Shir hashirim, “The Song of Songs,” is the ur-love poem. An ecstatic erotic book found in ketuvim (writings) in the Hebrew bible, it has been a source of inspiration for generation after generation of Hebrew love poems, and has inspired musical settings in a variety of languages, and from a variety of Jewish and non-Jewish perspectives. This concert will feature a selection of songs that set to music excerpts of “The Song of Songs” or texts inspired by it, in languages ranging from Hebrew and Yiddish to English, Russian, German, and Latin. Composers include Claudio Monteverdi, J. S. Bach, David Lang, Joseph Rumshinsky, Arnold Perlmutter and Herman Wohl, Mikhail Gnesin, Lazare Saminsky, and Lyubov Streicher. The concert will also include new works commissioned by Loren Loiacono and Na’ama Zisser engaging with “The Song of Songs” from contemporary perspectives.
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