"Vorbei— Beyond Recall"
A record of Jewish musical life in
Nazi Berlin, 1933–1938
Eleven CDs with a total playing time of more than 14 hours (for a list of contents, click here), a DVD with a reconstructed version of the sound film Hebräische Melodie and a 516-page illustrated hardcover book with text in German and English.
Bear Family Records
Vorbei, vorbei, vorbei
They're gone beyond recall
A
final glance, a last kiss
And then it's all over.
They're gone beyond
recall
A final word, a last farewell.
"Vorbei" ("Beyond Recall") is a song recorded by the Jewish cabaret singer Dora Gerson in April 1935 in Berlin. The date alone implies an ambiguity: the farewell is not only to her beloved, but also to Germany. Gerson was married until 1936 to Veid Harlan (director of the anti-Semitic propaganda film Jud Süß); she tried to escape from the Nazis to Switzerland, but was unsuccessful — like so many artists, she perished at Auschwitz.
The historical circumstances of Gerson, "Vorbei" and this CD collection itself, lead us back to
1933: the Law for the Reconstruction of 
Tenure for the Civil Service, which went into effect on April 7 of that year,
ordered the removal of "non-Aryans" from public sector jobs; it made specific
mention of Jews working in German cultural institutions. Suddenly thousands of
artists of Jewish origin were without employment. Those who did not emigrate
were forced to reorganize. Kurt Singer, the director of Berlin's municipal
theater initiated a project that he hoped would give his 2,000 suddenly
unemployed colleagues new opportunities: In May 1933, he presented to National
Socialist officials a proposal for a Jüdischer Kulturbund (Jewish
Cultural League), which would promote cultural activities for the benefit of
unemployed Jewish artists. Two months later, his idea was approved — on
the condition that the organizers and the audience were exclusively Jewish. In
the fall of the same year, the first so-called "closed performances" took place
in Berlin.
Although, at first the repertoire could be chosen freely, later censors restricted it to only works not considered "German." (The only exception was Handel's music, probably because of the Old Testament subject matter of many of his oratorios.) The isolation of Jews within German society led to an enhanced "Jewish" consciousness and awoke the desire for "Jewish experiences." The consequence of these early Nazi actions was, bizarrely enough, a substantial enrichment of the repertoire, especially those works that were connected to Jewish folk music, synagogue music and contemporary compositions. The members of the Kulturbund in Berlin, under constant surveillance by the Gestapo, were able to pursue their artistic activities and to produce and distribute records.
"Vorbei — Beyond Recall" presents 14 hours of music by Jewish
artists recorded during exactly this period, between 1933 and 1938 —
extremely rare material. The repertory ranges widely, from classical works
(chamber music, opera arias, excerpts from oratorios and madrigals) to cabaret
and dance music, jazz, Yiddish folk songs, music from Mandate-era Palestine and,
above all, cantorial singing of enormous eloquence. Released by the German label
Bear Family Records, the collection is accompanied by an informative bilingual
(English/German) book with explanations of the individual recordings and
well-researched biographies of individual artists. Taken as a whole, this
project, jointly prepared by the biographer Horst J. P. Bergmeier, the historian
Ejal Jakob Eisler and the discographer Rainer E. Lotz, is a magnificent
collection of extraordinary historical significance.
The importance of "Vorbei" lies not merely in its preservation of "forbidden" classical music and musicians, not merely because it recalls a forgotten part of the early recording industry in Europe, but also because it reflects some key attitudes in present-day Germany. Germans are extremely interested in Jewish culture: books by Jewish writers and about Jewish issues sell well enough to make the country the third-largest market for Judaica (behind Israel and the United States); sales of klezmer CDs have been huge since the revival of the genre in the late 1980s. In this context, how will this collection be received? Certainly, it ought to be more than just a "bestseller." Bergmeier, Eisler and Lotz have devoted decades to researching this collection (and had some difficulty finding a label to release it). Their dedication to working on "Beyond Recall" is not simply part of the philo-Semitic trend in Germany, but rather a passionate endeavor to bring forgotten music back to the listener's and reader's attention. This collection should find a broad audience: Jews and non-Jews, connoisseurs and lovers of all musical genres, producers and collectors of old recordings. "Vorbei — Beyond Recall" deserves universal attention and applause.
