Itzhak Perlman - In the Fiddler's House - EMI Music Germany

"A Journey To The Heart Of Klezmer"

Klezmer is the celebration music of Eastern European Jews around the world. Reflecting the interplay of dance tunes, folk songs and liturgical music in the diverse Yiddish-speaking culture that flourished in Eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea until 1939, it also resonates with the influences of Romanian, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, Greek, Turkish, Hungarian and Roma (Gypsy) musical art. Carried to the shores of Norht America and throughout the globe by the waves of Jewish immigrants who left the Old World in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Klezmer music has survived Hitler and Stalin, oppression and assimilation. Since the mid-1970s it has been enjoying international renaissance and has taken its place on the world stage today.
Itzhak Perlman takes a break from the concert hall to explore the remarkable burst of vitality in contemporary Klezmer music. Serving a charmingly humorous guide, Perlman journeys from New York City's Lower East Side to the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, visiting and performing with a wide cross-section of popular Klezmer groups. Special guests include Red Buttons and Picket Fence's Fyvush Finkel.