my Performances
Nina Perlove, flute
Song Hun Nam, piano
Live in concert Dec. 3, 2008
The title Achat Sha'alti is based on Psalm 27, verse 4, I ask only one thing, Lord: Let me live in your house every day of my life to see how wonderful you are and to pray in your temple. I would like to dedicate this performance to the memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who died during the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, and to all the innocent victims of this tragic event.
I was a little choked up during the performance, which makes playing flute tricky.
The following program notes are by David Wright from the CD Flutes (New World Records, see link above)
“The recent revival of klezmer music, the festive popular idiom that came to full flower in eastern European Jewish communities during the nineteenth century, has revealed its profound influence on the styles of Gershwin, Weill, and other twentieth-century composers. Paul Schoenfield has mined this musical vein for years, both as composer and entertainer. Born in Detroit in 1947, he holds degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Arizona. He has lived on a kibbutz in Israel and was for many years a freelance composer-pianist in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
Achat Sha'alti was selected and arranged from the composer's Six Improvisations on Hasidic Melodies for piano, which are derived in turn from music Schoenfield improvised at Hasidic gatherings in the mid-1980s. The present flute and piano arrangement stays close to the piano original. The melancholy Achat Sha'alti unfolds over a persistent left-hand accompaniment figure that spans a ninth.”