Songs of Love & Exile: a Sephardic Journey

Channa Malkin (soprano), Izhar Elias (guitar)

The debut album of an exciting young Dutch soprano: an anthology of popular Sephardic songs completed with excerpts from a rare song collection by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Having made her operatic debut at the age of 16, singing Barbarina with the Dutch National Opera, Channa Malkin has since made solo appearances with Mariss Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as well as early-music luminaries such as Andrew Parrott and Joshua Rifkin. For her first recording, she has chosen to explore her Jewish heritage with songs from her childhood: ‘Underneath the seemingly simple melodies telling life’s usual stories,’ she writes in the album’s introductory notes, ‘I felt the longing of generation upon generation for a homeland left long ago but never forgotten.’

Channa Malkin is joined here by her regular duet partner, the guitarist Izhar Elias, who is well known to collectors of Brilliant Classics recordings for his imaginative choice of repertoire and vivid performances.

Gramophone lavished praise on his ‘sympathetic accompaniment’ to Erik Bosgraaf in their recording of the lute book by Jakob van Eyck (BC93391): ‘As a reference work this set should be considered indispensable; as one to be dipped in for pleasure, highly desirable.’

The selection of Sephardic songs they have made ranges between subjects of love, war, birth and death: epic tales sung by medieval Spanish bards, Jewish liturgical melodies and texts, and Arabic styles of melodic ornamentation. Malkin and Elias have made their own arrangements, letting the music guide them intuitively and drawing inspiration from their backgrounds in early music, Jewish cantorial singing and Spanish folk song interpretation, as well as their personal family histories.

Their selection also includes several Sephardic songs arranged by contemporary composers, in order to explore the ways in which this music can be performed as classical art song. Israeli composer, guitarist and Sephardic song expert Daniel Akiva, Spanish composer and conductor Lorenzo Palomo and Joaquín Rodrigo each offer a unique take on the Sephardic song idiom. So does the Italian-American composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: his collection of The Divan of Moses-Ibn-Ezra sets the poetry of an 11th-century rabbi from Grenada.

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968):
The Divan of Moses-Ibn-Ezra

Sephardic Melodies:
 Lavava y suspirava
 La serena
 Durme, hermozo hijico
 La rosa enflorece
 Hija mia
 Como la rosa
 Morenica
 Nana Sefardi
 Linda de mi corazon
 Camini por altas torres
 Nani nani
 A la una yo naci
 Durme durme

"Izhar Elias, in 2011 de eerste gitarist die de Nederlandse Muziekprijs in ontvangst mocht nemen, is een veelzijdig musicus. Hij voelt zich net zo makkelijk thuis in het barokke repertoire als op de historische instrumenten uit de bloeitijd van de gitaar in de vroege negentiende eeuw. Ook de hedendaagse muziek kan op mateloze interesse van de nimmer stilzittende gitarist rekenen. Toch staat de cd die hij nu gemaakt heeft met een van zijn duopartners, de sopraan Channa Malkin, misschien wel het dichtst bij zijn muzikale ziel. Songs of Love & Exile is een verkenning van Sefardisch- Joodse liederen in het Ladinodialect. Ze zijn deels gearrangeerd door componisten als Daniel Akiva en Joaquín Rodrigo, deels door het duo zelf. Het tweetal verkent de eigen Joodse achtergrond en het lot van de Sefardische Joden die lange tijd een belangrijke bevolkingsgroep vormden in Andalusië en onder meer grote invloed hadden op de Spaanse flamenco. Elias en Malkin maken er een even stemmige als indrukwekkende en ontroerende reis van en sluiten mooi af met zes liederen uit de op Joodse leest geschoeide Engelstalige cyclus The divan of Moses-Ibn-Ezra van de Joods-Italiaanse componist Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco."
Klassieke Zaken Magazine 5-2019