Re: Chassidic Classic with Giora Feidman

[R.A.S. <richards...>]

At the Union Chapel recital, he switched between Bb and A, often within the
same piece according to which suited the particular section best - a long
advocated and nowadays increasingly common practice in the classical world.


Richard

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 02/12/2003 at 19:09 Wilfried GUILLET wrote:

>By the way, does anybody know if Giora Feidman plays on a C clarinet (like
>most Klezmers used to do) or B flat?
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Ari Davidow" <ari (at) ivritype(dot)com>
>To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 3:15 PM
>Subject: RE: Chassidic Classic with Giora Feidman
>
>
>> At 07:12 AM 12/1/2003, you wrote:
>> >Hi - Giora recently played at the Union Chapel in London (organised by
>JMI -
>> >Jewish Music Institute), having not played here for over 20 years.  It
>was
>> >an amazing performance - the thing is he really knows how to entertain.
>I
>> >had also heard him on CD prior to seeing him live, and wasnt that
>> >impressed - but live he is incredible.  He comes from the traditional
>> >Klezmer background, but he has moved on, retaining enough of his
klezmer
>> >roots, making it his own.  Traditional Klezmer is great, but it would
get
>> >boring if everyone only played it traditionally all the time.  But
Giora
>> >brings a dynamic personality and great stage presence to the fore - for
>him
>> >it is not just about Klezmer but to entertain, educate and communicate.
>So,
>> >before you pass judgement based on his recordings, I suggest you try to
>see
>> >him live.
>>
>>
>> I don't believe that Giora comes from a klezmer tradition. The story as
I
>> have heard it is that he was in the Israeli Philharmonic. When his
>eyesight
>> began to go in the late Sixties or early Seventies (we had what I then
>> believed were his two first recordings in Jerusalem, prior to the '73
War)
>> he began performing klezmer as a way to make a living. I believe that
>> Moussa Berlin was one of his primary teachers, in fact. But I don't know
>> how much he knew before.
>>
>> He does give a dynamic show (or did, when I saw him in the mid-'70s, and
>> clearly now, as well).
>>
>> What has interested me for years is that, despite the availability of
his
>> recordings in the US, I have never encountered a musician (other than
Yale
>> Strom) who participated in the American klezmer renaissance who cites
>> Feidman's recordings or performances, as an influence. He was incredibly
>> influential in Germany, however, and I regularly get emails from German
>> klezmer fans asking why I don't have reviews of his albums on the
>> KlezmerShack. People who write about Feidman's workshops in Germany,
>> however, tend to say that he wasn't teaching traditional klezmer. In his
>> essential article about klezmer music in Germany
>> (http://www.sukke.de/lecture.html), Heiko Lehmann, of Sukke, writes:
>"Giora
>> Feidman took klezmer as a philosophical conception, saying that
everybody
>> and every music is klezmer; klezmer is a matter of intention--which he
>> called "inner voice" or "energy"--while playing."
>>
>> I, too, have never been a big fan of his music, although I'd be happy to
>> publish a listener guide or some such on the KlezmerShack by someone who
>> is, and who knows his music and recordings, so that his music is
>represented.
>>
>> ari
>>
>>
>> Ari Davidow
>> ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
>> list owner, jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>> the klezmer shack: http://www.klezmershack.com/
>>
>>
>
>



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