Search - Mordechai Hershman :: Jewish Folk Songs

Examples of a great tenor

Allan Life | Chapel Hill, N.C. | 01/23/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Anyone who loves the art of singing should enjoy this selection of the Yiddish songs recorded by Mordechai Hershman (1888-1940), an eminent Cantor whose career after 1920 was centered in America. Blessed with one of the most flexible lyric tenor voices of the century, Hershman also possessed a vivid dramatic talent, through which he conveys the personal as well as the communal experience underlying this music. With consummate insight, he embraces a spectrum from heroism to bathos, from satire to reverence. In denying a fifth star to this CD, I am acknowledging disappointment, not with the original recordings of this great artist, but with the presentation by Israel Music of these selections, without a line of commentary let alone of translation. Even brief notes on these songs could have aided the uninitiated, which includes a fair proportion of the very listeners outside Israel who are most capable of appreciating Hershman as a classical vocalist. Even the dates of these recordings are omitted, obscuring the mingling of pieces which (evidently) were recorded acoustically and electrically. Hershman, like Gigli, commanded a tenor that registered faithfully on acoustical equipment; nevertheless, there is a disturbing similarity on this CD between what I take to be early and comparatively late selections, pointing to the kind of amplification that can distort the sound of recordings from the 1920s and early 30s. At times there are variations in pitch between these selections that seem to proceed from the engineering at Israel Music as much as from Hershman's versatility. These are not informed criticisms, but they are issues that might have been addressed in the packaging of the CD itself. At a time when masters of archival restoration like Ward Marston are recovering the voices of singers whose performances are irredeemably antique, it seems a pity that a living, creative power like Mordechai Hershman's is not accorded the same consideration."