BRAVE OLD WORLD: Live in Concert

Brave Old World was one of the seminal bands of the second generation of players in the Klezmer Revival, which began in the late 1970s. The group was formed in 1989, by clarinetist Joel Rubin and accordionist Alan Bern, joined by the singer and violinist Michael Alpert and bassist Stuart Brotman. In 1992, Rubin left the group and was replaced on clarinet by Kurt Bjorling.  The Washington Post wrote:  Brave Old World is “the revival’s first supergroup. Every player is a virtuoso.” In 1992, the group won first prize at the International Klezmer Festival in Safed, Israel.

The ambition of Brave Old World, as expressed by Alan Bern, who became its musical director, was to create new Jewish music for the concert stage, a repertoire performed in such a way as to appeal to the listener’s intellect as well as to the heart. The group was reacting against the prevailing attitude of audiences in the earlier, first flowering of the klezmer revival, which was that klezmer music was principally celebratory or dance music. Brave Old World studied and drew upon the late nineteenth century European repertoire and styles of Yiddish music to adapt pieces and create new works that expressed a range of emotions rooted in the life experience of Jewish communities in the modern world. The group presented its musical creations with the seriousness and intensity of a classical chamber music ensemble and invited audiences to respond in kind.

This concert recording captures Brave Old World after the release of two of its most ambitious recordings, Blood Oranges (1999) and Bless the Fire (2003), and contains selections from both of those CDs. The concert features Alan Bern on piano, accordion, and melodica, Kurt Bjorling on clarinet and bass clarinet, Stuart Brotman on bass and tsimbl (hammered dulcimer), and Michael Alpert, singer and violinist. This concert was presented by KlezKanada, the Montreal summer Yiddish music festival, with which Brave Old World had a close association for more than a decade and where Michael Alpert was the festival’s co-artistic director for many years. Though Brave Old World has performed infrequently in recent years, all four members of the group continue to be active as performers in various other ensembles and as teachers for students of Yiddish music in North America and Europe.