Drawing upon Hebrew melodies for the eve of the Day of Atonement. The work
was FP at a concert by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in October of
1881.
Kol Nidrei, Op. 47, is a composition for cello and orchestra written by Max Bruch.
Bruch completed the composition in Liverpool, England, before it was first published in Berlin in 1881. It is styled as an Adagio on 2 Hebrew Melodies for Cello and Orchestra with Harp and consists of a series of variations on two main themes of Jewish origin. The first theme, which also lends the piece its title, comes from the Kol Nidre prayer which is recited during the evening service on Yom Kippur. In Bruch's setting of the melody, the cello imitates the rhapsodic voice of the hazzan who chants the liturgy in the synagogue. The second subject of the piece is quoted from the middle section of Isaac Nathan's arrangement of "O Weep for Those that Wept on Babel's Stream", a lyric which was penned by Lord Byron in a collection called Hebrew Melodies (which also included the famous poem "She Walks in Beauty"). Wikipedia | Search Amazon.com for Bruch Kol Nidrei Op 47
