Yes it's from that collection. I've never come across the slower version so if you have it and can post it would be interesting to compare. Either way it demonstrates Schmidt's remarkable vocal skills.
Strange; your comment never reached my mailbox. Anyway, here's the slower version: /watch?v=QFcv04MOq68
The pitch is obviosly wrong, but I think the overall sound is somewhat cleaner, and the ends of the phrases don't sink in the noise like they do in the correct version - especially at the beginning.
Truly fantastic; never fails to amaze me. This is the version from the 'Religiöse Gesänge und Arien' album, right? I first heard this piece on "Golden Voices of the Synagogue" compilation where it was remastered in a different way and at a different pitch, so it's 17 seconds longer than this one and sounds very different. I'd gotten so used to the 'slower' version that now I can't get used to this one... (Unless they're two different recordings after all and my ears are made of tin.)
It seems this is a private recording made soon after he had performed in concert in Palestine on 9 April 1934. The pianist is Gershon Hermann Sweet. Another prayer, in Hebrew, was recorded on the same occasion. Both are included on a Preiser CD.
Everyone who has to comment on this video should forget about politics , that mattered long ago- as hard as it may seem to those hardheads from the present.
Joseph was a child of multicultural ancestory- no one can claim today.
Another short, but great cantor, also killed as a young man. He left a few recordings from Berlin Type in "israel bakon yehi." I was in Germany about ten years ago and found what seems to be a pirate recording of Schmidt singing in the Reform Synagogue of Berlin. It seemed that someone secretly brought in a recorder, and recorded the entire two hour service. The soloists were Schmidt and some of the other great opera singers of the time. It was a great find.
@Chazzan805 I'm confused. I listened to the recording of Bakon's Y'hi Ratzon which was clearly recorded in a studio - not live. Are you suggesting that the live recording allegedly with Schmidt is available on Youtube?
Not sure what you're talking about. Not sure why you use such strong words either. Who claimed that the live Schmidt recordings are on youtube? I said very clearly in my comment THAT I BOUGHT IT IN GERMANY 10 YEARS AGO.
@Chazzan805 I apologize - didn't intend for it to come across negatively. I was confused as you said: "Another short, but great cantor, also killed as a young man. He left a few recordings from Berlin Type in 'israel bakon yehi.'" I thought you were referring to Schmidt when you made that comment.
Who was the cantor in the live recorded you purchased? Who were the other notable soloists in the choir?
The live cantor was Joseph Schmidt along with Paula Lindberg, I believe, another female, maybe a mezzo, and a HEAVY German bass. Two hours, what a collection. It's from the reform shul in Berlin. It's in the very heavy, dark German style. More like Wagner. The music for some of the prayers were taken directly from Schubert and other composers. I couldn't believe it! If only I could find it. There was another cantorial collection put out in , Es Wird Nicht Untergehen.
@Chazzan805 Pinchik is not really comparable to Schmidt. JS was not particularly known as a cantor as much as an opera singer. He obviously had a fantastic voice and was well equipped to sing different genres. Athough Pinchik was a great cantor, he was certainly no opera singer.
Stil not sure where you're coming from. I wasn't making any comparisons. Re-read my post. Just suggesting a nice listening experience for some good old people on youtube.
Your point is fair. What caught my attention is that I have never heard/ thought of the two singers in the same sentence. I too however, enjoy the artistry of both.
Very beautiful, I didn't know this singer; it´s a pity the recording is not excellent. His style is different from cantors like Josef Rosenblat (he is more in the lyrical training, just as Jan Peerce, who also did wonderful recordings of the most celebrated pieces of Jewish cantorial). Thanks for this jewel.
Regardless of one's faith, one can fill the passions of this man as he reaches out for God. I studied voice with a cantor. His love of God and music is with me to this day.....41 years later.
It is from the part of the Sabbath service when the Torah is taken out of the Holy Ark to be read. The essence of the prayer is that we serve God alone. It is not really mournful, but fervent and soulful.
Als ganz kleines Mädchen , ca. 7-jährig habe ich mich in die Stimme von Joseph Schmidt " verliebt " ! Nun dieses Juwel zu endecken ist für mich unglaublich ! Internet sei Dank ........Diese Melancholie und Zerissenheit in der Stimme berührt meine Seele .........Ein ganz Grosser ist viel zu früh von der Bühne des lebens gegangen . Durch Intoleranz , Arroganz und mangelndem Respekt ! Welche Schande ......
