Rave Review of Itzhak Perlman’s Houston Symphony klezmer show

Photo Credit: Melissa Taylor Photography

Itzhak Perlman, the Rare Violin Superstar, Thrills a Symphony Audience — Ending His Run In Houston With the Fiddler’s House
By Adrienne Jones
Paper City
July 4, 2024

“The inner history of a people is contained in its songs.” — Rabbi Adolf Jellinek (1821 to 1893), chief rabbi of Vienna.

Neither soaking rains nor even a tornado warning in the afternoon could dampen anyone’s spirit as they poured into Jones Hall for Itzhak Perlman’s concert, “In the Fiddler’s House,” which capped his tenure as artistic partner with the Houston Symphony.

Perlman’s nine performances over the last three seasons made him a beloved figure on the Houston performing arts scene. He regularly earned the type of thunderous ovations that have marked his career as one of the few living classical musicians to gain megastar status. His well-seasoned technical virtuosity combined with an uncommon charisma brings audiences close to him, feeling at once awestruck by his musicality and the impulse to cheer him on as his 79th birthday approaches in August.

Nearly every seat was filled for the special, one-night performance. Rather than a concert taken from the standard classical canon, Israeli-born Perlman put on an evening of Klezmer music – the sometimes soulful, sometimes joyful folk-style music developed by Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe over the last 1000 years.

Many Americans were first introduced to Klezmer music by Itzhak Perlman’s 1995 In the Fiddler’s House, produced as part of the Great Performances series for PBS. Filmed in Poland, the birthplace of Perlman’s parents, the documentary was a big hit with TV viewers, winning Perlman his third of four Emmy Awards.

Now, almost 30 years later, the touring In the Fiddler’s House concert is still thrilling audiences, including many introduced to Klezmer music by composer Jerry Bock’s score for the internationally popular 1964 Fiddler on the Roof Broadway show. The music shaped by its Middle Eastern scales and vast range of emotionality, from haunting melodies marking sorrow and loss to unparalleled expressions of joy and celebration.

Although Bock said he was influenced by the Russian Klezmer he heard growing up, it’s easy to hear musical strains from the many different areas of Europe and Asia where Jewish people have lived. In the United States, Klezmer reflects the sound colors of big band, swing, jazz and even hoedown.

Klezmer enjoyed an enormous revival during the 1970s and 1980s following the release of Fiddler on the Roof, and interest has continued. In recent months, Perlman and a roster of Klezmer stars and members of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, some who played in the 1995 documentary, have performed in San Francisco, Bethesda and Palm Beach. They will be in Kansas City this September.

Read the full article here.