DANIEL GALAY

An excellent new work for cello and strings, In Memoriam, to the victims of the terrorist attack in Buenos Aires, 1994, by Daniel Galay was premiered. The Israeli work is moving, filled with fearful trills, angry recitatives and mournful lyricism, expressed effectively by cellist Racheli Galay, the composer's daughter.

Max Stern, Jerusalem Post, Israel, May 19, 1998

 

The performance of the work by Israeli composer Daniel Galay (Overture for

Symphony Orchestra) was praised by the music critics and the audience as well.

Yonatan Peled, Kesher, Argentina, August 10, 1999

 

Daniel Galay was able to infuse the spirit of Klezmer, Yiddish folk music, with classical grandeur. The title, Klezmer Music with a Classical Touch, doesn't say enough…  

Burt Saidel, The Oakwood Register, USA, August 22, 2000

 

The composer and performer presented three of his pieces with mastery,

that gave him his international recognition.

Derniers Nouvelles d'Alsace, November 6, 2000

 

The first program by the Zagreb String Quartet was very affectionately accepted by the numerous audiences at the Mimara Museum. The program included a world permiere of the composition written by an Israeli pianist and composer Daniel Galay. It is an interesting work of art, a baroque-like suite with 8 parts, with a prominent avant-garde direction and beautiful fragments like the 3rd and 5th parts, with warm lyrics from the 4th and 6th parts.

Nenad Turkalj, Vjesnik, Croatia, December 8, 2000

 

Klezmer Tunes by Daniel Galay is brilliantly clever, witty and bags of fun….

I especially liked "Far Pinyes Tekhter" and "Fardreyte Mayse". A must have for klezmer fans.   

Monica Lelher, Music Reviews, England, February 2001.

Klezmer Tunes

Galay's writing on this disc is for clarinet and piano – it brings a formalized, classical setting to a folkloric music. His written klezmer books consist of eighteen pieces, as does this disc; and each one here bears a dedication ‘far’ (in English ‘for’) someone or something. Most are very brief – around the two-minute mark - and only one breaks the four-minute barrier. One of Galay’s favorite interpreters is the clarinetist Michèle Gingras, the long-time Professor of Clarinet at Miami University and she is well versed in the klezmatic arts and takes the stage here with admirable aplomb.

The pieces range from melancholy to vibrant, from reflective to voluble and most stops in between. The notes incidentally refer to klezmer as ‘Jewish soul music’. Ugh. So let’s forget that embarrassment – Marvin Gaye in a yarmulke anyone? – and get down to some descriptive stuff.

For Rivka has a full complement of expressive curlicues, strong in the lower register as much as in the piping, insistent upper one. It’s good to see that Galay explores the lower register so consistently and if he never becomes, as it were, ‘chalumeau blue’, then this is a strong component of his writing. Farfel is a sinuous lament and Fading does, cleverly, just what is says, winding down just as one expects a cadential passage. A snack is suitably jolly with cimbalom runs for the piano – Galay doesn’t write too many of these so they are to be savored – whilst Forever! gives us some tense chording to support a fluid and finely noble clarinet lyric. Lateness is wistful and reflective and then the music seems to ratchet up the tempestuous bar for the final furlong. A crooked story is extrovert and stomping, For bride and groom is duly celebratory and avuncular with excited figures throughout. The final track has a brief guest appearance by Rabbi Tom Heyn. It’s not an onerous gig for the Rabbi and he majors in oi vaying for one minute seventeen.

We have here some highly enjoyable and versatile music-making from the Gingras-Matson duo. The songs are respectful, and certainly not stylised or formalised out of recognition. Instead they marry classical elements with klezmer ones with real success.

Jonathan Woolf

​

The composer Daniel Galay has brought this traditional music to the concert hall through his own performances…The pieces capture every mood from happiness and joy to tunes of somber sentiment and sorrow, together with the inimitable Jewish humor. Here are enjoyable tunes for every occasion, exuberant and nostalgic in turn. (Klezmer Tunes with a Classical Touch)                                                        Australian Music Teacher Magazine, March-April 2001.

 

The audience listened carefully to the narrative part (in the tradition of Hassidic music) that was performed with freshness. The work (Second Symphony) in one movement was dedicated to the Poznan Filharmony and its conductor.

Andrzej Chylewsky, Muzyka, Poland, April 29, ‏2001

 

Very colorful, non-conventional and innovative…The Symphony with the Hassidic sounds his without any doubt with a quasi-romantic content and with an expression of nostalgia.

Teresa Dorozala, Gazeta Wyborzah, Poland, April 30, 2001

 

Galay's "Farkatshte Arbl" and "Farfelekh" from Klezmer Tunes with a Classical Touch were received with great admiration.

