"Russian Jewish Classics"

“Russian Jewish Classics” series is a unique series of albums devoted to members and composers affiliated with the St. Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music: an organization active in early twentieth-century Russia that published chamber music based on authentic Jewish folk sources. Such sources include folksongs, such as those recorded on an ethnographic expedition into the Pale of Settlement by Joel Engle. Engle's work inspired other gifted young composrs, many of whom were trained by the great Russian masters such as Rimsky-Korsakov when they were students at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. These recordings serve to continue the Festival's mission by internationally distributing some of the finest examples of this repertoire and shedding new light upon these masters of Jewish art-music.

Each album allows the listener to explore a single composer in depth and discover pieces never or rarely recorded before. The selected chamber works are scored for a variety of instrumental and vocal combinations, performed by the same musicians as the Festival’s live concerts in Pittsburgh and re-recorded under studio conditions. Each CD comes with an extensive booklet that includes scholarly program notes and a detailed composer’s biography.