetz, Godowsky and Piatigorsky. Persecuted throughout his life by the Soviet authorities, Weinberg has only recently been recognized as one of the major composers of the mid-20th century. Supported by Shostakovich, he was nevertheless arrested in 1953 and deported to the Lubyanka. Shostakovich played a decisive role in his release a few months later.