I'm not familiar with Patinkin's album, but I've run across a bunch of
Yiddish albums that are overproduced--songs that require intimate settings
often receive a full-scale footlit treatment.  Some time the artistry of
the singers makes them worth enduring, some don't.  Some of the best
art-song renditions of Yiddish songs feature simple voice and piano
arrangements, notably those by Leon Lishner/Lazar Weiner, and several
albums of a Chicago-based duo named Sima and Arnold Miller.

Aaron J. Rabushka
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