CDs & DVDs

DVD: The Best of Klezfest St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, 2006.

This film was prepared in honor of the 10th anniversary of Klezfest St. Petersburg, an annual festival of traditional East-European Jewish music. It includes selected clips from different years of the festival’s concert programs. The titles are in Russian and English.

DVD: It’s So Good to Be Happy! Arkady Gendler sings Zelik Bardichever’s songs, St. Petersburg, 2009.

Arkady Gendler, an author and performer of Yiddish songs, was born in 1921 in Soroki, Bessarabia. In his childhood he met with Zelik Bardichever (1903–1937), wonderful Yiddish poet and composer from the neighboring town of Beltsy, heard his songs, and loved them. Gendler performs Bardichever’s melodies as he remembers them, as they were performed by the songwriter himself many decades ago. Subtitles in Yiddish, Russian, and English help the wider circle of music lovers to grasp the depth and singularity of the songs written by the “Jewish bard” from Bessarabia.

CD: Orientale, Performed by Grigory Sedukh (piccolo-violin) and Evgeny Khazdan (piano), St. Petersburg, 2000. (The liner notes are in English)

This compact disc presents rarely performed music by composers who were members of the Jewish Folk Music Society in Petersburg-Petrograd (1908–1919), including works by Joseph Achron, Leo Zeitlin, Alexander Krein and other founders of the Jewish national (ethnic) school of composition. The music is arranged for and performed upon a unique instrument—the piccolo-violin.

DVD: If I Would Have Energies: Yiddish songs performed by Adrienne Cooper and Zalmen Mlotek, St. Petersburg, 2005.

This film acquaints the viewers with an exceptional concert program, which was presented in St. Petersburg in the spring of 2003 by these world-famous New York-based performers of Yiddish songs. The titles are in Russian.

CD: From Nigun to Operetta, Performed by Grigory Sedukh (piccolo-violin) and Evgeny Khazdan (piano), St. Petersburg, 2000. (The liner notes are in English)

This compact disc presents the music of 20th century composers in versions arranged for piccolo-violin.