# Golijov - Yiddishbbuk for String Quartet (SQ review)



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Golijov was born in Argentina in 1960 to Jewish immigrants from Romania. He studied music with his mother, a piano teacher, and at the local conservatory then moved to Israel in 1983 before moving to the USA 3 years later. He is probably best known for his movie soundtrack work but is renowned for championing Jewish music
Golijov’s Yiddishbbuk, composed in 1992, is a short (about 15 minutes in duration), three-movement memorial set to apocryphal psalms. Based on these psalms, the string quartet attempts to assimilste the music of the psalms. Golijov said of the psalms that the quartet were set to, "No one sings as purely as those who are in the deepest hell. Theirs is the song which we confused with that of the angels.". With that in mind, the 1st movement is dedicated to children held in the Terezín concentration camp during World War II (commemorating the lives of Doris Weiserova (1932-1944), Frantisek Bass (1930-1944), and Tomas Kauders (1934-1943) whose poems and drawings appear in the book 'I never saw another butterfly." which was published by the US Holocaust Museum). The initials and dates of birth/death giving a chilling reminder of the power of evil. It begins dissonantly with jagged pizzicati. The music breaks down and the soundscape becomes tone clusters until a rhythmic outburst concludes the movement. The 2nd and 3rd movements are epitaphs to the Polish, Jewish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer and conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein, respectively, with both featuring some sparser music, fractured chords and silences followed by bold outbursts. This deeply moving music stresses emotion and pain with the occasional dense textures presiding over angular playing and various techniques. It's an intensely Jewish experience, according to Golijov, based on Golijov's own roots and gestures identifiable with Judaic music (slides, Hebrew scales and different rhythmic patterns.
There are only 2 recordings available. The first was by the *Latinoamericano Quartet *and this is recommendable, played with passion and pathos. However, the more recent EMI recording from the* St Lawrence Quartet* is most certainly the easy top pick. Not only is the playing more emotional and affecting but they are caught in an ideal acoustic, giving the performance greater depth and angst than its competitor. Their playing in the 1st movement is particularly engaging and expressive and tbh it would be difficult to top such a committed performance.


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