Sveta Kundish & Patrick Farrell / נעם מיין ווארט (Take my words)
Sveta Kundish & Patrick Farrell / נעם מיין ווארט (Take my words), 2022
Available from Oriente and better digital and cd shops everywhere.
Sveta Kundish has a voice that takes my breath away. These settings of the four poems each, by three poets: two women and one man, are knock your socks off beautiful. Powerful. The musical settings, by Patrick Farrell, blow my mind in their power and beauty. I don't know if it is in the selection of amazing material, Kundish's voice, Farrell's perfect accompaniment and counterpoint, or magic. But they have made these poems speak to a reviewer who knows far too little Yiddish: "Who has seen / how two branches kiss one another? / A love like this is not to be found. / The happy wind / whispers to the dawn / that all should grow still...." ("Who has seen", by Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim, who began writing in the Kaiserwald concentration camp and passed away in Israel just last year).
There are three suites, each consisting of four poems that work together, and recorded, with different instrumentations, in three cities (Washington, DC; Vienna; Berlin). I say, "art song," but there is much more here. Kundish, who serves as a Cantor in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony (first female cantor in the region), is conservatory trained, in addition to her Jewish music expertise. Farrell, formerly of New Orleans and thence NYC until he moved to Germany a few years ago, is also an alum of KlezKanada and will be familiar to long-time listeners of Michael Winograd's and Dan Kahn's various bands - as well as fans of Ben Holmes' jazz recordings.
The poet Basman Ben-Hayim is new to me. Celia Dropkin, on the other hand, was revealed to me several years ago by the late Jewlia Eisenberg, who also set Dropkin's poetry to music. I eagerly read Dropkin's passionate, earthy poems and short stories with pleasure. (It will come as no surprise the in her lifetime, Dropkin was less accepted by the guys, or the Yiddish establishment.) Her contemporary, Avrom Reyzen, of course, is known to all. Two women and one man. Four poems each. There are so many times, starting with the opening "A Nesiye" (a journey) that I must stop what I am doing and simply listen. At times, Kundish's voice reminds me of Kate Bush or Judith Berkson (another cantor who does significant avant-garde and art song music). And, some of these songs are dangerous. Do we hear the self-sacrifice of Dropkin's "I sing you" differently today? In this singing a century later, I think that Dropkin was quite conscious of the danger, courageously calling it out. In my mind, in her free-spiritedness, Dropkin was the Emma Goldman of Yiddish poets (which may say more about my lack of knowledge of both, or simply note two women of that time who danced as they led their own lives).
As I said earlier, Avrom Reyzen, was one of the giant's of Yiddish literature nof the last century. The poems in his suite are less personal than those of Dropkin or Basman Ben-Hayim, but, despite being recorded prior to the covid pandemic, as Kundish and Farrell write in the liner notes, so very appropriate in this time of plague, offering beauty, hope, and compassion. "If the whole world were suffering / and only I myself were well / then I would invite the whole world / into my home...."
The miracle of this recording is how well voice and accordion speak to the poetry, making it live. Kundish joins a rare group of modern Yiddish singers who not only remind us that Yiddish is alive, but that it is wonderful that it is alive, and poets continue to write in it, singers continue to sing it, and musicians continue to play it. I also commend the thought that went into the Yiddish typography and liner notes layout. This is just a beautiful recording.
Reviewed by Ari Davidow, 14 January 2024
Personnel this recording:
Sveta Kundish:: vocals
Patrick Farrell: accordion and piano
with
Benjy Fox-Rosen: contrabass [5-8] and vocals [5]
Jordan Sand: contrabass [9-12]
Hampus Melin: drums [9-12]
Song Titles
- A nesiye—A journey (4:09)
- Ver hot gezen—Who has seen (3:59)
- Un vider—And again (2:59)
- Tsu a fraynd—To a friend (4:21)
- A viglid—A lullaby (3:15)
- Ikh vel kushn di erd—I will kiss the ground (3:17)
- Mayn gast—My guest (4:03)
- Zing ikh tsu dir—I sing you (4:32)
- In same mit…—In the very center (2:32)
- Kol-zman—As long as (4:16)
- Ikh un di velt—The world and I (5:04)
- Di frilings-zun—The spring sun (7:30)
from the poetry of Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim
from the poetry of Celia Dropkin
from the poetry of Avrom Reyzen—"Ikh un di velt" suite
All music written by Patrick Farrell
