ALEXANDER KREIN: Chamber Music

Alexander Krein (1883–1951) was a member of a dynasty of Jewish musicians active in both Imperial and Soviet Russia. His compositions reveal the confluence of several strands of musical history: his Russian background, the transition from late Romanticism to early modernism – where the influence of Skryabin is readily audible – and, particularly in the works on this album, the Jewish folk-heritage, with its emotionally powerful blend of high spirits and melancholy.

David Krakauer, clarinet (Tracks 1 – 3, 18 – 19)
Noah Bendix-Balgley, violin (Tracks 5 – 10, 12 – 16)
Aron Zelkowicz, cello (Tracks 1 – 4, 6, 11, 17 – 19)
Rodrigo Ojeda, piano (Tracks 5 – 17)
Musicians of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival
Jennifer Orchard, violin (Tracks 1 – 3, 18 – 19)
Dennis O’Boyle, violin (Tracks 1 – 3, 18 – 19)
Marylène Gingras-Roy, viola (Tracks 1 – 3)
Mikhail Istomin, cello (Track 4)
Michael Lipman, cello (Track 4)
David Premo, cello (Track 4)

Listen To This Recording:

    Jewish Sketches No. 1, Op. 12, for clarinet and string quartet (1909)

  1. I Lento – Più mosso
  2. II Andante con anima – Allegretto grazioso
  3. III Allegro moderato
  4. Lyric Fragment, Op. 1a, for four cellos (publ. 1901)**

  5. Lyric Fragment, Op. 1a, for four cellos
  6. Caprice hébraïque, Op. 24, for violin and piano (1917)

  7. Caprice hébraïque, Op. 24, for violin and piano
  8. Elegy, Op. 16, for violin, cello and piano (1913)

  9. Elegy, Op. 16, for violin, cello and piano
  10. Aria, Op. 41, for violin and piano (1927)

  11. Aria, Op. 41, for violin and piano
  12. Three Ornaments, Op. 42, for violin and piano (1924–27)***

  13. No. 1
  14. No. 2
  15. No. 3
  16. Jewish Melody, Op. 43, for cello and piano (1927)

  17. Jewish Melody, Op. 43, for cello and piano
  18. Dances, Op. 50, for piano (1937), arr. Bendix-Balgley***/Heifetz for violin and piano (1941/2018)

  19. No. 2 Andantino non troppo
  20. No. 4 Allegretto
  21. No. 5 Allegro non troppo
  22. No. 6 Andantino grazioso
  23. No. 10 Vivo
  24. Poème, Op. 10, for cello and piano (1907–10)*

  25. Poème, Op. 10, for cello and piano
  26. Jewish Sketches No. 2, Op. 13, for clarinet and string quartet (1910)

  27. I Andante con moto
  28. II Allegro non troppo

* FIRST RECORDING
** LIVE RECORDING
*** FIRST RECORDING OF THIS VERSION

1 review for ALEXANDER KREIN: Chamber Music

  1. :

    This is clearly a dedicated project with a number of the excellent performers drawn from the ranks of the Pittsburgh Symphony. One of the other leading players is clarinetist David Krakauer.’

    —Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

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