Resource Recordings for Klezmer Music
Historic recordings from old phonograph disks

1. Jewish Violinists, volume 1 - edition 2 - revised March, 2003
Solo fiddlers accompanied by either tsimbl or piano:
Josef Solinski
“Romanian Fantasies,” parts 1 - 4, with alternate ‘takes’ of parts 2 and 4.
- recorded in Warsaw, circa 1910, six pieces with tsimbl accompaniment
“Oriental Motif” parts 1 and 2
- with piano accompaniment

Oscar Zehngut
“Oriental Motifs” parts 1 and 2
- recorded in Lemberg (Lvov) Poland, circa 1910-14, with piano accompaniment:

Max Leibowitz
“Behusher Khosid,” “Yidish Hora - A Heymisher Freylekhs,” and “Oriental Melodies” parts 1 and 2
- recorded in New York, 1920, with tsimbl accompaniment:
“Yidisher Tants” and “Yidish Khusedl”
- recorded in New York, 1916, with Philip Friedman, piano

Oscar Zehngut

Jewish Violinists, volume 2 - edition 2 - revised March, 2003
Solo fiddlers accompanied by either tsimbl or piano, except the last selection by M. I. Rabinovich.

Leon Ahl
“Kol Nidrey,” “Mimkomokh Malkenu,” and “Doina”
- recorded in Poland, ca 1910-1914 with tsimbl accompaniment.

H. Steiner
“Haneros haluli,” “Mizmor Shir Khanike,” and “Potpourri of Jewish Melodies” parts 1 and 2
- recorded in Poland, ca 1910-1914 with tsimbl accompaniment.

Anonymous
“Doina, Mazltov, and Honga”
- from an unlabeled test pressing, probably recorded in Poland, ca 1913, with piano accompaniment

Anonymous
“Dem Rebns Tants”
- from an unlabeled test pressing, probably recorded in Poland, ca 1913, with piano accompaniment

Jacob Gegna (Gegner)
“Taxim,” and “A Tfileh fun Mandel Beilis”
- recorded in New York, 1921, with (possibly Lazar Weiner) piano accompaniment.

Abe Schwartz
“National Hora” Parts 1 and 2, “Rumanian Doina,” and “Oriental Hora”
- recorded in New York, 1920, with Sylvia Schwartz, piano.

M. I Rabinovich
“Bazetsn di Kale” parts 1 and 2
- recorded in Kiev, 1938, this is a recording of a large klezmer orchestra with stage actors perfoming a piece of badkhones. The piece features several extended violin solos of extraordinary virtuosity and expressivity.

Belf’s Romanian Orchestra - Rumynski Orkestr Belfa - Edition 2, May 2003

The ‘Belf’s Romanian Orchestra’ is a quartet consisting of clarinet, two violins, and piano. They recorded at least 60 pieces for the Syrena record company from 1912-14. Syrena was a Russian-owned record company operating in Warsaw before the First World War. These records are rare today, but they were highly influential, in both America and Europe, at the time they were made and distributed. These same recordings have also been highly influential in the ‘klezmer revival’ of today. The Belf Orchestra recorded at least 28 pieces for two other record companies, Amur and Extraphon, but none of these are yet known to exist in any collection.*
The translated label information for the Syrena diska is as follows:

Romanian Orchestra
under the direction of
Bandleader V. Belf

Most of their recordings have Yiddish titles, or Russian titles refering to Jewish themes, so the identification of ‘Romanian Orchestra’ is confusing at first. It seems, however, that ‘Romanian’ was understood (by everyone to whom it mattered) to mean ‘Jewish.’
My previous edition of this collection contained 29 pieces. This new edition contains 37 of the Belf Orchestra’s Syrena recordings plus several more pieces by a similarly configured band which recorded copies of the Belf Orchestra’s records. ALL of the recordings in this collection were edited and restored during 2001-2002 from new transfers from original disks. Most of them now sound much better than in the earlier edition and there are many entirely new pieces.

Volume 1 contains their first 20 Syrena sides, COMPLETE, all of which were originally released in 1912.
The NEW pieces are: “Moldavanskaya Dudochka,” “Bolgarskaya,” “Chaban,” “Zhok,” “Rumynski Zhok,” “Rumynski Motiv” and “Bessarabski Freilekhs.”
Volume 2 contains 17 more sides released in 1912 and 1913. In addition there are three recordings from the ‘Stella Kontsert Rekord’ company of a very good band that recorded copies of the Belf Orchestra’s Syrena records. These records are even rarer than the Syrena disks and they were not even known to exist (by anyone invloved with klezmer music) until very recently. As a result, we have imitaions of records that are known to have been made by Belf’s Orchestra, but for which no surviving copies have been found!

Label of Stella Kontsert Rekord no. 13928
Stella Concert Record
Oy, ‘sa Falshe Velt
(Yiddish: “Oh, it’s a false world”)
Virtuoso Clarinetist
performer of Romanian-Oriental Melodies
composed by Belf

Belf’s Orchestra recorded “Oy, ‘sa Falshe Velt” for Syrena in 1912
(number 12425), but no copy of this record has been found.

* The most extensive research into these recordings has been done by Jeffrey Wollock and his findings were published in an article, “European Recordings of Jewish Instrumental Folk Music, 1911-14” in the ARSC Journal, volume XXVIII / i 1997. (Association for Recorded Sound Collections)



RETURN to Resources Main Page