Max Bruch, “Kol Nidrei,” performed by David Carpenter, Temple Emanu-El NYC, 2023, YouTube.com.
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Op. 47, Adagio for Cello and Orchestra, which features a cello playing the melody of Kol Nidre (Aramaic for “All Vows”), the central prayer in the Ashkenazi Yom Kippur eve service. Max Bruch, a German Protestant composer with no known Jewish ancestry, composed this piece in 1880 after learning the melody from Cantor Abraham Joshua Lichtenstein in Berlin. In this video, the cello solo from the orchestral piece is performed on viola on Erev Yom Kippur at a Reform synagogue in New York City, Temple Emanu-El. The performer, violist David Carpenter, is the grandson of Iraqi Jewish immigrants.
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Is this performance an example of Jewish prayer? Does it matter that it is performed instrumentally, without the traditional Aramaic lyrics? Does it matter that it was composed by a non-Jew?