The "Pocket Caruso" and other vocal curiosities
Among the many highlights are recordings of one of the most famous lyric tenors of the time, Joseph Schmidt (1904–1942). Few singers of his era evoked as much affection. Despite his diminutive stature — or perhaps partly because of it — he became a beloved figure in both German opera and cinema following his performance of Vasco da Gama in a German radio broadcast of Meyerbeer's L'Africaine, the start of his successful international career. Schmidt was popular with German- and English-speaking audiences alike; American audiences thrilled to his performances at Carnegie Hall, calling the five-foot-tall Schmidt "The Pocket Caruso." His career was at its zenith when the Nazis began their rise to power, yet his popularity was such that they allowed him to continue performing internationally, despite growing restrictions. Even Joseph Goebbels applauded at the premiere of Schmidt's most famous film, Ein Lied geht um die Welt (A Song Goes Out to the World) in 1933.
In this set, we hear Schmidt's voice at the peak
of his career, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Staatsoper Berlin under
Selmar Meyrowitz.
About
half of the repertoire included consists of excerpts from operas, along with
some Neapolitan and other songs; in them, he uses his velvety voice with
discretion and treats his surprising reserves of power with respect. Even when
singing the music of Verdi or Puccini in German, Schmidt was Italianate, but he
could shift gears to become an idiomatic performer of Lehár's music as well.
Especially notable are his 1931 recording of Gustavus/Riccardo's aria "Ma se m'è
forza perderti" from Act III of Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
(sung in German as "Doch heißt dich auch ein Pflichtgebot") and his "Vorrei
morire" by Francesco Paolo Tosti (sung in Italian), which poignantly
demonstrate his considerable talent. It is impossible to exaggerate the
seductive powers of his voice.
Also worth mention are the recordings of the acclaimed alto Paula Lindberg Salomon (1897–2000), who was discovered by Paul Hindemith, was a celebrated Bach alto in the 1920s and '30s, and survived the war to become a beloved soloist in the Netherlands. We hear her performing an aria from Mendelssohn's Elijah as well as Yiddish folk songs, accompanied by the conductor and pianist Rudolf Schwarz.
An additional highlight here is Arnon Rojansky, a lyric tenor at the Eretz Israel Opera in Tel Aviv (which was founded in 1922). His recordings were made in Berlin in September of 1930, where he had previously studied voice at the College of Music. Rojansky sings arias from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Puccini's Tosca, Don José's Flower Song from Carmen and Vasco da Gama's aria "O paradis!" from Meyerbeer's L'Africaine. These are the first opera arias ever to have been recorded in Hebrew and confirm the review from the Jüdische Rundschau, August 1934, that the "guttural sounds of Hebrew do not affect the vocal production of sound."
Playing suppressed music — the Kulturbund Orchestra
Also noteworthy are the recordings of the Jüdische Kulturbund Orchestra, which performs Mozart's Serenata notturna as well as two wonderful works by Karol Rathaus (1895–1954) from his Suite for Orchestra Uriel Acosta, originally for chamber orchestra in 1930 and intended for the famous HaBima Theatre in Tel Aviv. Polish-born Rathaus was yet another composer to be branded "entartete" in Nazi Germany, but he was prescient enough to move to Paris, then London and finally to the United States in 1938, where he became an eminent teacher at Queens College in New York and was active in the film industry.
The recording from March 1935 is the first that has ever been made of the Jewish Dance from the Uriel Suite. Alongside the Jewish elements — in particular the clarinet, which sounds quite klezmer-like — the first part of the Suite has qualities reminiscent of Bartók, Stravinsky and Prokofiev.
The Golden Era of Chazzanut
Almost every disc in the set includes a potpourri of chazzanut
(cantorial singing), featuring the most prominent cantors of their time
— renowned figures such as Akiba Schreiber, Boas Bischofswerder, Karl
Neumann, Gershon Sirota and Manfred Lewandowski. They make abundant use of the
complex melismas and ornamentation which are integral to chazzanut, each
with his own personal stamp. One especially notable example is "Oir
Chodosh" ("A new light"), with rich improvisation, sung by cantor Israel
Bakon.
