This CD is an import from Germany, and was produced in collaboration with Cantor Misha Alexandrovich before his recent death (July, 2002), and included research assistance from Yiddish music enthusiasts from Switzerland and Israel. It contains selections of Yiddish songs from his recordings in the Soviet Union in 1968 for Melodya, and in Israel in 1972 for RCA, remastered with high quality, and accompanied by extensive notes about the artist and the songs. Alexandrovich was born in 1914 in Berspils, Latvia, and became known at age 7 as "The Wunderkind". His reportory included Glinka and Schubert. He had the honor to become one of the last to study with Benjamino Gigli in Milan. He became a cantor before the war, but was brought to Russia during the war to sing for the Red Army. He became highly decorated, and became a nationally famous singer, but had to suppress his Jewish and cantorial repertoire during this period, and could not travel freely outside the country. In the 1970's an international campain, which included appeals by Golda Meir, was successful in allowing him to leave Russia. He enjoyed a career as a cantor in Israel and the United States, giving concert tours world wide until as recently as the late 1990s. Tracks:
Audition: der furman (excerpt) |