Encyclopedia of Music Composed in Concentration Camps, CD10

Angelo de Leonardis (Performer), Boas Bischofswerder (Composer), Marius Flothuis (Composer), Emile Goue (Composer), William Hilsley (Composer), Gideon Klein (Composer), Francesco Lotoro (Performer), Roberto De Nittis (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Angelo de Leonardis, Francesco Lotoro, Roberto De Nittis
• Composer: Boas Bischofswerder, Marius Flothuis, Emile Goue, William Hilsley, Gideon Klein
• Audio CD (August 25, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: KZ Musik
• ASIN: B002ED6V3Q
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,098 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Songs (6), for voice & piano: 1. Numbers (that's what we are now)

2. Songs (6), for voice & piano: 2. The Princess' Song

3. Songs (6), for voice & piano: 3. The Maiden Passionflower

4. Songs (6), for voice & piano: 4. In Old Seville

5. Songs (6), for voice & piano: 5. Finale (from Good Night)

6. Songs (6), for voice & piano: 6. Caroussel

7. The Turning World, suite for piano, 4 hands: Song

8. The Turning World, suite for piano, 4 hands: Dance

9. The Turning World, suite for piano, 4 hands: March

10. Valses sentimentales, for piano, 4 hands, Op. 21

11. Phantasia Judaica, for violin & piano

12. Sheva B'rochoth, for voice & piano

13. Duo, for violin & cello: Animé

14. Duo, for violin & cello: Trčs lent

15. Duo, for violin & cello: Trčs vif

16. String Trio: Allegro

17. String Trio: Lento - Variace na téma moravské lidové písné

18. String Trio: Molto vivace

Editorial Reviews

Gapplegate Music Review, Grego 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 10 (68 minutes) opens with William Hilsley's absurdly upbeat set of six songs for baritone and piano; these could easily have come from a low-rent Broadway-style revue. Also diverting, if not quite so silly, is his brief three-movement suite for piano fourhands, The Turning World, in the manner of Arthur Benjamin's Jamaican Rumba. Another piece for piano four-hands follows, Marius Flothius's tamer and more nuanced Sentimental Waltzes, laced with plenty of well-mannered bitonal seasoning. There are two substantial works by Boaz Bischofswerder, whom we haven't heard from since Volume 6 (many long hours ago). One is a 9-minute Jewish Fantasy for violin and piano, the other a 14-minute setting of a Jewish prayer, Sheva B'rochoth, for baritone and piano. Both employ the expected Hebraic inflections, effectively in the fiddlingon- the-roof Fantasy but at more length than perhaps ideal in the prayer. (But then I'm generally uneasy when people start intoning sacred texts at great length. They seem to be trying God's patience.) Next is Emile Goué's concise three-movement Violin-Cello Duo, a well-crafted neoclassical exercise in Gallic clarity, precision, and economy. Its cleverly contrapuntal opening allegro, somewhere between Ravel and Honegger in language, is especially pleasing. The program concludes with Gideon Klein's String Trio, one of the very few compositions here that can truly be called a masterpiece. It has been recognized as such for several decades already; it was recorded in the LP era, and there are now many recordings on CD (including several in the arrangement for string orchestra usually titled Partita for Strings). I and III are brisk, compact, faintly Janacekian allegros, but the work's power comes mainly from its central 8-minute slow movement, an inexpressibly sad and profoundly moving set of variations on a Moravian lullaby. This is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written, by anyone, anywhere, anytime. It has haunted me for years, and will as long as I live and breathe. Yes, knowing that it was completed by a young, hugely gifted man (25 years old) just nine days before he was sent to his death by a merciless regime of systematic murderers adds to our response to this deeply touching music. Still it would easily rank among the immortals without that knowledge, for Klein's pain and mourning, unforgettably embodied in the music's throbbing harmonic suspensions, are transfigured into the universal human grief at the loss of our childhood, our golden days of untroubled love, our true home on this earth-- a grief that all feeling beings endure.

See all Editorial Reviews