Chants juifs (Jewish Songs)
Sonia Wieder-Atherton (cello), Daria Hovora (piano) (Alpha)
(scroll down for English review)
法國大提琴家Wieder-Atherton本月在Alpha有兩張碟推出，一張是新錄音，一張是舊碟在此品牌翻出。新碟是把Boccherini的大提琴協奏曲改編給五人組合（包括匈牙利揚琴），並加入一些模擬爵士即興演奏的段落，不過那張我真的受不了，聽不完。
改為聽這張「猶太歌曲」，打開小冊子才知道它本來是電影原聲帶，比利時導演Chantal Akerman的《美國故事：食物家庭及哲學》。Wieder-Atherton負責配樂，她以大提琴演奏猶太傳統歌曲，編曲者Zygel也寫了幾首猶太風格的歌曲，但混在裏頭其實是分不出來。（三十年過去，Akerman導演及負責鋼琴的Daria Hovora都在數年前去世了。）
談音樂前先談電影，因為我聽了一兩軌後便拿出那部電影出來看。影片由演員對着攝影機，講述一些東歐猶太移民在二十世紀初或中期來到美國的辛酸故事，不過片子我看了20分鐘就沒看下去了。
回到音樂，我覺得Wieder-Atherton拉出來的味道，其實不是我預期之中、很陳腔濫調的那種「猶太哀愁」。她以古典音樂的演奏標準去切入這些猶太旋律，反而令我覺得哀而不傷。我聽不完的那張Boccherini倒是令我覺得，民族風得非常矯情。
Sonia Wieder-Atherton put out two discs on Alpha this month. This is a reissue and the other one is brand new. The brand new disc is made up of arrangements of Boccherini cello concerti for a five-piece ensemble. Strangely enough, cimbalom is among them. And there are long stretches of newly composed jazzy cadenzas. That disc was too foreign to me and I couldn’t finish it.
This one is actually a film soundtrack album, to Chantal Akerman’s American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy. Wieder-Atherton played various Jewish songs or hymns on the cello, some were actually original compositions by the arranger Zygel. Zygel did such a nice job that the old and the new blended so well. The film was released in 1989, and sadly both Akerman and Daria Hovora, the pianist on this album, have departed from this world.
After listening to a couple of tracks I took out my copy of the film. Actors did monologues which were testimonies of Eastern European Jews who emigrated to America in early or mid 20th century. But I gave up after 20 minutes and went back to this soundtrack album.
Wieder-Atherton didn’t deliver a schmaltzy type of Jewish nostalgia. She somehow approached these tunes with a classical ear. Quite unexpectedly I found this approach worked much better than playing them with the clicheed Jewish flavour. On the other hand, that Boccherini album tried to hard to turn those music into folk tunes.