What’s the most Jewish musical instrument? Maybe it’s the cello. Much like the human voice — itself a kind of string instrument, making sound with vibrating cords — all the bowed string instruments, from violin to double bass, can yearn and sing and resonate deep inside a listener. But the cello in particular has appealed to composers, both Jewish and not, as the perfect voice for the expression of Jewish ideas in music.
And so it is in a recent composition by Seattle Symphony music director Gerard Schwarz, “In Memoriam,” just released on CD on a compilation called From Jewish Life. Recorded in 2004 and 2005 in Liverpool with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Schwarz conducts his own piece and four others for solo cello and orchestra, featuring the RLPO’s principal cellist, Jonathan Aasgaard.
“In Memoriam” premiered here in Seattle in a Music of Remembrance concert conducted by Schwarz with his son, Julian, as the soloist. “In Memoriam” is dedicated to the memory of Julian’s late teacher, Seattle Symphony cellist David Tonkongui, a founding participant in the Music of Remembrance ensembles, and a really nice guy.
“David meant so much to all of us in our household and was such an inspirational teacher for Julian,” writes Schwarz in his note about the piece. Thoughtful without being morose, the piece comforts while it mourns, which is pretty much what Jewish music has been doing for generations.
Keeping company with the conductor’s own composition on this well-programmed disc are the keynote pieces of Jewish-themed classical concerts the world over: Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidre” and Ernest Bloch’s “Schelomo—Hebraic Rhapsody” (based on the book of Ecclesiastes/Kohelet, of which King Solomon/Schelomo is said to be the author) plus the “Prayer” from Bloch’s “From Jewish Life” suite, in Aasgaard’s own arrangement for cello and strings. There’s also “Kaddish” by the late David Diamond, the American composer with whom Schwarz and Seattle Symphony enjoyed a long and productive relationship (He wrote the little bell tune that calls you back into the hall after intermission at Benaroya Hall).
Cello dramatic
