The Family Songbook Tamar Halperin & Andreas Scholl

• 1Light and Shadow03:21
• 2La Le Lu02:17
• 3I Bought Me a Cat02:28
• 4Sheperd Song03:02
• 5Sweet Baby James02:59
• 6Buba Zehava03:40
• 7Good Night01:29
• 8In stiller Nacht04:02
• 9Song for Hyacinth01:25
• 10Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)03:24
• 11Hushaby04:14
• 12Lullaby02:48
• 13Children's Song #602:41
• 14With This Night01:48
• 15Guten Abend, gut' Nacht (Lullaby)01:46
• 16Layla (Bonus Track)04:14
• Total Runtime45:38

Info for The Family Songbook

On "The Family Songbook" Tamar Halperin and Andreas Scholl combine the sounds of the Middle East with classic children's songs from the West, harpsichord with country-music sounds and sing-along songs with lullabies. This is a family album for the entire family.

The weather was hot at the end of May in Kiedrich im Rheingau, western Germany. In the home of the Halperin-Scholls a unique and uniquely musical family get-together was taking place. The Israeli pianist and harpsichordist Tamar Halperin and her husband, world-famous counter-tenor Andreas Scholl, invited their respective families to join them in the tranquil village full of half-timbered houses not far from Wiesbaden: aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, sisters and brothers and close friends – in all, 15 adults and nine children – came together to make music, celebrate and enjoy time with each other. "The Family Songbook" is the result of this special family reunion.

When Andreas Scholl was introduced to the family of his wife Tamar Halperin in Israel, he was impressed by the sumptuous Shabbat dinners laid on by her aunt Eti. Everyone met up, ate and laughed together, and made music. "Two years ago, after a few glasses of wonderful red wine from the Golan Heights, the idea first came to me of making a recording which would capture the atmosphere and the joy of making music together." An idea was born. The occasion which brought the idea to fruition was the birth of their daughter Alma: "Every evening since the birth of our daughter, Andreas and I have sung songs in German and Hebrew to her," explains Tamar Halperin. "When she was one year old, and our repertoire had grown to an impressive size, I suggested to Andreas that we should record the songs in our home studio."

The Family Songbook is not just the result of a special family get-together, it is also a musical image/reflection of this truly international family. The repertoire embraces Israeli folk songs such as "Buba Zehava", "Pizmon LaYakinton" and "Shir Eress" through the country hit "Sweet Baby James" to children's songs such as "I Bought Me a Cat" and "La Le Lu". The songs that Halperin and Scholl have chosen are for the entire family by the entire family. In addition to the voice of one of the most outstanding countertenors of the last 20 years and his brilliant pianist wife Halperin, the album also features their siblings on guitar and bass, singing cousins, close friends on percussion and a grandmother playing the mandolin. Intimate and hitherto unheard interpretations of two world-famous lullabies round off the album: "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" by Billy Joel and Johannes Brahms's "Guten Abend, gut' Nacht".

For Halperin and Scholl, their Family Songbook is something really special. "That week saw the fulfilment of a long-held dream, and I was delighted that all the members of our family embraced the spirit of our project. When we are no longer here, then our children and grandchildren will be able to listen to this recording and we will remain part of their lives through it," concludes Andreas Scholl.

Andreas Scholl, Tamar Halperin & family

Tamar Halperin
The Israeli pianist and harpsichordist Tamar Halperin came to prominence through her work with jazz pianist Michael Wollny on the album “Wunderkammer” (ACT). Her repertoire embraces works from five hundred years of music history. As soloist she works with a wide range of international ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tamar Halperin has a PhD form the Juilliard School, New York. She performs extensively as a soloist and as a chamber musician, both on the piano and the harpsichord and has a repertoire that ranges from the early Baroque to contemporary classical compositions.

She won the Eisen-Picard Performing Arts Award (2006-7); the Presser Doctoral Award (2005); the REC Music award (2005); an honorary prize at the International Harpsichord Competition in Bruges (2004), and was the recipient of the C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellowship and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship. Tamar Halperin holds a Bachelor's degree with high distinction from Tel-Aviv University, and a Master's degree from the Juilliard School in New York, where she also worked as a teaching assistant.

Currently, she is researching music at the facility of Renaissance and Baroque Musical Practices at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland.

Andreas Scholl
Born in Germany, Andreas Scholl's early musical training was with the Kiedricher Chorbuben choir. He later studied under Richard Levitt and René Jacobs at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He has won numerous awards and prizes, including the prestigious ECHO Award for his composition for Deutsche Grammophon's audio-book of Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes and The Nightingale.

Andreas has released a series of extraordinary solo recordings: the most recent being Wanderer – a disc of German Lied in partnership with pianist Tamar Halperin. Other notable releases include Bach cantatas with kammerorchesterbasel; O Solitude – an all-Purcell album with Accademia Bizantina, which won the 2012 BBC Music Magazine award; Arias for Senesino, Heroes – a disc of arias by Handel, Mozart, Hasse and Gluck; Robert Dowland's A Musicall Banquet; Vivaldi Motets with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra; and Arcadia – a collection of rare and unpublished cantatas by composers from Rome’s Arcadian Circle. All of these recordings are released on Decca.

Andreas’ recorded work also includes Handel’s Solomon and Saul with Paul McCreesh for Deutsche Gramophon, and for Harmonia Mundi, Vivaldi Stabat Mater; Caldara's Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo; and Crystal Tears – lute and consort songs by John Dowland. Andreas’ DVD releases include productions of Giulio Cesare (for both Decca and Harmonia Mundi), Rodelinda (Warner) and Partenope (Decca).

Operatic roles include the title role in Giulio Cesare at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the 2012 Salzburger Festspiele (opposite Cecilia Bartoli) and Bertarido (Rodelinda) at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Metropolitan Opera (opposite Renée Fleming). His concert performances have included appearances with Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonie, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Freiburger Barockorchester, the Academy of Ancient Music and at the 2005 Last Night of the Proms – the first counter-tenor ever to have been invited.

This album contains no booklet.