Encyclopedia of Music Composed in Concentration Camps (1933-1945), Vol. 7

Flothuis (Artist), Rinaldi (Artist), Choir of University Foggia (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 25, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: KZ Musik
• ASIN: B002ED6V2W
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #178,429 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Aubade, for solo flute, Op. 19a

2. Pieces (2) for guitar, Op. 22: Follia

3. Pieces (2) for guitar, Op. 22: Habanera

4. Duettino pastorale, for 2 violins, Op. 23/2: Preludio

5. Duettino pastorale, for 2 violins, Op. 23/2: Canzonetta

6. Duettino pastorale, for 2 violins, Op. 23/2: Rondo

7. Bicina, for female chorus, Op. 20: Rondel

8. Bicina, for female chorus, Op. 20: Ronde

9. Bicina, for female chorus, Op. 20: Kyrie

10. Bicina, for female chorus, Op. 20: Lied

11. Bicina, for female chorus, Op. 20: Abschiedslied

12. Studies (2), for violin: Andante con moto

13. Studies (2), for violin: Allegretto

14. Huyton Suite, for flute & 2 violins, Op. 92: Alla Marcia

15. Huyton Suite, for flute & 2 violins, Op. 92: Capriccio

16. Huyton Suite, for flute & 2 violins, Op. 92: Canzonetta con variazioni

17. Huyton Suite, for flute & 2 violins, Op. 92: Fanfaronata

18. Divertimento, for flute & bassoon

19. 13. April 1946 (Weißer Sonntag), for speaker & guitar

20. Impromptus (2), for piano: Modére

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Gapplegate Music Review, Greco Edwards, October 22, 2009

KZ Musik is in the process of issuing a comprehensive CD series covering music written from 1933 to 1945, the Encyclopedia of Music Composed in Concentration Camps. I have been listening to their sixth volume and it is a very moving experience. It the midst of one of the most evil series of actions in the history of the world, the human spirit asserts itself here with eleven composers who refused to be spiritually defeated.

The courage of these musicians should serve as a model for all of us today. Whether the compositions are absolute classics or not is moot. The fact of their existence demands that they be heard, not forgotten, and that they be an active part of the cultural heritage of the 20th century.

The music is noble and filled with a strength that goes beyond styles and fashions. The compositions in Volume 6 include the solo vocal cantation-style works of Josef Pinkhof, William Hilsley's haunting "Fantasia on Provencal Christmas Carol," songs for voice and piano, solo piano pieces, chamber works.

Each volume contains an informative booklet.

It is music that on one level is hard to listen to. What monstrosity let this happen? But ultimately these composers were writing the music in the hopes that we and their God might hear. These are like musical messages in a bottle, for us and the generations to follow. Do not forget our sufferings, they seem to be saying. If we can write beautiful music under such traumatically harrowing conditions, then you have no excuse. Music must flourish, musicians must be heard. If not civilization does not stand a chance on this earth.

Getting at least one of these CDs and listening is a symbolic act of solidarity with those victims of a world gone criminally insane. And the music is worthwhile.

American Record Guide, Mark L Lehman, November-December 2009

Volume 7 (59 minutes) introduces several more new names to the series, including Berlin-born Peter Gellhorn (1912-2004) and Austrian Hans Gal (1890-1987), both victims of the bitterly ironic circumstance of being Jews fleeing the Nazis who were then interned in England as suspect German nationals. (They were of course treated immeasurably better than the victims of Nazi and Soviet imprisonment.) Gellhorn wrote two short studies, one songful and florid, one fast and spiky, for solo violin; Gal, after overcoming his initial dismay at the cruel turn of events that led to his incarceration, managed to write the chaste and very old-fashioned 20-minute-long Huyton Suite (named after the camp he was in) for flute and two violins. From Dutch composer Marius Flothius (1914-2001), a well-known name in his native land, come several trifles for solo flute, for guitar, and for two violins, as well as some gentle and very enjoyable songs and sacred settings for female choir. And from Emile Goué (1904-46), a French student of Koechlin and Roussel who spent most of the war in a POW camp, come two plangent and prismatically harmonized impromptus for piano. Goué, a new name to me, has an individual and compelling compositional voice: distinctly French, lucid and incisive, but with a touch of gnomic mysticism. A Google search reveals only one previous release of his music--his Violin Sonata and Third Quartet, both recorded by Alfred Loewenguth and his quartet in the 1950s. But he wrote quite a bit in his years as a captive, and other worthwhile pieces of his are or will be on later volumes in this series--including several large-scale works, even a symphony.