Album Notes

original works by Ernest Bloch for solo viola and varying instrumental accompaniments. Bloch's trademark lyric melodies from the Jewish cantorial experience are personified in this collection of pieces. Karen Elaine is the featured soloist, playing viola and arranging the final work on the disc (Nigun). Elaine's research and passion for this music are represented in her program notes which offer very interesting biographical and technical detail of the music.

Below are excerpts from a two-page review by the imminent scholar and critic Walter Simmons in the March/April 2009 printing of FANFARE Magazine:

"...outstanding, deeply committed performance of Bloch's music..."

"Elaine's performance of [the Suite Hebraique] is fine, robust and energetic..."

"Elaine's performance of the Suite for Viola and Piano is also good, fully grasping the spirit and character of the work."

"During his final years, Bloch composed a series of solo suites in the manner of Bach... He died before completing the [one for viola]... Elaine has provided a plausible ending of her own."

"...the most interesting entry on this new release is the transcription for viola and string quartet (done by Elaine herself) of Nigun...the piece presents Bloch in his most unrestrained, throbbingly fervent vein, and this is captured especially well on the viola."