At least his beautiful voice still lives on - the Jewish people must absolutely revere this legacy. It is a testimony to so much beauty and so much brutality and sadness all at the same time. Words cannot express, but thank you so much for posting this.
I'm so sorry my father (who loved Opera and Cantorial music) didn't live to hear this amazing voice of him. Haunting. No words, just tears in my eyes.
He had all of life and death in his voice and his expression. After hearing his portrayal of Eleazar in the heart-breaking aria to his daughter could never be convinced by any other opera singer--even the greatest of them.
@meltzerboy Ah, of course! I grew up with that recording and it was my standard for decades. His vocal prowess is unequalled as compared with Schmidt and of course gives so many advantages of depth and color. Somehow though, at this point in my life Schmidt's complete emotional surrender--and triumph-- is so wrenchingly human.
What an artist can do! His stupendous technique not only doesn't interfere with, but serves to model or display, the naked humility and wholebeing commitment of the lyrics from the Zohar. Would that the lyricist could hear this. I can't imagine what "better" would be. What a gift he left us and generations yet unborn.
I am a African American Muslim,I dont know much about Jews or their traditions, but this is a beautiful example of the Jewish culture.I wish I could understand the words.
He died. He was MURDERED in a displaced persons camp in Switzerland by some Nazi ****!
My grandfather, who forged his papers in the first place was trying to get him out of Switzerland. Joseph was his first cousin! All of our Schmidts are musicially gifted but Joseph was our Angel. The cantorial tradition in which he was trained was Romanian and I am not sure if any of the practitioners survived the Shoah. I wish I had known him and heard him. My grandfather could daveen too.
I just heard his UNA FURTIVA ARIA on you tube and the comments, some really made me mad about his death, total denial by one nut case about his tragic death and I had to get into it with the idiot but the aria was well sung, a great cantor and opera singer. Bravo
I just heard his UNA FURTIVA ARIA on you tube and the comments, some really made me mad about his death, total denial by one nut case about his tragic death and I had to get into it with the idiot but the aria was well sung, a great cantor and opera singer. Bravo
fantastic cantor without sounding operatic at all, really one of the very best, with Sirota, Rosenblatt, and all the old great Cantors who had the real Orthodox style, lyric tenor of great beauty.
IF I only had a recording of him daveening Kol Nidre. I hear it would have moved angels to tears and repentance but we will never hear it because it was never recorded because the Nazi sympathizers in Switzerland murdered him!
Joseph schmidt has one of the finest cantorial voices I've heard. I've sung with Tucker, Peerce, Kousevitski, Genshoff, Diamond, Oysher and others. He is every bit as fine a chazen as the others.
Joseph was my grandfather's first cousin. I wish they had been able to record his version of "Kol Nidre" my grandfather said it had people in tears! If Joseph had not gone back to Roumania but had left on the papers my grandfather forged for him, he would not have been murdered in the Swiss Displaced persons camp. I wish I had known him.
No doubt. Schmidt was beside Estrongo Nachama the best Chazzan of the 20.Century! Very astonishing is the fact, that many Jews in the US never heard from them. Make a test and ask a Chazzan in your shul.
Such a wonderful vocal display as this reminds everyone of Jos. Schmidt's short and magnificent life that was so tragically destroyed in a refugee camp. Man's inhumanity to his fellow man is refuted by this beautiful song and this courageous man will live on through time to come. Thank you for posting this!
3 personn are deaf. this is amzing!!
petrof4056 7 months ago in playlist Joseph Schmidt
This is amazing singing. His voice, technique and passion simply send shivers down my spine. Thank you for posting!
HallucinationLiz 10 months ago
unvergessen!!
chajiim 10 months ago
The life of Joseph Schmidt is an inspiration to all humanity.
aristopus 10 months ago
Yes it's from that collection. I've never come across the slower version so if you have it and can post it would be interesting to compare. Either way it demonstrates Schmidt's remarkable vocal skills.
gregnz2006 1 year ago
Strange; your comment never reached my mailbox. Anyway, here's the slower version: /watch?v=QFcv04MOq68
The pitch is obviosly wrong, but I think the overall sound is somewhat cleaner, and the ends of the phrases don't sink in the noise like they do in the correct version - especially at the beginning.
