MBS with a song of fantasy and dream by the charming singer Stella Haskil
Shabbat is almost here
And today, we will travel to Valencia, in eastern Spain, on the shores of the Mediterranean, with the voice of Stella Haskil, born in 1918 in Thessaloniki, who became a famous rebetiko singer.
Hello, how are you? I hope well! As you know, last week I couldn’t do a proper MBS, because I had an emergency surgery on Thursday 29th. I am doing much better and progressing.
Tomorrow I would have gone to the Valencia region for a trip, but for now I am not ready for such a long trip. I was going to see my friend Pablo Camino, alma mater of the company Spain is Music, dedicated mainly to trips in which music has a very special place. If you are planning to visit Spain and you like music, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with Pablo.
But for now I’ll have to settle for traveling to Valencia in the imagination. Come with me! For that, we will be helped by this beautiful piece performed by Stella Haskil: “Valentsianes”, or Valencian girls.
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I have had the joy of talking with Mr. Mario Yehaskel in Facebook today. He is the son of Jacob Yehaskel, who was the husband of Stella. After her death, in 1954, Jacob married again and he had Mario with his second wife. Mario has made a wonderful Facebook page about Stella Haskil. Find it ? here. I am grateful to him for his kindness and this outstanding page, full of pictures. If you like this kind of music, don’t miss to visit also his Youtube channel, where you will find more recordings by Stella, like this wonderful one.
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Stella Haskil was born in Thessaloniki in 1918. For the rest of the biography I will translate the text by Mr. Yehaskel from his Facebook page.
This portrait ? and the third one in this section is from the wonderful Discogs.com
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“Her maiden name was Gaegou. Her father, Chaim Gaegos, from the little that has been known about him, through accounts of relatives, is that he had a large age difference from his wife and Stella’s mother, and the exact date of his birth remains unknown. It is only speculated to be between 1870-1875. Born in Thessaloniki, very wealthy, apparently because of his profession, iron trade. His daughters lacked nothing, he took care of their dowry while they were all still very young. Unfortunately, however, with the German invasion of Thessaloniki, everything went up in smoke and he died around 1941-42.
Of Balkan origin, her mother Perla Kamhi, born in Skopje in 1890, arrived with her parents in 1911 in Thessaloniki, where her odyssey began. She married Chaim Gaegos in 1911 and gave birth to five girls. Around 1927-28, we find her remarried to Andreas Dapolla. Together with him she had her last daughter, Marika, on 25 December 1929. Perla passed away around 1961.”
“During the occupation of Greece by the Axis powers, the Gaegos family moved to Athens to escape arrest and deportation. There, Stella married Jacob Yehaskel. After liberation, in 1946, Haskil started recording mostly rebetiko songs, some of which, such as “Νύχτωσε χωρίς φεγγάρι”, (The Night fell moonless) and “Κάποια μάνα αναστενάζει”, (A Mother is sighing), were censored due to the political climate arising from the Greek Civil War.”
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About the mention to the occupation of Greece, by the Axis Powers, it began in April 1941 after Nazi Germany invaded Greece to assist its ally, Fascist Italy, which had been at war with Allied Greece since October 1940. All of Greece was occupied by June 1941. But let’s continue with Mario’s text:
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“A leading figure of rebetiko singing, in her short life, Stella managed to record her wonderful voice 4 songs in 1934 with her maiden name Gaegos, 102 amazing performances first voice and 33 more second voice. In 1945 she married Jacob Yehaskel and in her professional life she used the stage name Haskil.”
“The first song she recorded as Haskil was ”Sevillianes” by George Lavkas in 1947 although the first records did not mention the surname on the record but only wrote Stella. In 7 years she had the luck to record some of the most beautiful songs by Tsitsanis (Akroγιαλιές dinλινά, Arapiko flower, Gul Bahar, Some mother sighs, Tis poverty’s rags) by Kaldaras (Nύχτωσε ohne φεγγάρι), by Vamvakaris (Mες’ im χασάπiki αγορά), I want a man to love by Chiotis and many other authors. In July 1953 they go together with Odysseas Moschonas to Smyrna and Istanbul.”.
You can listen to the mentioned song “Sevillianes” here. Odysseas Moschonas was another popular singer. You can listen to him here. The next part is between quotation marks and it seems it is Jacob talking. I understand that Triana was a place where Stella and Jacob performed:
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“After “Triana” it was a contract to go with Stella Haskil to Smyrna, it was the Smyrna exhibition. We sat for a few days in Smyrna, from there another contract came from Istanbul. This shop was called “Casablanca”, Turkish owner, name Haji Baba, he also had “Krystal”, two shops. The two of us used to go out. I sometimes played bouzouki, sometimes guitar. In the other shop, “Krystal”, they played only Turkish instruments with the singer Hamiet, the first in Istanbul! Stella Haskil knew Turkish songs better than the Turkish women and sang them more beautifully, as well as the Arabic songs. In Istanbul bad news began, she had some terrible back pains, we went there to a doctor. He didn’t know what it was either. We left Istanbul and played in Thessaloniki, the place was called “Romance”. When we returned to Athens, the doctors said that Stella had cancer. She died at the age of 36 in Athens, on February 27, 1954 and the funeral took place on February 28.”
About the song Valentsianes
The topic of the song are the girls from Valencia, of whose charm the lyrics speak with a very romantic air. The song starts with a beautiful and melancholic accordion and then the plucked strings enter, which reminds us precisely of those played in the Levante area, the east of Spain, all with a rhythm that here we call “habanera”. It was recorded in 1947 and it was composed by Giorgos Lafkas, with whom Stella made several collaborations.
And we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist.
To know more about our artists, click here.
May you always find the light in your path.
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Hello, how are you? I hope well! As you know, last week I couldn’t do a proper MBS, because I had an emergency surgery on Thursday 29th. I am doing much better and progressing.
Stella Haskil was born in Thessaloniki in 1918. For the rest of the biography I will translate the text by Mr. Yehaskel from his Facebook page. 
