Joel Engel: Jewish Folksongs Volume III performed by Thomas Kotcheff

Joel Engel’s “Jewish Folksongs“ Volume III יואל ענגעל (אנגל) ייִדישע פֿאָלקסלידער A performance of Joel Engel’s Jewish Folksongs Volume III (c. 1920): 10 Jewish folksongs, dances, and Hasidic nigunim in virtuosic piano arrangements. Engel’s earlier arrangements in this series (featured by YIVO in November 2020: ) were the first classical compositions to feature Yiddish folksongs. His use of Yiddish folk music in his compositions proved to be influential and inspired the Society for Jewish Folk Music and the composers affiliated with it to create a vast oeuvre of similar work. Engel’s work also provided a source for a variety of other composers who used Yiddish folksongs in their music including, famously, Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes, whose sec