Mismor Ledavid ([Mizmor le-david], Ps. 29) by Ezechiello Levi (Vercelli, Italy, 1826-1889)

Описание: Mismor Ledavid (Mizmor le-david, Ps. 29) by Ezechiello Levi (Vercelli, Italy, 1826-1889)
Performed by Synagogal Ensemble Berlin, Coro Ha Kol (Rome), Kol Zimrah (Chicago), and Adi Classical Youth Choir (Tel Aviv)
Lewandowski String Ensemble Berlin
Conducted by Regina Yantian
Louis Lewandowski Festival 2022
Rykestraße Synagogue, Berlin
12.18.2022

https://louis-lewandowski-festival.de/prog...

I am grateful to the Louis Lewandowski Festival in Berlin, where I once again experienced the rare joy of hearing the Archive (one of “my” archives) come to life. Masterfully directed by Regina Yantian, the festival assembled three choirs from Chicago, Tel Aviv, and Rome and a Berlin-based ensemble (Synagogal Emsemble Berlin) to present five centuries of synagogue music from Italy.

The concluding piece of the final concert was a “Mismor ledavid” (Psalm 29) for chorus, strings, and organ. The composer, Ezechiello Levi (1826-1889), was one of several I have researched over the last two decades, and one of two composers active in Vercelli, Piedmont, during the 19th century.

Unlike his local colleague Bonajut Treves — who was the scion of a wealthy family, and who had left the ghetto of Vercelli in his youth to study with S. Mercatante in Napoli — Levi came from a family of modest means. Locally educated, he apprenticed with Treves (who was his senior and likely mentor), as well as with the composer working for Vercelli’s cathedral.

This is one among hundreds of manuscript compositions I have researched and at times unearthed. A shining example of the unifying sound of Italy’s revolutionary age in the mid-19th century, when it was not uncommon to mix the styles of Verdi and Rossini with Biblical Hebrew texts, and synagogues were public arenas for enlightened political discourse.