Klarinet Archive - Posting 000507.txt from 1995/09

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Jay asks about the Prokovief
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 11:54:15 -0400

The original version of the Overture on Yiddish Themes (the title "Overture
on Hebrew Themes" is not a correct translation of the Russian) is the
sextet with string quartet and piano. Prokovief made the orchestral
arrangement later. They are, of course, basically the same piece of music
though the clarinet solo in the sextet is much more extensive. I first
played the work around 1948 and have played it many times over the last
40 or so years with great pleasure.

There is a giant argument about the origin of the tunes. One group of
people say that they are all composed by Prokovief and have no Jewish
origin. Others say that the tunes were all submitted to the composer
by Boris Tomachevsky when Prokovief was his guest in the US during a
visit here in the 1920s. (Incidentally, Tomachevsky was the grandfather
of Michael Tilson Thomas.) Yet others say that the tunes were written
by Simeon Bellison for Prokovief. I don't know what is true.

It is first class klezmer music.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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