Levy, Marvin David

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Masada - Canto de los Marranos - Shir shel moshe

The legendary defense of the desert fortress Masada by a small band of Jewish Zealots against a massive Roman army inspires awe nearly 2,000 years after the historical occurrence. Marvin David Levy's dramatic retelling of the Masada story, originally written for the great operatic tenor and cantor Richard Tucker, here receives its world-premiere recording. Also recorded by the Milken Archive for the first time is Levy's haunting Canto de los Marranos, a dramatic scene for soprano (in four languages: English, Ladino, Hebrew, and Latin) that reveals the passions and conflicts of the 15th-century Spanish Jews who outwardly converted to Christianity while secretly practicing their Jewish beliefs "under penalty of death."

Reviews and Recognitions:

"One of our finest and most consistently interesting (and inexplicably under recorded) composers." —Lawrence A. Johnson, Gramophone

"The vocal power of soloist Ana María Martínez, who transforms Levy's angular melodic lines into emotion and lyricism, is extraordinary." —The Jerusalem Post

"The contributions of the two orchestras (the Barcelona Symphony in the Canto [de los Marranos] and the Berlin Radio Symphony in Masada) are beyond reproach, while all the soloists acquit themselves admirably." —John Boyer, American Record Guide

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