Chicago Shimpo, USA, April 26, 2002

 

Chamber, klezmer concert a noteworthy show of musicianship. Galay's command of the Klezmer style was pronouncedly on view in four selections from his Klezmer Tunes with a Classical Touch.

Peter Jacob, The Herald Times, USA, September 25, 2002

 

The world premiere of Di Kupe that took place at the Museum of Contemporary art in Strasbourg lost a very profound impression on the audience.

Genadi Estraykh, Forverts (N.Y.), November 22, 2002

 

It was a very touching musical moment with Galay's music to the poem of Peretz Markish The Pile.

M. B-G, Derniers Nouvelles d'Alsace, November 11, 2002

 

Klezmer with a classical touch. A very pleasant, enjoyable listening experience.  The compositions are often highly reminiscent of traditional klezmer tunes, at least in parts, while at the same time often recalling romantic and late classical composers or styles, and almost as of the 20th century idioms…The blending of klezmer and classical is very smooth and works very well….The performance is flawless, the ensemble play very well…

The blending of klezmer and classical is very smooth and works very well indeed

Renaissance Man Review, March 19, 2003

 

The three Klezmer Tunes were rendered in the instrumental style of the DUO

(Morini-Porta). The vitality and popular soul of the klezmer tradition.

W. Edwin Rosasco. IL SECOLO XlX (Italy), July 31, 2003

 

The climax of the event was the artistic program including an original work by the well-known composer Daniel Galay. The music was integrally bound to the text.

Mordkhe Dunitz, Forverts (N.Y.), October 24, 2003

 

This work (The Twin-Sisters to a text of Avrum Sutskever) that represents a successful combination of tonal and avant-garde sounds impacted the public thanks to the excellent interaction between sounds and text.

Chiquita Levov, Aurora, October 30, 2003

 

 

The Twin Sisters was performed by the Israel Quartet for Contemporary Music. Such a big pleasure! Such a spiritual satisfaction!

Milka Shulshteyn, Yiddishe Heftn, December ‏‏2003

 

The scenic montage has been illustrated with a contemporary music composition by Daniel Galay and performed by a string quartet.

The evening had a great success.

Itskhak Luden, Lebns Fragn, May-June 2004

 

(Klezmer Tunes with a Classical Touch, vol. 1. and vol. 2)  The melodies are accessible to a general audience, but they are also challenging to the performers.

Michele Gringras, The Clarinet, September 2005

 

(About the CD "Growing" including Mayim-Maya by Daniel Galay in the performance of the MUSE women's choir, USA)…is a powerful, thought-provoking, inspirational CD that touches us on many levels!

NEW CHORAL CD RELEASES, September 30, 2005

 

Standing ovations for their performance of the world premiere Mayim Maya

 

Not just for old times' sake. Daniel Galay's opera (Khayim ben Khaye), adapted from an extraordinary folktale, shows how we can live Yiddish, even today.

….the audience at Yiddish Cultural Center was impressed.

Greer Fay Cashman, Jerusalem Post, January 23, 2007

 

The chamber opera to a Yiddish libretto Khayim Ben Khaye is without doubt an artistic phenomena and not less we can see in it a prove, that Yiddish is still alive and continues to be a source of creativity and inspiration 

With Khaym ben Khaye the music world gain an extraordinary opera.

The Yiddish world may be very proud of it.

Pesya Portnoy, Forverts, NY, February 2, 2007

 

(Khayim Ben Khaye) Outstanding composition of Daniel Galay with a marvelous performance of a chamber ensemble of 8 musicians with the composer by the piano and with the impressive singing of the two young soloists Natali Digora, soprano, and Michael Gaysinski, baritone.

Itsakhk Luden, lebns Fragn, March-April 2007

 

 

(In Memoriam) The work composed with deep emotions. It will last in the future and it touches all of us. The emotional sensibility of the piece can not live us indifferently.

Dorotea Gonet, Miasta Gazeta Lublin, February 18, 2007

 

D.G. is a contemporary musical  intellectual that masters the new trends and styles in music, and in the same time he is a folk musician, we can even say;
a klezmer evolved in the musical tradition of the East European Jewry.

Yossi Peles, Tel-Aviv, February 27, 2007

 

("In the Kingdom of the Cross") Unforgettable concert. Music that its great achievement is the success to strengthen words that shout strongly without it. 

Hagay Hitron, Haaretz, February 28, 2007

 

 

(In the Kingdom of the Cross) An impressive, we even can say, unforgettable cultural-musical event.

Pesya Portnoy, Forverts, March 16, 2007

 

 

(Duo Halaf-Langheim, violin and viola) They finished their concert with a wonderful piece of Jewish Music by Daniel Galay.

Tslilah Avner Helman, Epoch Times, May 2, 2007

 

 

("Is he still alive?!" ) The deep impression that lives in the audience  the dramatic-musical creation of Daniel Galay can not easily be forgotten and go with him for a long, long time.

