Sephardi Music > Reviews
The Sephardic Songbook
Concert at Central Synagogue, London, Sunday 19 March 2006, Monica Acosta and ensemble
Reviewed by Malcolm Miller
posted 22 May 2006
An enjoyable evening of inspiring Ladino music formed the climactic concert of the first season of Jewish Music Central, held at the Central Synagogue, Hallam Street W1 on 19 March 2006 . Over the last year JMC, an initiative launched by Cantor Steven Leas with the JMI under the leadership of Geraldine Auerbach, has hosted five hugely successful concerts of a wide variety of Jewish music, including two at the South Bank, a cantorial concert, a Holocaust Memorial Event and this concert, to mark the UK launch of The Sephardic Songbook (C.F. Peters, 2001, Nr 10849).
The evening began with a talk on the relationship of Peters Edition and Jewish Culture by Irene Lawford-Hinrischsen, of the family of the owners of Peters Edition, followed by a talk by Dr. Hilary Pomeroy, lecturer in Sephardi Studies, about the context of the songs in the collection. The climax of the event was a performance by soprano Monica Acosta, editor at Peters Edition, of a dozen of the exciting collection of 51 Ladino songs originally published in 2001 in Germany by Peters Frankfurt, and now newly available in the UK .
Irene Lawford-Hinrichsen, highlighted how, though founded by two Catholics in 1800, Peters was owned from the middle of the 19 th century by the Jewish publisher Max Abraham, and subsequently Heinrich Hinrichsen, whose great success as a music publisher in the first half of the 20 th century led to his contributions of the first ever Women’s College in Leipzig, and a musical instrument museum. He was barred from his own premises after 1933, though continued to publish music including Mendelssohn, Mahler and Schoenberg. During Kristallnacht the Leipzig shop was looted and all Mendelssohn scores were burned; the firm was Aryanized, and ironically continued publishing successfully in Germany . However, Heinrich and many members of his family were persecuted and perished in the Holocaust. Two of his sons survived, one founded Peters, New York and one founded Peters, London , his daughter being Irene Lawford-Hinrichsen. In 1991 she began to explore her family past and visited Leipzig , since when many monuments to her grandfather Heinrich’s memory have appeared, including street names and a commemorative statue. A full account of the remarkable tale of Peters and her family is told in her book Music Publishing and Patronage: CF Peters: 1800 to the Holocaust (Edition Press, 2000), published for the Bicentenary of Peters Edition.
Happily the beautifully presented collection testifies to admirable research by two leading ethnomusicologists and expert exponents of Jewish music: Aron Saltiel, born in Istanbul and based in Austria where is a member of various Yiddish and Ladino ensembles, and Joshua Horovitz, wide ranging scholar and director of the Klezmer group Budowitz. The anthology includes a list of ‘informants’ who supplied and sang and recorded the melodies, including many from various centres of the Ottoman Empire , Salonika , and Istanbul . In their very useful introductory notes, the authors highlight how the melodies are presented in a ‘representative’ form, meaning that in performance practice there are many variants due to improvisatory practice by the singers, and in recording them some variations occur due to local differences. Thus the melodies require interpretation through knowledge of style, which is discussed in some detail.
While it would also have been fascinating to have a follow up commentary with some historical context for the songs, and the provenance of the melodies, this was
the focus of the remarks by Dr. Hilary Pomeroy, who described the volume, pointing out that many of the texts are from the modern period, referring to events and ideas of the 20 th century, in contrast to the ancient pre Castilian Spanish ballads or Romanceros, some of which feature in her own recently published book: An Edition And Study of the Secular Ballads in the Sephardic Ballad Notebook of Halia Isaac Cohen (Lightning Source Inc ., 2005; ISBN 1588710254) . Indeed there are references to early Zionist ideas, to the fire of Salonika and to the tobacco factories. One of the intriguing and attractive aspects of the collection is the inclusion of some famous early texts set to unfamiliar melodies, such as ‘Abre tu puerta serrada’, ‘Durme durme, mi linda donzella’, and indeed there are some songs which, both as texts and melodies, are scarcely available anywhere, which gives the volume its significance.
The music spoke for itself in the expressive and eloquent selection by Monica Acosta clad in a colourful exotic dress and accompanied by her ensemble Mauricio Giordanelli and Steve Homes , guitars, and Ulises Diaz-Ropero percussion. Monica’s The Alhambra effect was enhanced by some atmospheric lighting by John Hill, This evoked the soundworld of the originals, where possibly Oud or Bouzouki would have been used, as well as a simple drumbeat. The authors point out that the modal and even microtonal qualities of some of the melodies make a modern harmonic arrangement problematic: the melodies are presented without any implication of accompaniment, which are left to the performer’s discretion and taste, though in several of the songs there are rhythmic patterns given. Sometimes the ensemble felt somewhat improvised and the choice of harmonies perhaps missing some aspects of the melody. Her singing was entirely in the style, with elegant focused tone, and delicate ornamentation, fluctuations of light and shade in the voice and impeccable diction in the Ladino texts. Though song texts were given it would have been useful to have some spoken introductions before the songs. The selection was well contrasted: the initial fast one followed by several slow songs, and alternating in mood, with plenty of zest and rhythmic energy. The unaccompanied songs were especially intense and expressive, while in each accompanied song, the guitar would improvise a stanza lending a unifying form to the collection. The set ended with the zestful ‘Dicho me habian dicho’, its highly contoured melody spiced with ornamental patterns.
The whole evening was a moving testimony both to the resilience of a music publisher renowned for the continued quality of its editions, as to the power of Jewish music to reach out and appeal to a wide, multi cultural musical community. With interest in world music across classical and popular genres, this collection will be of value for composers aiming to adapt and incorporate music from diverse sources, to specialist performers of Ladino song and to those looking for fascinating fusions.
