Baal Shem, B.47: II. Nigun

This release is presented on the 50th anniversary of Christine Walevska’s debut release on the Phillips Classics label.

Within two years of her first international concert appearances at the age of eighteen Christine Walevska won a scholarship to study with Maurice Marechal at the Paris Conservatoire where two years later she became the first American ever to win First Prize in cello and Chamber Music. Further studies with Piatigorsky and Pierre Fournier led to an extensive international performing and recording career with Phillips Classics, and she lived for many years in Argentina.

Walevska’s earliest recording on the Phillips label included Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo. Upon release in 1970, the San Francisco Chronicle called it: “the greatest recording in the cello catalog.” More recently, Christine Walevska travelled from her home in New York City to Montreal, Canada with pianist Akimi Fukuhara to record Bloch’s “Nigun” with former Phillips Classics producer Martha de Francisco.