Songs for the Breathing Walls
Lenka Lichtenberg
(This review is from the March 18, 2013 issue of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.)
In 2009, Lenka Lichtenberg, a Toronto-based singer and
composer and daughter of a Holocaust survivor who grew up in Prague before
coming to Canada as a young adult, performed concerts at two synagogues in the
Czech Republic. Reflecting on the experience she decided to record an album of
settings of Jewish liturgical material at 12 different synagogues – some of
them restored as synagogues or museums of Jewish life, some of them derelict –
throughout the Czech and Moravian areas whose Jewish populations were decimated
by the Holocaust.
The result is the deeply moving Songs for the Breathing
Walls – the “breathing walls” being the synagogues themselves still retaining
something of the thousands of Jews who prayed there over the generations. As a
result of the differing acoustics of the various synagogues, and the
individualized settings and arrangements created for each piece, all of the
tracks are unique unto themselves, but simultaneously part of the whole.
While the spirituality of every selection can be felt,
perhaps the most moving piece is the version of “El Maley Rachamim” recorded in
what was a hidden synagogue in the Theresienstadt concentration camp where
Lichtenberg’s mother and grandmother spent much of the Second World War.
The CD package comes with a beautiful booklet with photos of
the synagogues and notes about their history, as well as information about each
of the selections. The album is a very special achievement.
For her work on Songs for the Breathing Walls, Lichtenberg was
honoured as traditional singer of the year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards in
November.
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