Mayn Shprach: Yiddish Art Songs by Lazar Weiner
“Mayn Shprach: Yiddish Arts Songs by Lazar Weiner” is an album recorded by bass-baritone Mikhail Smigelski and pianist Jeanne Hourez, released via Ladoga Records. Lazar Weiner (1897-1982), an American composer of Jewish-Ukrainian descent, was the most prominent creator of classical music in Yiddish. Weiner instinctively understood and interpreted the nuances, tonality, inflections, accentuations, spoken rhythms, and idioms of this language. This album pays homage to this undeservedly forgotten composer and the Yiddish language, which was once among the most widely spoken languages in Europe but has nearly disappeared today.
Creator Commentary
I discovered Weiner’s music when I was putting together a recital program called “The Great Russian Americans.” This program featured art songs of composers who were born in imperial Russia or the Soviet Union and at some point in their life immigrated to the USA. Although the main focus of the program was the music of Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, and Grechaninov, I also started looking for less well-known names, and that’s how I discovered Lazar Weiner. I included a few of his songs in that program and decided that one of my next projects should be recording and performing these rare masterpieces. Another thing that made me especially interested in this music is the fact that Yiddish is a part of my family history: It was the native language of my great-grandmother and great-grandfather on my mother’s side. Even for people who are familiar with Yiddish music and culture, the term “Yiddish song” is mostly associated with folk songs and with songs from theater plays, musicals, and similar entertainment-oriented genres. The Yiddish art song genre, however, is a true legitimate counterpart to the Western canon of art song for voice and piano, featuring its common traits: serious original poetry as well as equally important and often elaborate vocal and piano parts. In his songs, Weiner used texts from dozens of Yiddish poets, from acclaimed ones such as Avrom Sutzkever, H. Leivik, and Jacob Glatstein to lesser-known ones such as Rachel Zychlinska and Joseph Papernikov. The texts cover a very broad range of topics: immigration, love, loss, depression, Jewish spirituality, nature, language, and more. It looks like Weiner treated art songs as a means for expression of ever-changing daily reality; that is why his choice of poetry is so eclectic and sometimes even seems almost random. The musical style of his songs is also very different, and that’s what makes them particularly interesting. Weiner obviously followed all the tendencies and novelties of 20th-century classical music; he was not afraid to experiment, and his songs reflect that. Some of them are written in folk style, some seem Neoclassical in style, and some employ quite dissonant harmonies and elaborate melodic structures, almost on the edge of atonality.
About the Artist
Bass-baritone Mikhail Smigelski boasts a versatile career spanning opera, oratorio, early music, musical theatre, and contemporary works. With performances at prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, and Moscow’s Philharmonia, Smigelski has collaborated with esteemed opera and concert companies worldwide. His extensive repertoire encompasses over 30 operatic roles and more than 100 art songs in Russian, German, Italian, French, Polish, Czech, and Yiddish. Dr. Smigelski is a Lecturer in Voice at the UT Austin Butler School of Music. Pianist Jeanne Hourez began her solo career at the age of 12, which has eventually taken her to esteemed stages and festivals across Europe, North America, and Asia. Her deep musicality and captivating interpretations have garnered her numerous accolades, including Gold Prizes at the London Young Musician Competition and top honors at the International Piano Competition Alain Marinaro. Ms. Hourez is a doctoral candidate at the UT Austin Butler School of Music.
Credited Artists
Mikhail Smigelski, bass-baritone. www.msmigelski.com
Jeanne Hourez, piano. www.jeannehourez.com
Lazar Weiner (1897-1982), composer