Passover begins this year at sundown on Wednesday, April 1, and Jews in our region and around the world will gather for a Seder, commemorating the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Join us on WRTI to hear music for Passover and learn more about this festive holiday.
Our celebration will begin on Wednesday at 5 p.m., with A Musical Feast for Passover, a perennially popular hourlong program hosted by violinist Itzhak Perlman. Along with well-known classical works like Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt, HWV 54, the program will feature Fromental Halévy's opera La Juive ("The Jewish Woman") and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's choral-orchestral work Passover Psalm, Op. 30. We'll also hear Perlman perform a duet with Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, and in John Williams' main theme from Schindler's List.
On Thursday, April 2, we'll broadcast The Passover Story featuring Theodore Bikel and the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble from 9-10 p.m. on WRTI HD-2. In this classic recording, originally created for NPR in 1990, the Passover story is told and sung through a mix of songs from many sources, to represent the diversity of Jewish cultures. The music ranges from Hebrew folk melodies to ancient Sephardic chants to classical liturgical music and improvisational klezmer.
Throughout our classical programming on Wednesday and Thursday, we'll also hear themes that relate to the occasion, including Ernest Bloch’s From Jewish Life, written in 1924 and performed by cellist Edgar Moreau; the prayer from the Seder scene of Halévy’s La Juive; and selections from The Songs of Solomon by Salamone Rossi.
We wish all of our listeners celebrating Passover a Happy Pesach!