Alexander Krein (1883–1951) was a member of a dynasty of Jewish musicians active in both Imperial and Soviet Russia. His compositions reveal the confluence of several strands of musical history: his Russian background, the transition from late Romanticism to early modernism – where the influence of Skryabin is readily audible – and, particularly in the works on this album, the Jewish folk-heritage, with its emotionally powerful blend of high spirits and melancholy. In this fifth volume in the Toccata Classics series ‘Russian Jewish Classics’, the cellist Aron Zelkowicz, pianist Rodrigo Ojeda and the Musicians of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival are joined by two stars of the musical firmament, the violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley, first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, and clarinetist David Krakauer, who unites classical and klezmer.
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