Two significant tracks on Disc Six represent the liberal Jewish strain of liturgical music: a Kaddish and Adon Olam sung by cantor Joseph Blumberg with a choir and organ accompaniment by the renowned (and Roman Catholic) organist-composer Jéhan Alain. The admission of choir and organs into liberal synagogues, which began in the early 19th century and which the Orthodox regarded as a "Christianization" of the service, was the subject of vehement quarrels and debate. The debate centered on the question of whether, according to Jewish law, one may sing and play the organ on the Sabbath and holy days and whether Jewish musicians may perform. After two rabbinical conferences and the synod of Leipzig in 1869, most of the synagogues in Central European countries introduced organs, a development that would reach its peak by the turn of that century.
Along with the large number of synagogue choirs founded in the mid-19th century, there were also some professional and semi-professional choirs. In 1933, Ludwig Misch founded the Jewish Madrigal Choir, a small a cappella vocal ensemble whose repertoire ranged from Yiddish folk songs to classical works and included a surprising composition by Franz Schubert: a setting of the Hebrew text of Psalm 92, composed in 1828 at the request of the famous Viennese cantor Salomon Sulzer. The Madrigal Choir here performs verses 2–10 of that setting, Song for the Sabbath, Op. 953.
A tangerl oyf yiddish — cabaret and dance music
Cabaret and dance music were also important in German-Jewish musical life in the 1930s. Among the gems of the genre included in this set are, of course, Dora Gerson's rendition of "Vorbei" and the tango "Nagen li ha-kinor" ("Play me the violin"), behind the Argentine dance rhythm of which lurks the melody of the popular Yiddish folksong "A brivele der Mamen" ("A letter to Mother").
Hebrew Swan Song
The final disc of this set is a treasure: a reconstructed version on DVD of the sound film Hebräische Melodie (Hebrew Melody), featuring the violinist Andreas Weißgerber in Jerusalem playing Joseph Achron's work of the same name, a commission from the Jüdischer Kulturbund. The exterior shots were taken in the Old Town in Jerusalem in the winter of 1934–35 and the music recorded in Berlin in 1935. This short film, for years believed lost, is presented here for the first time since World War II.
The 516-page-hardcover book accompanying "Vorbei" is profusely
illustrated and presented in both German and English. In the volume, Rabbi David
Polnauer, himself a record collector and specialist in Eastern European
nusach (liturgy and/or tunes), gives an extensive introduction to Jewish
liturgy and Jewish prayer in the book, distinguishing the different kinds of
prayers and melodies and their function within Jewish liturgy. There is also an
explanation of sound recording techniques of the 1930s by sound engineer Robert
M. Laue; the explanations of the individual recordings and well-researched
biographies of individual artists were jointly prepared by the biographer Horst
H. J. P. Bergmeier, the historian Ejal Jakob Eisler and the discographer Rainer
E. Lotz; the fascinating histories of the artists and description of their often
tragic fates represent an invaluable source for further research on these
talented individuals.
Among those musicians is Arno Nadel (1895–1943), a composer, arranger, conductor, writer, poet and painter; he also dedicated himself to the collection of both Eastern European folk songs and old manuscripts of Jewish liturgical music, and in 1916 he was appointed as Kapellmeister of the Berlin Jewish community. (The Prelude to the film Hebräische Melodie is one of his few works to be recorded.) In one of his last letters before begin deported in 1943, he wrote: "May God protect holy Germany! It is the wisest nation of poets and philosophers, but has been misled — only after bloody detours and errors will it attain freedom of spirit and of noble art." Despite his tragic belief in Germany, Nadel could not escape his fate — he died at Auschwitz. He shared with many German artists of Jewish origin the same fate, the same passion for music, and the belief in "their country." Nevertheless, most of their music is today beyond recall.
This title is available for purchase from
Amazon.de and
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Records.
