Editorial Reviews

The recording series sponsored by the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music has lately begun to fill an important gap in the repertoire. Besides exploring lesser-known works by the likes of Kurt Weill and Leonard Bernstein, it is also bringing some well-deserved recognition to a variety of other talented composers. Among the latter is Yehudi Wyner, born in 1929 and for several decades a composition professor at Brandeis and Yale; it's well worth making the acquaintance of his engaging musical personality. The three works featured here -- all in warmly sympathetic performances -- span more than 20 years of Wyner's career. Passover Offering (1959), for clarinet, flute, cello, and trombone, is the least obviously Jewish-sounding of these compositions, although some of the melodic material does allude to the cantillation of sacred texts. Wyner creates a unique and appealing sound-world from the unusual combination of instruments, and the dominant moods of lamentation and hopeful prayer make the Offering an extremely moving work. Wyner's incidental music for the Isaac Bashevis Singer play The Mirror (1972-73) reveals a composer steeped in various Jewish traditions, from klezmer (especially in the clarinet parts performed here by Richard Stoltzman) to sacred song. (It also owes an apparent debt to Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale, brought out further by the similar scoring for small ensemble.) The music also includes a few short vocal numbers, as well as some spoken texts, delivered here by the composer himself. A final chamber work -- this one for violin, clarinet, cello, and piano -- explores traditional styles of Jewish folk song and dance; but the Tants un Maysele (1981), or "Dance and Little Story," is more serious than its title might suggest. With its blend of vehemence and mournful mystery, this haunting work makes the strongest case of all that Wyner is a composer to reckon with. Scott Paulin, Barnes & Noble

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