NIGUNIM (HEBREW MELODIES) - GIL & ORLI SHAHAM

Avner Dorman composer

Jewish folk music has always played an integral part in Gil and Orli Shahams' lives. This release includes masterpieces by Ernest Bloch, Joseph Achron, and Leo Zeitlin, and as their idiomatic writing for the violin suggests, they all started their musical lives as child prodigy violinists. Also included is music from the wonderful Schindler's List score by John Williams.

The centrepiece of this release comes from the work sharing the album's title Nigunim, commissioned by Gil and Orli from Israeli composer Avner Dorman. Dorman's composition shares the universal appeal of the wordless melodies on 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 explains. Indeed, when he recently toured the work, San Diego Today affirmed that 'it was hard to miss [its] visceral excitement and structural elegance,' the Boston Globe admiring the 'uncommonly intriguing sounds'.

JOSEF BONIME Danse hebraïque

JOSEPH ACHRON Hebrew Melody Op.33

AVNER DORMAN Nigunim (Violin Sonata No.3) i Adagio religioso
AVNER DORMAN Nigunim (Violin Sonata No.3) ii Scherzo
AVNER DORMAN Nigunim (Violin Sonata No.3) iii Adagio
AVNER DORMAN Nigunim (Violin Sonata No.3) iv Presto

JOSEPH ACHRON Hebrew Lullaby
JOSEPH ACHRON Hebrew Dance

JOHN WILLIAMS Three Pieces from Schindler's List - Theme from 'Schindler’s List', Slowly
JOHN WILLIAMS Three Pieces from Schindler's List - Jewish Town (Krakow Ghetto, Winter ’41), Andante
JOHN WILLIAMS Three Pieces from Schindler's List - Remembrances, Moderato

LEO ZEITLIN (TRANS. J. ACHRON) Eli Zion

ERNEST BLOCH Baal Shem - Vidui (Contrition) Un poco lento
ERNEST BLOCH Baal Shem - Nigun (Improvization) Adagio non troppo
ERNEST BLOCH Baal Shem - Simchas Torah (Rejoicing) Allegro giocoso poco lento