‘Pincus and the Pig’: Klezmer Music by Shirim , Art by Sendak

In this season when everyone and their brother is buying Christmas presents, I thought it’d be counterintuitive and recommend buying something for that “special [Jewish] person.” My friend, David Kosins discovered Pincus and the Pig: A Klezmer Tale, a CD and booklet illustrated by the incomparable Maurice Sendak with Klezmer music performed by the Shirim Orchestra. The story is a retelling of the Peter and the Wolf story with a Yiddish accent (which Sendak puts on in his narration of the story–and it is fabulous!). Peter has become a “boychik” named Pincus. The wolf is now a chozzer (pig). The hunters are Cossacks. All in all, an apt adaptation of the original. Shirim have taken Prokofiev’s inimitable music and turned it klezmer-like. The entire production is utterly charming and would be a great present for anyone from 5 to 85. What a great Hanukah present it would make too!

Here are some of Sendak’s exquisite graphics from the book:

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