Sons of Italy (clockwise from left): Columbus, Creston and Verdi
Even under the most unspeakable circumstances, he continued to be Viktor.
Viktor Ullmann was one of the best-known composers to be interned in Terezin, or Theresienstadt, the “model camp” set up by the Nazis to deceive the foreign press and the International Red Cross.
There, concert orchestras, chamber groups and jazz ensembles were formed. Operas were staged, and the Verdi Requiem was mounted no less than fourteen times. At Terezin, composers continued to create, until deportation to Auschwitz.
Ullmann wrote in 1944, “…that musically I have been challenged not hindered by Theriesenstadt, that we did not just sit by Babylon’s rivers bewailing our fate, and that our will to create culture was as strong as our will to live.”
We’ll be listening to a cross-section of Ullmann’s music written in the camp, including a piano sonata (performed by Terezin survivor Edith Kraus, who died in 2013 at the age of 100), a concert overture and a song cycle; also, a piano concerto written shortly before his arrest, a period of hardship for the composer, as he began to be stripped of his rights and his options to make a living. He never heard the concerto performed in his lifetime. Ullmann died at Auschwitz in 1944.
Ironically, most of his unpublished works dating from before his internment are lost. It is his music written at Terezin, for the most part, which survives. The music written during his confinement, then, becomes a metaphor for the indomitable spirit of the artist.
The composer lives on through his works, on “Ullmann Victorious.” You can hear it tonight at 10 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network or at wwfm.org.
To enhance your appreciation of Ullmann’s “Der Mensch und sein Tag” (“Man and His Day”), I am posting English translations of the aphoristic texts below, so that they may be read while listening to the music.
“DER MENSCH UND SEIN TAG” (MAN AND HIS DAY), Op. 47
12 Portraits by Hans-Günter Adler
WALK INTO MORNING
Sight. Hands in front of eyebrows
and maternal light. Meadowland.
A blade of grass. A step. Dew on the flowers.
SONG
So much. So much and still more.
A great ocean, surging and pounding –
flutes lightly, horns heavily.
HOME
In the ground, the cool ground. So colourful.
Billowing fields and meadows around.
In the ground – hidden heart and mouth.
TO THE BELOVED
With you, in smiles and tears.
Nearness of hand and mouth. Longing
fades. With you no blind fancy.
FLOWERS
Inward, buried deep and warm.
Breath – singing to life.
Bright goblets, lips, tongues.
IN THE PARLOUR
Tightly pressed to one another.
Planted with care and trouble.
Animate and inanimate. Mute and loud.
THE NEIGHBOUR
Help is good. Hand in hand.
Door to door and wall to wall:
quite united. Bond and band.
PRAYERS
Scattered in the chalice of piety
ripe corn offered
to the gladdened protector and creator.
IN THE FOREST
Dappled, close and far and scent.
The sun dreams, the air slumbers.
Crepitation. Calcification. Trees. Scent.
FADE
Down, down. The bell tolls.
Clouds glow. Evening glimmers.
Down, down. The moon-breath shimmers.
NIGHT
Come, gentle sleep! Come, sweet night!
The ground relaxes in muted glory.
Lone thoughts sink to earth.
SILENCE
Stillness. Silence. Looking and watching.
Tranquil in blessed reflection.
Sleep before the divine.
It’s still days away at this point, but I wanted to let you know that, because Yom Kippur falls on a Wednesday this year, I will be swapping mornings with Marvin Rosen next week at WPRB 103.3 FM. That means that Classical Discoveries will be heard on Thursday, from 5:30 to 11 a.m. EDT, and that Classic Ross Amico (who needs his beauty sleep) will muddle through on Wednesday from 6 to 11 a.m.
Since Wednesday happens to be October 12, the birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and since Vaughan Williams happens to be one of my very favorite composers, the morning will be devoted to a good number of RVW gems and rarities from my own extensive collection. These will include historic recordings, some featuring the composer himself, archived radio broadcasts, and at least one LP that was issued in 1977, now long out-of-print, which to my knowledge has never been reissued in any form. If you love Vaughan Williams, have affection for English music, or hunger for curiosities, you will not want to miss this show!
