Beyond Recall: Once more revisited...

[Spudicmikhl <Spudicmikhl...>]

Dear List,

       A little over a month ago, there was some talk about  the 11 CD set 
"Beyond Recall --A Record of Jewish musical life in Nazi Berlin 1933-1938."   
Well imagine my surprise on Thursday morning to have the postman ring with 
just such a package!  A couple of friends in Europe had ordered this 
collection from Bear Family Records in Berlin and had it shipped to me!  An 
extraordinary birthday present if there ever was one!  
       There is also a DVD enclosed, a silent film shot in Jerusalem in the 
winter of 1934-35 with the violinist Andreas Weissgruber.  Back in December, 
there was question on the list regarding the "playability" of the DVD.  It is 
a standard video DVD that can be viewed on any television screen connected to 
a DVD player. 
        I will not venture to even begin to evalutate this collection and the 
most amazingly detailed and comprehensive 500 page plus hardcover that 
accompanies the set.  Perhaps a few impressions will suffice for now.  
        Detail after detail about the performers, the circumstances of the 
performances, pictorial renderings of concert programs, performers, copies of 
musical notation, and original record label copy all abound.  There are 
informative essays that pivot the collection, most poignant being one from 
Rabbi Andreas Nachama (dated July, 2001, Riverdale, N.Y.) which has very 
personal insight into the meaning of such a special restorative project as 
this one.  
       Thus far, I have only listened to one CD, and that was this afternoon 
with a retired cantor living together with his wife in Flushing, New York, 
both survivors of the shoah.  We decided to listen to CD-7 and for over an 
hour, with the CD player on the kitchen table, we heard among other musical 
treats Yiddish songs, sung by Marion Koegel ("A jiddische Mamme," 'L'koved 
dem heiligen Shabbos"); the "Juedischer Madrigal-Chor" singing three German 
folksongs, followed by; Sid Kay's Fellows, swinging things with a couple of 
Yiddish potpourri types with favorites like "Oifn Pripetschik," "Amol is 
geven a Mayse," and "Wen der Rebbe lakht."   
        Of course together with the pleasure of listening to the music for 
its own sake, one just cannot forget that running concurrently in the 
background in "real time" is the extraordinary suffering existing outside the 
recording studios and concert halls of Berlin.  Again, I refer Rabbi 
Nachama's essay "Madly Beautiful," for further insight regarding this, but of 
course each member of the list would have his or her own sensitivities 
regarding this project.  
       I can only conclude by saying that with this monument of a book, and 
over 14 hours of music--together with an added DVD--one can spend a 
tremendous amount of time focusing on any one aspect of all the types of 
music making, and marvel that such a world has been brought back to life.... 
as it were.  I am haunted by the cantor's wife's last words before leaving 
their apartment early this evening. Kurt recognized so many of the names of 
the people involved among the musicians and among them, expressed his glee 
that a Michael Taube, first conductor of the Jewish Kulturbund Orchestra left 
Germany immediately after Hitler came to power and Kurt had the pleasure of 
working with Taube in Israel.  Kurt's wife Isabelle then mentioned, barely 
audible, "how terrible for all those that didn't leave in time."  
        For the next several months, we agreed that we would sit together on 
Sunday afternoons and listen to more musical testimony in the spirit of 
"hemshekh" with those voices.  
Michael Spudic
Forest Hills, NY