Max Bruch - Kol Nidrei, Op.47 - Adagio on Hebrew Melodies, Mischa Maisky – cello, Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra

Kol Nidrei, Op.47 (also known as All Vows, the meaning of the phrase in Aramaic), is a composition for cello and orchestra. Bruch completed the composition in Liverpool, England, in 1880, and published it in Berlin in 1881. It was dedicated to and premiered by Robert Hausmann.
It is styled as an Adagio on 2 Hebrew Melodies and consists of a series of variations on two main themes of Jewish origin. The first theme, which also lends the piece its title, comes from the Kol Nidre prayer, which is recited during the evening service on Yom Kippur. In Bruch's setting of the melody, the cello imitates the rhapsodic voice of the cantor who chants the liturgy in the synagogue. The second subject of the piece is quoted from the middle section of Isaac Nathan's arrangement of "O Weep for Those that Wept on Babel's Stream", a lyric which was penned by Lord Byron in his collection Hebrew Melodies.

Bruch was a Protestant and first became acquainted with the Kol Nidre melody and others when his teacher Ferdinand Hiller introduced him to the Lichtenstein family. He loved the beauty of these tunes. Complex rhythmic shades were woven into deceptive simplicity—just like Gregorian chant, in fact, just like the folk music of other traditions.
Cantor Abraham Jacob Lichtenstein was known to have cordial relations with many Christian musicians and supported Bruch's interest in Jewish folk music. While some commentators have criticized the lack of Jewish sentiment in Bruch's concert-hall Kol Nidrei, Bruch never presumed to write Jewish music. He only wished to incorporate Jewish inspirations into his own compositions.

But perhaps it is a prayer. Perhaps something happens when we hear the Bruch Kol Nidre. In the midst of our busy comings and goings, among our vows to accomplish this or that, this Kol Nidre stops us and calls us to something deeper.

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