The trained singer and vocal coach and the instrumentalists on violin, clarinet and accordion enraptured the audience with brilliance and sensitivity rarely heard even in large concert halls. The musicians used the freedom of klezmer music, as in jazz, to play without a fixed score, to let even well-known songs and pieces shine anew through modulation and mimicry and to stimulate reflection.
Even if the lyrics of the mostly Yiddish songs could not be fully understood, the mood and expressiveness, as in the instrumental pieces, were so precisely conveyed by the ensemble that no one in the auditorium was left untouched.
Many a well-known song, took on deeper meaning that evening in the trio's interpretation. Barbara Streisand's "Papa can You Hear me" seems at first to refer to the Lord's Prayer, but in this context makes clear that the Jewish and Christian God are the same.
Written in 1940 by Jewish composers and songwriters, "dos Kelbl" and made famous by Joan Baez with the refrain "Donna, donna" describes the situation of Jews under Nazi influence. A calf is led to slaughter and on the way still ridiculed by the farmer, ridiculed by the wind and finally mocked for having become a calf. On this evening in the thought that in 1942 also citizens from Obernbreit were deported, this performance made some listeners shiver.
With this concert, the former synagogue presented itself again as a place of remembrance and encounter, the encounter with Jewish culture and Judaism, which despite oppression and adaptation in the street musicians with their klezmer were always present and should not be forgotten as well as the contributions of Jewish people to German identity in science, literature, art and music.
An Unforgettable Concert in the Former Synagogue
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