This rare recording of one of the last surviving singers of the Maftirim choir (Edirne, Turkey), Samuel Benaroya, documents a mostly unrecorded tradition dating from the 17th century of Hebrew & sacred poems set to Ottoman classic music. Recorded by Moshe Kirschbaum, annotated by Edwin Seroussi.
You can listen to this album on Spotify, download MP3s at Amazon, or find it on Apple Music.
The vocal 'pesrev' are a unique Hebrew genre in which the performer has to exhibit outstanding vocal skills and memory for the performance of very long originally instrumental pieces.
Written by Israel Najara and composed by Yusuf Pasa. The 'beste' is characterized in its Turkish form by sections with non-sense syllables which the Jewish poets tried to fill with Hebrew words.