NEW CD RELEASES from the MILKEN ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN JEWISH MUSIC
and NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS: DAVID DIAMOND and OFER BEN-AMOTS
For details about Diamond CD, go to
http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf?cdid=17
To read an article about David Diamond’s AHAVA-Brotherhood, go to http://www.milkenarchive.org/articles/articles.taf?function=detail&ID=48
To read an interview with narrator Theodore Bikel, go to http://www.milkenarchive.org/articles/articles.taf?function=detail&ID=46
For details about Amots CD, go to http://www.milkenarchive.org/cds/cds.taf?cdid=18

DAVID DIAMOND (CD #8.559412)
Commissioned in 1954 for the 300th anniversary of Jews in America and recorded for the first time ever by the Milken Archive, David Diamond’s AHAVA-BROTHERHOOD is a captivating work for orchestra and narrator that includes text from biblical prophets, medieval Spanish-Hebrew poets, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington! AHAVA culminates in a universal appeal for “goodness, benevolence, and compassion” to be shared by people of all faiths, races, and nationalities. Also included on this CD are Jewish prayer settings by mid-20th-century American masters, all recorded for the first time.

OFER BEN-AMOTS (CD #8.559421)
Four sacred and secular works by award-winning, Israeli-born composer Ofer Ben-Amots are heard on this recording. CELESTIAL DIALOGUES combines two great Jewish musical traditions: a klezmer clarinet solo – derived from the haunting virtuoso idiom typical of traditional eastern European Jewish bands – and cantorial vocal passages that emanate from centuries-old Ashkenazi liturgical ritual. Both mystical and worldly, the “dialogues” evoke timeless songs and dances of Jewish experience, as well as a striving for the spiritual purification of prayer. In SHTETL SONGS, the composer has created inimitable vignettes and character portraits of eastern European Jewry while preserving a rich folk heritage; and in the choral cycle HASHKIVENU-SONG OF THE ANGELS, he explores the mystical aspects of the Sabbath.