AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 18TH ON HDTRACKS.COM, ITUNES, AMAZON, AND MANY OTHER FINE RETAILERS

The Chelsea Symphony is pleased to present Joy & Sorrow, a collection of orchestral works written by David Chesky and conducted by TCS founding member Yaniv Segal featuring soloists Artur Kaganovskiy, violin, Ethan Herschenfeld, bass, Moran Ketz, clarinet, and Kristina Reiko Cooper, cello. While attending the Polish premiere of his opera The Mice War at Krakow Opera, David and Yaniv took a life changing trip to the extermination camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau. Emotionally shaken by the experience, David wanted to create works not only depicting the trauma and sorrows of the death camps, but also the joy and celebrations that encompass all aspects of Jewish life. The music is at times full of angst while constantly pulsating with life and raw rhythmic energy that reflect the rich cultural history and musical tradition of Jews. Using the language and Klezmer style of Eastern Europe as raw material, David has redefined what Jewish music for orchestra sounds like.

"The album’s centerpiece, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 3 “Klezmer,” goes in depth into the joy and sorrow that Chesky wanted to capture. It begins with the solo violin, in its lowest range, singing a mournful, Hebraic melody, with more than a hint of a cantorial lilt. But this meditative opening gives way, suddenly, to brisk dance music.”

—excerpt from liner notes by Allan Kozinn

Spotlighted by Esquire Magazine as a rising star that is "redefining classical music," Yaniv Segal is the assistant conductor to Andrey Boreyko and the Naples Philharmonic. He served as the assistant conductor of the Krzysztof Penderecki Festival in Warsaw, and led the Polish premiere of David Chesky's "The Mice War" at Krakow Opera. Yaniv was a frequent conductor with The Chelsea Symphony for the past nine years and last season led the orchestra in the premiere of his Rite of Spring (Redux) - an adaptation of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring for modern orchestra that includes electric guitar, bass guitar, and saxophone.

Advanced praise for Joy & Sorrow

"Among discs of Chesky's music, this one is a winner, and, as one would expect from this label, the engineering is superb, featuring binaural recording technology."

—Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare

"The recorded sound throughout is clear and lifelike—we’d expect no less from one of the founders of the audiophile Chesky label—and the sizable chamber ensemble of 29 musicians plays expertly."

—Huntley Dent, Fanfare

"This is music for meditation, not for easy listening. At least the readers of Fanfare do have an opportunity to experience the host of emotions that spring out of an hour with the music of David Chesky. It will be time most profitably spent."

—David DeBoor Canfield, Fanfare

"Chesky’s latest disc celebrates both Kletzmer and Roma music, melding it with Chesky’s trademark New York freneticism and even extending it to Delta blues. The result is remarkably multi-colored, from the almost straightforward village band of Betty’s March (adapted only by clarinet and violin interjections in Chesky’s own hand) to the more complex concerto and the shadowy Arbeit Macht Frei. One thing is certain: the extremes joy and sorrow are indeed here, in a mere 70-minute stretch of time"

—Colin Clarke, Fanfare