deepesttottenham 1 year ago
Truly fantastic; never fails to amaze me. This is the version from the 'Religiöse Gesänge und Arien' album, right? I first heard this piece on "Golden Voices of the Synagogue" compilation where it was remastered in a different way and at a different pitch, so it's 17 seconds longer than this one and sounds very different. I'd gotten so used to the 'slower' version that now I can't get used to this one... (Unless they're two different recordings after all and my ears are made of tin.)
deepesttottenham 1 year ago
It seems this is a private recording made soon after he had performed in concert in Palestine on 9 April 1934. The pianist is Gershon Hermann Sweet. Another prayer, in Hebrew, was recorded on the same occasion. Both are included on a Preiser CD.
saltburner2 1 year ago
When he perished at the hands of the Nazis, music decreased from this world...
ChaznAvi 1 year ago
Das schlimmste ist das er in einem Schweizer!!! Konzentrationslager gestorben ist,nein schlimmer man hat ihn verecken lassen...
Meine Mutter hat mir viel über diesen kleinen großen Mann erzählt und wie stolz sie war das er einer "Ihrer Leut" war.
peercom 1 year ago
Everyone who has to comment on this video should forget about politics , that mattered long ago- as hard as it may seem to those hardheads from the present.
Joseph was a child of multicultural ancestory- no one can claim today.
Fellfloete 1 year ago
Très interessant et explicite.Le chant est toujours issu d'une culture,de sa richesse dépend le résultat.Authentique autant...que se peut!
abracadabranque 1 year ago
Another short, but great cantor, also killed as a young man. He left a few recordings from Berlin Type in "israel bakon yehi." I was in Germany about ten years ago and found what seems to be a pirate recording of Schmidt singing in the Reform Synagogue of Berlin. It seemed that someone secretly brought in a recorder, and recorded the entire two hour service. The soloists were Schmidt and some of the other great opera singers of the time. It was a great find.
Chazzan805 1 year ago
@Chazzan805 I'm confused. I listened to the recording of Bakon's Y'hi Ratzon which was clearly recorded in a studio - not live. Are you suggesting that the live recording allegedly with Schmidt is available on Youtube?
bluechazzan 1 year ago
@bluechazzan
Not sure what you're talking about. Not sure why you use such strong words either. Who claimed that the live Schmidt recordings are on youtube? I said very clearly in my comment THAT I BOUGHT IT IN GERMANY 10 YEARS AGO.
Chazzan805 1 year ago
@Chazzan805 I apologize - didn't intend for it to come across negatively. I was confused as you said: "Another short, but great cantor, also killed as a young man. He left a few recordings from Berlin Type in 'israel bakon yehi.'" I thought you were referring to Schmidt when you made that comment.
Who was the cantor in the live recorded you purchased? Who were the other notable soloists in the choir?
bluechazzan 1 year ago
@bluechazzan
The live cantor was Joseph Schmidt along with Paula Lindberg, I believe, another female, maybe a mezzo, and a HEAVY German bass. Two hours, what a collection. It's from the reform shul in Berlin. It's in the very heavy, dark German style. More like Wagner. The music for some of the prayers were taken directly from Schubert and other composers. I couldn't believe it! If only I could find it. There was another cantorial collection put out in , Es Wird Nicht Untergehen.
Chazzan805 1 year ago
Type in pierre pinchik roza di shabbos for another great cantorial rendition from this time.
Chazzan805 1 year ago
@Chazzan805 Pinchik is not really comparable to Schmidt. JS was not particularly known as a cantor as much as an opera singer. He obviously had a fantastic voice and was well equipped to sing different genres. Athough Pinchik was a great cantor, he was certainly no opera singer.
bluechazzan 1 year ago
@bluechazzan
Stil not sure where you're coming from. I wasn't making any comparisons. Re-read my post. Just suggesting a nice listening experience for some good old people on youtube.
Chazzan805 1 year ago
Comment removed
bluechazzan 1 year ago
@Chazzan805 I don't think my response got posted.
Your point is fair. What caught my attention is that I have never heard/ thought of the two singers in the same sentence. I too however, enjoy the artistry of both.
bluechazzan
bluechazzan 1 year ago
This is sung in the language that Jesus spoke.
I have a special love for this wonderful singer
anneke
Dutchandance 2 years ago
Wow. Never heard Schmidt sing this before, or even really in this style. Bravo.
