Childhood Scenes by Atar Trio & Yeela Avital

"Childhood Scenes" Is an Israeli anthology of children songs- old and new, arranged for piano trio and a soprano singer.
This album summarizes six months of work on a musical project devoted to the subject of childhood. It is not a children's CD in the usual sense even though most of it speaks to the taste of children. The album contains a collection of children's songs on which two generations of adults grew up in Israel since the 1950s, along with contemporary songs commissioned from young Israeli composers, which were composed for us recently. The adult audience will find in this album a multifaceted commentary on the subject of childhood ranging from the naïve to the less naïve, and from the simple to the sophisticated. Arrangements of well-known classics always present a special challenge: how do you create fresh versions of songs arranged countless times in the past and how do you turn a forgotten tune into a new piece? Since the question of “what exactly is children's music” does not have a single answer, we hope this album will be enjoyed by children and adults alike.

For us, the musicians, the process of creating the album was both fascinating and fun, as we collected materials, chose the songs, arranged them and perfected our performance. We were especially excited to discover some lost gems such as the wonderful children’s song cycle "Orit’s Stories," composed by Mark Lavri to the words of Michael Deshe.

Besides the songs, the disk is dotted with segments of chamber music from the classical repertory. We chose to end the album with an original rendition of the piece by Yehezkel Braun “Flat for Rent” based on the story by Leah Goldberg read by Benny Hendel. Hendel’s voice is familiar to the audience from the radio broadcasts and from the dubbing he contributed to the successful television series "Once Upon a Time," upon which many children in Israel grew up.

Like the album A Light in Your Window, devoted to Hebrew classics, Childhood Scenes is also the fruit of collaboration with soprano Yeela Avital. Here too we maintained the concept of chamber arrangements in the spirit of artistic music and recording in a single format just like at a concert – without a separation of channels or use of additional effects or instruments. The Childhood Scenes project is the latest in the Atar Trio’s programs that present the music loving public with classics of Israeli music, Jewish music and international folklore.

On a personal note, I hope that even in the era of the “rating” culture, when unlimited music is more accessible and available than ever, the Childhood Scenes album will draw interest because of its fresh take on the genre of children's music and will play on your heartstrings.

Ofer Shelley
See our home page for more projects at www.atartrio.com

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