Pesya Portnoy, Forverts, April, 2008

 

(Is he still alive?) The ne work by Daniel Galay based in dramatic texts of the writer Tzvi Kanar left a deep impression on the audience.

Itskhok Luden,  Lebns-Fragn, March-April, 2008

 

About "Vos, er lebt nokh…?! - Is he still alive…?!"

…the neutral narration of the individual horrors of the Holocaust, the danger of demonization after, and the (partial) recovery, had the most impact for me, as one who feels through words, as well as the powerful moving tenor voice of Israel Rand. Daniel Galay on piano and accordion, Daniel Hoffman on violin, and Gershon Weisserfurer on euphonium and ud, created a world of emotions in the evening, moving from the hopelessness and despair to the attempts to forge reconciliations and new

Beginnings that transcend the terrifying experience… Go. Don't think. Go!

Karen Alkalay-Gut, Tel-Aviv Diary, March 12, 2008

 

("My father is recruted to the firemen") A great resonance had the concert with the well-known Israeli composer and pianist Daniel Galay. ..this music develops according to the rules of a small chamber cantata…The composer makes his delicate interpretation of a story by Bruno Schulz delicate with a lot of care.

Maria Karalius, Weekly Digest "Day", Kiev, July 31, 2008

 

We enjoyed  with clarinetist Zewald the Klezmer Tunes by Daniel Galay and it was a very enjoyable afternoon. (Orchestral performancewith conductor Jeroen Weierink).

Alfredo Brotons Munos, Levante, Spain October 22, 2008

 

Daniel Galay (Beit Frankfurt Music Center, Tel-Aviv) is a prolific composer and pianist with a substantial oeuvre for piano. His paper was a more philosophical excursus on the challenges for composers in reaching out to audiences and stimulating increasingly alienated and divided publics, through embracing a more roots-based aesthetic. In its thought-provoking nature, Galay's paper complemented some of the ideas aired in the lively composers' panel discussion

Malcolm Miller, JMI, report Arts Music of Israel report, March 2011

 

(Klezmer Suite by Galay arranged by Gregory Barrett)

"Farfelekh" provides a new texture to bring the suite to an ebullient conclusion, Glissandi and thrills to the fore. Ideal for sharpening up the intonation and ensemble of the clarinet section of your band!

Robert Parker Music View, May 11, 2011

 

The Twin Sisters, Israel Festival 2011

The Twin Sisters – a personal homage to a true story by Abraham Sutskever. The blending of music, text and video made this performance an exciting evening, and let's hope that it will be performed also in the future and not only at the Israel  Festival…Daniel Galay composed music full of Jewish motives…

 

Ghetto, Camp and Forest,

Songs of the victims of the Shoah that we cannot measure their power and fear. It was a chamber concert modest and powerful. Not a concert but a Ceremony of Communion. This event with the title Ghetto, Camp and Forest was carried by the singer Vira Lozinsky, Daniel Galay, piano and Racheli, his daughter, cellist. The words in Yiddish and Hebrew, on the mezzo soprano voice, warm and rich, with highly clear pronunciation and the appropriate restrained.

 

Haaretz, Hagai Hitron, 24th of April 2014

 

The Bride and Groom of Nemirov. Chamber opera, Tel-Aviv 2014

The talented music work "The Bride and Groom of Nemirov can give inspiration to other compositors to base their future works on Yiddish literary sources. Let's hope that Galay's opera will have a long life on the stage.

Sergo Bengelsdorf, Forverts, April 5, 2015

 

 

Thank you so much for the wonderful gift of the CD and video of your compositions. I've already watched the video of "Itsche Heyshir". The chamber opera is really unique in so many ways, and displays a very high level of creative thinking, along with skillful and expressive musical writing. I really appreciate your generous gift and your creative artistry!

 

I just watched the video of "Greentime". This is an extraordinary work, and the very skillfully created music really captures and reflects the spirit of the stage action. Wonderfully done! My congratulations too for the very effective choreography, and for Racheli's able conducting!

Paul Goldstein, music critic, Norway, February 8, 2017

 

I returned now from a concert of the Ashdod Symphony Orchestra in Herzliya where they rendered the world premiere of a work entitled "Back to Lodz." The work is communicative and nice in Jewish style per excellence, was played with great success by the Orchestra and Soloist, David Kurtz, that received a great applause for his singing playing and warm sound.

Micha Davis, First Trombone player at the Israeli Symphony Orchestra, May 11, 2017

 

Psalm 46 for mixed choir, clarinet, and guitar

Especially the world premiere of your composition of the Jiddish version of Psalm 46 was a very impressive moment in the concert. We love your music, even some months later the melodies are very present in our minds and sometimes we find ourselves humming "drum veln mir ni moyre hobn…" or other lines that capture our hearts.

Charlotte Brombach Interreligious Choir Frankfurt, June 18, 2018