Neither of the works on this release by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, on its own label, is terribly common, but they fit together powerfully, and they exploit the talents of the orchestra to the hilt. Schoenberg's Kol Nidre, Op. 39, was composed in Los Angeles in 1938, in response to a commission from a rabbi there. It is not a 12-tone work, but one in greatly extended, late Romantic tonality. The work sets, in English, the Aramaic prayer that prefaces Yom Kippur services with, perhaps characteristically, some emendations ...
Read More
Neither of the works on this release by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, on its own label, is terribly common, but they fit together powerfully, and they exploit the talents of the orchestra to the hilt. Schoenberg's Kol Nidre, Op. 39, was composed in Los Angeles in 1938, in response to a commission from a rabbi there. It is not a 12-tone work, but one in greatly extended, late Romantic tonality. The work sets, in English, the Aramaic prayer that prefaces Yom Kippur services with, perhaps characteristically, some emendations by Schoenberg himself. The work's structure is unique: it is concerto-like, having the quality of dialogue between the reciting soloist, here Alberto Mizrahi, and the orchestra, and conductor Riccardo Muti catches this quality beautifully. Shostakovich's Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Op. 145a, was one of his last works. Originally a piano song cycle setting Russian texts that were based on a German translation of the original Italian, it was orchestrated in response to...
Read Less