Cantormatis 2 years ago 3
Very beautiful, I didn't know this singer; it´s a pity the recording is not excellent. His style is different from cantors like Josef Rosenblat (he is more in the lyrical training, just as Jan Peerce, who also did wonderful recordings of the most celebrated pieces of Jewish cantorial). Thanks for this jewel.
alontas 2 years ago
His cantorial training gave him amazing flexibility and accuracy in fast runs - Jadlowker is perhaps the one who comes closest to this ability.
Most moving.
saltburner2 2 years ago
Regardless of one's faith, one can fill the passions of this man as he reaches out for God. I studied voice with a cantor. His love of God and music is with me to this day.....41 years later.
Lovelytenor1 2 years ago
It is from the part of the Sabbath service when the Torah is taken out of the Holy Ark to be read. The essence of the prayer is that we serve God alone. It is not really mournful, but fervent and soulful.
gbarnardoh 2 years ago
Als ganz kleines Mädchen , ca. 7-jährig habe ich mich in die Stimme von Joseph Schmidt " verliebt " ! Nun dieses Juwel zu endecken ist für mich unglaublich ! Internet sei Dank ........Diese Melancholie und Zerissenheit in der Stimme berührt meine Seele .........Ein ganz Grosser ist viel zu früh von der Bühne des lebens gegangen . Durch Intoleranz , Arroganz und mangelndem Respekt ! Welche Schande ......
Taormina
MultiSicilia 2 years ago 19
Herrlich, einzigartig, zum dahinschmelzen.
SwingheiniDD 2 years ago 3
Thank you for sharing this. It's a revelation for those of us who have never had the opportunity to hear this genre' before.
skatesindreams 2 years ago 2
At least his beautiful voice still lives on - the Jewish people must absolutely revere this legacy. It is a testimony to so much beauty and so much brutality and sadness all at the same time. Words cannot express, but thank you so much for posting this.
Manxypop 2 years ago 4
Comment removed
centralhond 3 years ago
I'm so sorry my father (who loved Opera and Cantorial music) didn't live to hear this amazing voice of him. Haunting. No words, just tears in my eyes.
wolkowy1 3 years ago
He had all of life and death in his voice and his expression. After hearing his portrayal of Eleazar in the heart-breaking aria to his daughter could never be convinced by any other opera singer--even the greatest of them.
castellomatese 3 years ago 2
@castellomatese Caruso's rendition of Eleazar's aria from La Juive is also quite convincing.
meltzerboy 1 year ago
@meltzerboy Ah, of course! I grew up with that recording and it was my standard for decades. His vocal prowess is unequalled as compared with Schmidt and of course gives so many advantages of depth and color. Somehow though, at this point in my life Schmidt's complete emotional surrender--and triumph-- is so wrenchingly human.
castellomatese 1 year ago
Wonderful!
Could someone give us an idea of what the song/prayer is about?
AmosPressley 3 years ago
The text says "I am a servant of the Lord - I walk in the way of the Lord and follow his precepts and commandments"- that's the basic idea.
rozbarak 3 years ago
Heartbreaking. Technically mindblowing.
KissaMyEyes 3 years ago 2
Yes, and yes.
What an artist can do! His stupendous technique not only doesn't interfere with, but serves to model or display, the naked humility and wholebeing commitment of the lyrics from the Zohar. Would that the lyricist could hear this. I can't imagine what "better" would be. What a gift he left us and generations yet unborn.
Thank you, gregnz for putting this up.
Rachim Baskin
rachimbaskin 2 years ago 6
wonderful and amazing, fantastic :)
jeannevdb 3 years ago 2
wonderful
siyawash 3 years ago
AND a syringe full of poison straight to the heart, I heard... but I wasn't there-- he was just my grandfather's first cousin.
joeocho88 3 years ago
That was wonderful. Thankyou.
spurtler 3 years ago
Maestro Schmidt was murdered by the Swiss, make no mistake about it.
ruthzitron 3 years ago
I am a African American Muslim,I dont know much about Jews or their traditions, but this is a beautiful example of the Jewish culture.I wish I could understand the words.
gazzi22 3 years ago 2
Thank you for posting this rare and important recording, the only example of Schmidt's cantorial singing that I have heard. God bless you!
theirisher 3 years ago
There are few more, theirisher. They are all on Preiser CD "Schmidt sings religios songs & arias".
mltube 3 years ago
Thanks for the heads-up! I'll have to find that CD. Take care.
theirisher 3 years ago
He died. He was MURDERED in a displaced persons camp in Switzerland by some Nazi ****!