Of course, I may be tossing in one or two favorites most everyone will recognize, in luminous performances from one of my favorite Vaughan Williams albums, in honor of the late Sir Neville Marriner, who died last week at the age of 92. But most of what you hear will be off the beaten path, of historic interest, or just plain beautiful and underexposed.
Eight hours after Marvin concludes his special edition of “Classical Discoveries,” WPRB will commence a week-long Autumn Membership Campaign, on Thursday night at 7:00. The station conducts one pledge drive per year, so this will be your only chance to step up and support the music. It’s a little-known fact that WPRB, though housed in the belly of Princeton University’s Bloomberg Hall, receives no funding from the university. The hosts are all volunteers, given just about complete artistic control over their programs, and the playlists are assembled with love, passion and personality.
If you care about classical music on WPRB, and in particular, if you like what I do on “Classic Ross Amico,” I hope you will consider taking your penny jar down to the financial institution of your choice and then pledging your commitment to thoughtful programming of unusual and neglected repertoire, all presented under the umbrella of vast, unwieldy themes.
Please call 609-258-1033 on the morning of October 20, between 6 and 11 a.m. to pledge your support of the show. It will be the last day of the drive, so don’t think that your pledge won’t make a difference! I expect it’s going to be a tough row to hoe, since by then everyone will have supported their favorite shows of the previous six days, including “Classical Discoveries” and “Sunday Morning Opera.” So set aside a bone for “Classic Ross Amico,” if you are able. Mentioning that you like what I do when you call in to support somebody else’s show is nice, but in the end, if you really want to send a message to anyone who is not answering the phones, it is the tallies that do the talking.
Do not think that $10 or $20 is not enough. Every little bit counts. But if you are able to pledge at a level of $45 or over, I will be happy to send you a very nice CD as a token of my thanks. All the CDs I will be offering will be hand-selected by me and sampled during the show on October 20. So you’ll have a chance to listen before you pledge, but please understand that copies will be limited, in some cases to a quantity of one!
“Classic Ross Amico,” now in its second year, is but a blink in WPRB’s 75-year history. With your support, I’m hoping two years will turn into three, and three into ten. Who knows how far this thing will go. Yours is the juice that can fuel classical music’s heavy Chevy, the wind beneath the wings of “The Lark Ascending.” Thank you for your consideration. I’m sure RVW would concur!
Sacre bleu! Charles Dutoit is 80 years-old!
Join me this afternoon as we celebrate the Swiss-born conductor by sampling some of his very fine recordings, including music by Ravel and Roussel. We’ll also hear a piano concerto by the German romantic Felix Draeseke, on his birthday anniversary. Yo-Yo Ma turns 61 today; can’t forget him. And we’ll acknowledge Willing Billings, who was a tanner by trade, but became a composer of incendiary anthems during the American Revolution.
All that, beginning at 4:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
Then stick around for “Picture Perfect” at 6. This week the focus will be on music from movies about dragons. We’ve a fire in our belly today! Watch out for a more complete write-up later on this afternoon.
PHOTOS (clockwise from left): Dutoit, Billings, Draeseke, and Ma
From the antipodes to New Jersey!
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, less than 30 years ago, conductor Gemma New has come up in the world, both literally and figuratively. This former associate conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is entering her second season as music director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra in Ontario, a recent Dudamel Conducting Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and now resident conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
She returns this week to conduct the NJSO in music by Sibelius (his Symphony No. 2), Grieg (his Piano Concerto, with Stewart Goodyear the soloist), and her compatriot Douglas Lilburn (the “Aotearoa Overture,” a piece seemingly no non-New Zealander can pronounce). Remaining performances will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium tonight at 8:00, the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank tomorrow night at 8:00, and the State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick Sunday afternoon at 3:00.
You can learn more about this up-and-coming conductor, her thoughtfully constructed program, the relationship of Sibelius to New Zealand, and the special significance of Lilburn’s music to Kiwi audiences, in my article in today’s Trenton Times.
http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/10/classical_music_njso_performin_1.html
Aaron Copland (93) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (139) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (195) KWAX (229) Leonard Bernstein (103) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (154) Mozart (89) Opera (210) Philadelphia Orchestra (89) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (108) Radio (88) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (103) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)