The Greenberg Variations

Commissioned by JOHN ZORN and released in 2003 on his TZADIK label's "Great Jewish Music" series, Kramer's 16 instrumental audio-theater pieces form a melancholy memorial to baseball's greatest hitters, Hank Greenberg. Orchestral and folk instrumentations gently entwine to create a slow-motion audio soundtrack for one of the greatest swingers in the history of America's great pastime. No fan of Kramer's ever-expanding composer's canon should miss these pastoral explorations into the past. These brief yet entrancing musical vignettes (each one named after a different "pitch") transport the listener to a time long gone.