My grandfather, who forged his papers in the first place was trying to get him out of Switzerland. Joseph was his first cousin! All of our Schmidts are musicially gifted but Joseph was our Angel. The cantorial tradition in which he was trained was Romanian and I am not sure if any of the practitioners survived the Shoah. I wish I had known him and heard him. My grandfather could daveen too.
joeocho88 3 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
I don't believe he was directly murdered by the Nazis...didn't he die of malnutrition and overworking?
GermanOperaSinger 3 years ago
I just heard his UNA FURTIVA ARIA on you tube and the comments, some really made me mad about his death, total denial by one nut case about his tragic death and I had to get into it with the idiot but the aria was well sung, a great cantor and opera singer. Bravo
pearlmuth3 4 years ago
I just heard his UNA FURTIVA ARIA on you tube and the comments, some really made me mad about his death, total denial by one nut case about his tragic death and I had to get into it with the idiot but the aria was well sung, a great cantor and opera singer. Bravo
pearlmuth3 4 years ago
fantastic cantor without sounding operatic at all, really one of the very best, with Sirota, Rosenblatt, and all the old great Cantors who had the real Orthodox style, lyric tenor of great beauty.
pearlmuth3 4 years ago
joeocho, that's a really interesting story. You are very lucky to have such a great artist in your family.
dobrov1 4 years ago
IF I only had a recording of him daveening Kol Nidre. I hear it would have moved angels to tears and repentance but we will never hear it because it was never recorded because the Nazi sympathizers in Switzerland murdered him!
joeocho88 4 years ago
Amen B"H
sarapouly 4 years ago
One more treasure to cherish!Bravo!
paulostroff99 4 years ago
Joseph schmidt has one of the finest cantorial voices I've heard. I've sung with Tucker, Peerce, Kousevitski, Genshoff, Diamond, Oysher and others. He is every bit as fine a chazen as the others.
justinsright 4 years ago 2
Miraculous!He was referred to by many as the Jewish Caruso.
paulostroff99 4 years ago
Joseph was my grandfather's first cousin. I wish they had been able to record his version of "Kol Nidre" my grandfather said it had people in tears! If Joseph had not gone back to Roumania but had left on the papers my grandfather forged for him, he would not have been murdered in the Swiss Displaced persons camp. I wish I had known him.
joeocho88 4 years ago
A stikele chazunes mit neshume!
alexanderlinden 4 years ago
Beautiful!
dalferr 4 years ago
No doubt. Schmidt was beside Estrongo Nachama the best Chazzan of the 20.Century! Very astonishing is the fact, that many Jews in the US never heard from them. Make a test and ask a Chazzan in your shul.
eur8ftm 4 years ago
I would also include Herschmann and Rosenblatt in that list.
mltube 4 years ago
These singers will live forever in our hearts ,no matter what has happend.
opera60 4 years ago
Amen!
paulostroff99 4 years ago
great technique!
ilkertenor 4 years ago
superb
ErnaSack 4 years ago
Especially precious for those who knows the threads of his life.
How true this complain is.
jurek46pink 4 years ago
I grew up with the stories about him , his visits to Holland and his music.
a Dutchman
NicoleElla 4 years ago
Zichrono beraja!
jimenezburillo 4 years ago
thank you for posting this: his stile is beautiful, somehow like pinchik. cantorfahlenkamp
cantorfahlenkamp 4 years ago
This is gorgeous. There is no need to understand the words they just appeal to your soul. Thank you
schoen10 4 years ago
This is a gem! Many so called "chazzanim" or would be cantors need to listen to this in order to grasp how to gain full control of one's voice
samega 4 years ago
I guess I can't embed it. :(
epa300 4 years ago
Unbelievable.
epa300 4 years ago
we must not hear but listen to this voice who came from the deepness of the age- and tears should came on our cheeks
alainwilliam 5 years ago 2
Such a wonderful vocal display as this reminds everyone of Jos. Schmidt's short and magnificent life that was so tragically destroyed in a refugee camp. Man's inhumanity to his fellow man is refuted by this beautiful song and this courageous man will live on through time to come. Thank you for posting this!
blakemooney 5 years ago
sbalorditivo!!!!
canegrace 5 years ago
Thanks so much! This is beautiful.
zigeunerviolin 5 years ago