Aneinu!:
Hasidic-Orthodox Music from the Festival of the Torah in Jerusalem
Moshe Berlin Ensemble
(Schott Wergo SM 1628-2)

Aneinu! contains repertoire from the Israeli Hasidic-orthodox klezmer tradition. The field recordings of Israel’s foremost klezmer clarinetist, Moshe Berlin were made by ethnomusicologist Joel Rubin in a yeshiva during the ceremony celebrating the end of the holiday Simchat Torah. They show the vital role that the music of the klezmorim and the ecstatic singing of nigunim (melodies of spiritual elevation) play among orthodox Jews, displaying at the same time a microcosm of the variety of ethnic and cultural influences to be found in the musical traditions of Israel today. more...

Shalom Comrade!: Yiddish Music in the Soviet Union 1928-1961
(Schott Wergo SM 1627-2)

The anthology Shalom Comrade! tells the history of Yiddish music in the Soviet Union via rare recordings from the archive of Rubin and Ottens which have been digitally remastered by Christian Zwarg. This carefully edited production documents the enormous variety of Yiddish music performed in the Soviet Union, from rollicking klezmer dance tunes to the interwar Polish-Jewish cabaret songs of the Galician troubadour Mordkhe Gebirtig, 19th century Yiddish folk songs, music of the Soviet Yiddish theatre, to art songs with revolutionary texts by composers such as Samuil Polonskii, Lev Pulver, Vladimir Shainskii and Moses Milner, and texts by the poets B. Bergolts and Iosif Kerler. Rubin and Ottens’ 40-page booklet in English and German includes a detailed essay about the political-ideological impact on Yiddish language, culture and music and – in the final analysis – on Jewish life in the Soviet Union. Here is an extended, trilingual (English/German/Russian) version with complete song texts in the original Yiddish.  Article “Die jüdische Sängerin Marina Gordon” by Rita Ottens. more...

Di Eybike Mame (The Eternal Mother):
Women in Yiddish Theater and Popular Song, 1905-1929
(Schott Wergo SM 1625-2; Mainz 2003)

Di Eybike Mame is first and only CD anthology of recordings featuring women of the Yiddish stage. This carefully edited production documents the enormous variety of music present during the period 1890-1930, from folksong to music hall and vaudeville, liturgical song to operetta and musical comedy. The booklet includes a detailed essay on Yiddish theater music and the role of women in Yiddish popular song. more...

Cantor Isaac Algazi
Sweet Singer of Israel: Ottoman Jewish Music from the Early 20th Century
(Schott Wergo SM 1622-2; Mainz 2002)

Rabbi Isaac Algazi (b. 1889 Izmir/Turkey, d. 1950 Montevideo/Uruguay), the “Sweet Singer of Israel,” was one of the most outstanding cantors of the Sephardic synagogue. One of the leading Turkish-Jewish intellectuals of his time, Algazi was the first to establish the art of solo cantorial singing in the public prayer of Sephardi Jews, influencing 20th century Sephardi cantorial music throughout the world. more...

Oytsres – Treasures:
Klezmer Music 1908-1996
(Schott Wergo SM 1621 2; Mainz, 1999)

Oytsres contains performances by many of the musical personalities described in the book, Klezmer Music, by Joel Rubin and Rita Ottens (Bärenreiter/dtv, 1999), the colorful social history of Yiddish wedding and celebratory music spanning centuries and continents. Among these are the Ukrainian-Jewish violinist M.I. Rabinovitsh, likely the last representative of the lyrical and ornate violin tradition of 19th century Jewish eastern Europe, as well as Naftule Brandwein, Shloimke Beckerman, Dave Tarras and the Max Epstein, the four great American-Jewish clarinetists of the immigrant era in New York. The influence of klezmer music on the Yiddish theater can be heard in Solomon Fayntukh’s symphonic arrangements of traditional klezmer tunes, recorded 1939 in the USSR, and in the melodies of the beloved Yiddish theater composer Alexander Olshanetsky in New York. That the klezmer tradition has organically continued on within both the religious and secular worlds is shown by such varied performances as a field recording of the ultra-orthodox clarinetist Avrom Segal from Israel and the ensemble of the concert clarinetist Joel Rubin from Los Angeles, who is considered by many among the oldest generation of eastern European-influenced American klezmorim as well as the Hasidic musicians of Israel to be the most important interpreter of the klezmer art today. more...

The Epstein Brothers Orchestra
Kings of Freylekh Land:
A Century of Yiddish-American Music
(Schott Wergo SM 1611-2; Mainz, 1995)

Kings of Freylekh Land contains the music to the award-winning full-length documentary film portrait, “A Tickle in the Heart,” written by Joel Rubin and Rita Ottens with Stefan Schwietert (Germany/USA/Switzerland, 1996). The dynamic and multi-faceted music of the Epstein Brothers, recipients of the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the US National Endowment for the Arts (1998), represents an exciting journey into the American-Jewish musical and cultural experience of the past 100 years. Max Epstein (1912-2000) ranks as one of the greatest klezmer clarinetists of the 20th century. He and his brothers are considered to have been innovators in the fields of Yiddish, klezmer and Hasidic music: They brought their knowledge as American dance band players to klezmer music, transforming the celebratory music of the eastern European shtetl into an urban expression of North American Jewry. more...

Jüdische Lebenswelten/Patterns of Jewish Life:
Highlights from the Concert Series
“Traditional and Popular Jewish Music” Berlin 1992
(Schott Wergo SM 1604-2; Mainz, 1993; 2 CDs)

Currently out of print more...