Eternal Echoes for Hanukkah Red River Radio (KDAQ 89.9 in Shreveport) redriverradio.org

Itzhak Perlman presents music and history about songs of Hanukkah.

Itzhak Perlman, universally recognized as one of the world's greatest classical violinists, has in the last few years devoted himself to serious study of traditional Jewish music. Hankus Netsky teaches at the New England Conservatory and is a pioneer in the revival of Klezmer music. Netsky served as music director for the Sony album "Eternal Echoes: Songs and Dances for the Soul," a collaboration between Perlman and Cantor Yitzhak Meir Helfgot. Both Perlman and Netsky join host James David Jacobs for an hour of songs and stories for Hanukkah, which includes four selections from their album as well as clips of the historical recordings that influenced them. We'll also hear about the history of the Jewish hymn "Maoz Tsur," which later became the Christian hymn "Rock of Ages"; selections from George Frideric Handel's dramatization of the Hanukkah story, his oratorio Judas Maccabaeus; recordings of both classical and cantorial selections by the legendary tenor Jan Peerce; two musical depictions of a spinning dreidel; Hankus Netsky telling the story of how, thanks to the idiosyncracies of Klezmer music, he became a professional accordion player within a day of his playing the instrument for the first time; Itzhak Perlman talking about the cantorial music he listened to as a child in Israel; and an attempt to convey the experience of making and eating potato latkes through the medium of radio.