Encyclopedia of Music Composed in Concentration 3

Description

The Naxos label is gradually issuing KZ Musik, a 24-disc survey of the music composed by inmates of Germany's concentration camps. Not all of the music is beautiful, as it turns out. How could it be? Consider Erwin Schulhoff, whose 1920s piano études--the witty, jazz-inflected pearls of a free man's soul--were followed by his pounding, monotonous Symphony No. 8, composed at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942, just before his death. If it's possible to hear a man's spirit bleed out mid-symphony, this work captures that profoundly sad distinction. Musically speaking, that final (and unfinished) symphony is a slog; as a document of human misery, it's compelling as hell. In other cases, anthropological interest and musical brilliance overlap, as with Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis, which has only ever been available in Decca's set of recordings. Written while Ullmann was interned at Theresienstadt, the one-act work placed popular Jewish song styles from the time into a satisfying (and politically subversive) operatic context. (Ullmann was sent to the gas chambers not long after the Nazis realized, during the first rehearsal, that his Kaiser bore more than a few similarities to Hitler.) It's a brilliant piece, both apart from the circumstances of its creation and within them. -- Newsweek, Seth Colter Walls, March 15, 2010 These six discs, packaged individually, are the beginnings of a 24-CD set scheduled to be released over the next few years. The goal is to represent as much as possible of the music written in concentration camps from 1933 to 1945. While many artists participate, Lotoro is the prime mover behind the project, playing the piano in almost all of the works here. An introductory booklet, packaged with the first CD, lists the planned contents of all 24, but there has already been a change, on CD 4. These six contain primarily vocal and piano works, plus a few chamber works and choruses. Orchestral works and operas are scheduled for later issues. The first CD includes five composers who survived the war. Berman, Ullmann, and Kropiński contribute songs in Czech, German, and Polish, respectively. Berman's cycle Poupata ("Buds") is well sung by baritone Angelo de Leonardis, accompanied by Lotoro, but there is a recording by Berman himself--the great Czech bass--on Channel Classics 3191. Nothing but his first initial is known of Stryjecki; one piece is called Tango argentynskie , but it is a tango with a heavy Mittel-Europa tread. The second piece, Wino , is more of the same, if a bit lighter of foot. Abeles's Felicità (op. 282!) has a gently jazzy swing, much like a Scott Joplin rag. Lotoro plays all three with the requisite swagger, tongue lightly in cheek--much to our delight. The songs of Peskařová and Lippold are sung by a "female voice" rather than a soprano, which suggests "popular" rather than "classical." They are in the Kurt Weill style--between Berlin and Broadway, via Prague. Most of the voices in this set are not first-rate. As you may imagine, the Renée Flemings and Bryn Terfels of this world are too busy to learn this repertoire and record it at these fees; the same might be said of Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Emerson String Quartet. In any case, one must not expect these performances to attain such lofty standards. Lotoro is an excellent pianist; he tackles a wide variety of music with admirable results. Ullmann's final work, The lay of the love and death of Cornet Christoph Rilke is a nearly half-hour melodrama based on Rilke's prose poem about an imagined ancestor. Written "for speaker and orchestra or piano," it is performed here by an uncredited male actor (perhaps baritone De Leonardis, who sings the Hölderlin Lieder which follow) accompanied by Lotoro, who coaxes a wide variety of colors from his piano. The reading is a dramatic one, and every word is clear--if you are fluent in German, which I am not. The text is printed only in German. There is an Orfeo disc (C 366 951 A) of the orchestral version; its booklet offers French and English translations. The remaining songs on CD 2 are sung by a shaky soprano, Weber's cabaret songs by the female voice. Lotoro gets CD 3 to himself. There have been many recordings of Klein's elegant, Berg-like Sonata; and Lotoro's is one of the finest. His powerful performances of the Ullmann Sonatas stress their angular phrasing and fractured tonalty; others have found more charm in these works, notably Radoslav Kvapil playing all three on Praga PRD 250 180. Ullmann's Fifth Sonata recalls both Schoenberg, his composition teacher, and Mahler, his idol. Lotoro emphasizes the Schoenberg connection, while Kvapil leans toward Mahler, putting more warmth and color into the music than Lotoro--perhaps more than the score warrants. Lotoro makes a strong case for all four sonatas, some of the finest music composed at Terezín. Ullmann's cadenzas for Beethoven's first and third Piano Concertos are dreadful, however, sounding more like Reger than Beethoven. Schul's three-minute fugue is based on an extremely complex theme, making the music difficult to play and to absorb. It is fascinating nevertheless, and Lotoro conquers it. The performances on CD 4 include a most unattractive violin, dry and harsh, and a baritone with no body or color, whose only pleasant tones are a few middle notes at p. Pianist Lotoro saves the day. Haas's four Chinese songs shine forth as miniature masterpieces, but they are better represented on DG 001080302, sung by baritone Christian Gerhaher, who is "dynamite" (Fanfare 32:1 and my Want List 2008). Karel's songs and instrumental dances (a violin joins in the Polka) are captivating. Dauber's Serenata for violin and piano is ever-so-charming schmaltz. Schulhoff's choral Symphony No. 8, written at Terezín, is a paean to Communism, glorifying Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. Unfortunately, when the composer gained this political persuasion he lost his ability to write endlessly fascinating music. This is pure Soviet Realism, aimed at the masses, or--more likely--the commissars. Written at Terezín, the symphony was neither completed nor orchestrated. It is pounded out on the piano by Lotoro, the words shouted by a male chorus. It lasts almost an hour, seeming more like two. Berman's terse, aching, brilliantly