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Jewish Vienna
Daniel Grossmann, Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich, Chen Reiss
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Gustav Mahler, Alexander Zemlinsky

2025Onyx 425320th Century, Jewish Composers, Orchestra, Vocal

Gustav Mahler, whose music is central to this release, wrote, “I am thrice homeless, as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed.” Even prior to the Anschluss, antisemitism in Austria was ubiquitous. Jewish Vienna attests to the Jewish artist’s struggle, in the words of Austrian-Jewish journalist Joseph Roth, “to sow love on earth, and to reap hatred.”

Candice AgreeHost

Soprano Chen Reiss, conductor Daniel Grossmann, and the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich explore the music from Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, at the cutting edge of artistic and musical creativity with a sizable and flourishing Jewish artistic community. The works on this album bring together some of the composers of this age, including lesser-known names such as Josephine Winter, who was murdered by the Nazis in 1943, and Alfred Grünfeld, alongside Alexander Zemlinsky and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The Adagio from Mahler’s Symphony No 10, in an arrangement for chamber orchestra by Cliff Colnot, forms the centerpiece of this delightful orchestral lieder recital.

Praised by Gramophone as “consistently superb, riding the full orchestra without strain and effortlessly floating,” Chen Reiss has performed leading roles with the Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and the Israeli Opera among many others. Daniel Grossmann founded the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich in 2005, growing it into an internationally recognized professional ensemble performing at the highest musical level.

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