tragic Terezín Suite, beautifully played by Lotoro, comes as a welcome relief. The sixth CD is a wild potpourri, demonstrating that an astounding range of music--liturgical, classical, popular; choral, vocal, instrumental--can be deeply moving. It opens with Pinkhof's Jewish liturgical songs for a cappella male choir. Two long Hebraic chants by Bischofswerder, intoned by solo male voice (Paolo Candido), are surpassingly haunting, as is Zrzavý's V'lirushalaim for baritone and string quartet. Note that both sides imprisoned foreigners during World War II: Bischofswerder, a German rabbi who moved to London in 1933, was interned as an "enemy alien" in England and later in Australia. Hilsley's Fantasia is for a plaintive oboe and string quartet, his Dance Pieces for oboe and viola. Kropiński's instrumental music is somber; Bez Titulu a slow, sad tango. The remaining tracks are sentimental, often bittersweet ballads. The booklets with each CD (which run from 48 to 88 pages on glossy, heavy stock) are more than generous, providing information in English, Italian, French, German, and Hebrew. There are bios of every composer, and photos of most. A sketchy map of Europe's concentration camps does not include holding camps such as Terezín, where most of these composers were imprisoned and much of this music written. There are texts for all the vocal numbers, but only in the sung languages. One must know Czech, German, French, Polish, Hebrew, and Yiddish to follow them all. There was probably no cost-effective solution when assembling these discs, but it does make comprehension difficult for the listener or the student. The recorded sound is generally clear but often very close up, all-too-revealing of the lesser singers and instrumentalists and sometimes producing considerable harshness. It's too soon to draw conclusions about such an enormous project, but a few general remarks may be in order. The best-known composers--Schulhoff, Klein, Haas, Ullmann--continue to stand out, but there are some pleasant surprises, too. The songs of Karel and Berman are first-rate. Zikmund Schul, a pupil of Hindemith and Hába, is an interesting discovery; more of his small oeuvre is scheduled for later discs. -- Fanfare, James H. North, Jan-Feb 2010 Volume 3 (69 minutes) is devoted to largescale solo piano pieces: Gideon Klein's (only) piano sonata, and Sonatas 5, 6, and 7 by Ullmann, along with his 7-minute Variations and Fugue on a Hebrew Folksong. There's also a 3- minute fugue by Zikmund Schul (1916-44). Collectors should be aware that the Klein and Ullmann sonatas have been recorded several times before. They are all essays in an earlymodern chromatic idiom that shows affinities to Berg's Opus 1 Sonata with some added between-the-wars neoclassicism imported from Hindemith, Eisler, and jazz. Despite their skillful workmanship (Ullmann's mastery of counterpoint is notable) I've never found any of these sonatas especially memorable; they may appeal more to connoisseurs of the period style. The Hebrew Variations offer more melodic interest. -- American Record Guide, Mark L Lehman, November-December 2009 KZ Musik is the most up-to-date and complete CD-Encyclopedia of concentrationary music. All the music was composed between 1933 and 1945. The music was composed by those who were imprisoned, deported, murdered and some who survived. KZ Musik is the result of extensive research by Italian pianist and conductor Francesco Lotoro. Each CD booklet contains a profile of the Authors, their works and the Camps where the music was composed. Review: Piano Works by Klein, Ullmann & Schul Written in Theresienstadt (Terezín) - This CD is the Third Volume in a series from KZ Musik which is effectively an encyclopedia of music composed in various Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. All three of the composers represented on this disc wrote the present works in the 'show camp' Theresienstadt (now Terezín) and were murdered by the Nazis. This disc is devoted to solo piano works played by Francesco Lotoro who is also the director of the entire KZ Musik project. Gideon Klein (1919-1945) was a Moravian Jew who studied with Vilém Kurz and Alois Hába. He was sent to Theresienstadt in 1941 and was later transferred to Auschwitz where he was killed in 1945. While at Theresienstadt he was an organizer of the camp's cultural life. His Piano Sonata was written in 1943 and was premiered in the camp by Pavel Stephan. Many years later it was an obligatory work at the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. It is in three movements -- fast, slow, fast -- but there was probably a fourth movement that was either not finished or was lost. It is in a language somewhat reminiscent of, but not as rigorous as, that in Schoenberg's Op. 11 Klavierstücke. Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) was killed in Auschwitz one day after being transferred there from Theresienstadt where he had been director of Freizeitgestaltung (leisure time activities). He had served as an officer in the Austrian army during World War I and been ennobled for his efforts. His music was influenced by Mahler, Zemlinsky and Schoenberg. This disc contains his Sonatas Nos. 5, 6 & 7, and cadenzas he wrote for Beethoven's Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3. Sonatas 5 & 7 were intended to serve as the bases for his Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 which were never completed. There is much polytonality, complex counterpoint and fleeting references to tunes from his youth (including 'Ach, du lieber Augustin' in the first movement of the Fifth Sonata, and the Tristan 'Liebestod' in the Seventh Sonata). The last movement of the Seventh Sonata is a set of variations and a fugue on Yehuda Sharett's Jewish folksong 'Song of Rachel.' The Beethoven cadenzas were written for performances by the orchestra made up of detainees in Theresienstadt. Zikmund Schul (1916-1944) is the least known of these three composers. He had studied in Prague with Alois Hába and was briefly a student of Hindemith in Berlin. He was interested in Jewish liturgical music. His Fugue was probably started in Prague and finished at Theresienstadt. This three-minute piece is written in Hindemithian free counterpoint and sounds to be quite technically difficult. Pianist Francesco Lotoro displays his fine pianistic skills here and throughout this disc. Scott Morrison