Erwin Schulhoff
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Illinois State University ISU ReD: Research and eData School of Music Programs Music 4-4-1996 Holocaust Memorial Concerts School of Music Illinois State University Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/somp Part of the Music Performance Commons Recommended Citation School of Music, "Holocaust Memorial Concerts" (1996). School of Music Programs. 1432. https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/somp/1432 This Concert Program is brought to you for free and open access by the Music at ISU ReD: Research and eData. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Music Programs by an authorized administrator of ISU ReD: Research and eData. For more information, please contact [email protected]. I Music Department Illinois State University I I HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL I CONCERTS I poignant testimony to the great loss of creative voices silenced by the Nazis ·1 'I Even as the twentieth century draws to a close, the world hasn't yet dealt with one of the gravest cultural legacies of modem times, namely the Nazi persecution of . writers, artists, and musicians. Like so much else that happened in the Third Reich, 1 the many composers who were driven into exile or ended their lives in the concentration camps were conveniently forgotten after World War II and still await the posthumous tribute they deserve. These several concerts as well as the other events in these Holocaust Memorial observances produced during the month of April by the College of Fine Arts are an effort to begin to redress that situation. Kemp Recital Hall Tuesday &Thursday Evening April 4 & 9, 1996 8:00p.m. 1· I I Thursday Program Tuesday Program I I Suite for Oboe and Piano, Op. 17 (1939) Pavel Haas Divertissement for Oboe, Clarinet, and Bassoon (1927) Erwin Schulhoff Furioso (1899-1944) Ouverture (1894-1942) Con fuoco Burlesca Moderato Romanzero I I Judith Dicker, Oboe Charleston Paul Borg, Piano Thema con variazioni e fugato Florida Rondino: Finale Judith Dicker, Oboe Aris Chavez, Clarinet I I Michael Dicker, Bassoon I Five Songs, Op. 4 (1925) Hans Krasa I 1hr Madchen seid wie die Garten (Rilke) (1899-1944) An die Bruder (Lettisches folksong) Mach, dass etwas uns geschieht! (Rilke) Sonata for Aute and Piano (1927) Erwin Schulhoff I Die Liebe (Catullus) Allegro moderato I Vice Versa (Morgenstern) Scherw Joan Schuetz, Soprano Aria Paul Borg, Piano Rondo Carole Martin, Flute Paul Borg, Piano I I I I String Quartet No. 3, Op. 46 (1943) Viktor Ullmann Allegro moderato-Scherw (Presto )-Tempo I (1898-1942) Largo-Rondo-Finale (Allegro vivace e ritmico) "Hot sonata" for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1930) Erwin Schulhoff Sarah Gentry, Violin Francisco Marchan, Violin J=66 I fl . Arthur Lewis, Viola Gregory Hamilton, Cello J=ll2 J= 80 Lamento ma molto grotesco I J=132 I James Boitos, Alto Saxophone Paul Borg, Piano I fl I I I I Program Notes I I Erwin Schulhoff, born in 1894 in Prague, was known already in the early 1920' s in European avant-garde circles, particularly through his expressionistic, Dadaist, Located 40 miles north of Prague, Terezin wiis built in 1780 as a garrison town and jazz-oriented works. An excellent pianist, he performed as a soloist and as a by Emperor Josef II in memory of his mother, Empress Maria Theresia. With the I chamber musician. Pre-dating John Cage's notorious flL, a work consisting invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis in 1939, this fortress town became the entirely of silence from the performer(s), Schulhoff in 1919 composed a work for Theresienstadt concentration camp. Theresienstadt was designed to serve two solo piano whose third movement consists exclusively of rests whose varying purposes: 1) a way station to the gas chambers of Auschwitz, and 2) an ideal vehicle lengths are to be indicated by the performer by gestures. He earned international of deception to mask the existence of the death camps, ultimately disguising the I recognition, especially at the festivals of the International Society for New Music, annihilation of the Jews. and his works were performed widely and published by the most important English The first Jewish prisoners arrived in Terezin on November 24, 1941. Musical and German publishing houses. Schulhoff composed eight symphonies, sonatas for instruments were smuggled into Theresienstadt with the arrival of the second violin and for cello, much chamber music, concerti for piano and for piano, flute and transport. Concerts, at first, were held secretly in the attics and basements of the I orchestra, a large oratorio, and numerous other works. barracks. Upon discovery of these secret performances, the Nazis realized the great During the 1930's Schulhoff underwent a radical change of outlook which also importance of culture to the lives of the prisoners. They immediately sanctioned affected his creative work. He turned politically toward communism and artistically these cultural activities, believing that it would be easier to keep the prisoners under toward socialist realism. Persecuted by the Nazis as a Jew, an avant-garde ("degen control. I erate") artist, and as a communist, he was deported to the concentration camp in The "Freizeit-Gestaltung" (the" Administration of Leisure-Time Activities") was Wiilzburg, Bavaria, where he died in August, 1942. instituted by the Nazi SS command. This was a Jewish-run organization responsible The end ofWorld War I in 1918 and the conflicts it unleashed in society coincided for a wide range of prisoner cultural activities. The active cultural community with a decisive point in Schulhoffs stylistic development. The young composer included many of Europe's most gifted artists, musicians and literary figures. All I described the general situation at the time as "dreadful chaos", and added "I became cultural events, of course, were subject to strict Nazi censorship. a grotesque, a burlesque ... and now I stand on the threshold of the land of the future, In the summer of 1944, the Nazis manipulated these performances into a wretched and defiant." This linking of the burlesque, long regarded as a channel for masquerade of deception to the international community and to the Jews under biting caricature and grotesque parody in literature, with the avant-garde position German occupation. The major vehicles of this deception were a Nazi propaganda I I "on the threshold of the land of the future" is evident in the three works by Schulhoff film and a staged visit by an International Red Cross Committee. The production of on tonight's concert. Strong influences on Schulhoff were some of the socially the film entitled "The Fuhrer Presents the Jews With a City" was designed to give critical artists like Otto Dix, with whom Schulhoff had become friends, and some a false impression that Theresienstadt was a "Paradise Ghetto" for the Jews. Under of the Dadaists such as George Grosz, who pursued a markedly anti-Romantic orders from the Nazi SS Command, the inmates were forced to perform in and I I course. Like many artists of his generation, Schulhoff also sought inspiration in the produce the propaganda film. Theresienstadt was superficially beautified with false new language of jazz, which was condemned in Germany as provocative and building facades of shops, cafes, banks, and even the construction of an outdoor American in origin. The expressionist elements inherited from his studies in concert stage. The film features a sham performance of a work by Pavel Haas (one Germany were relieved by the harmonic and stylistic elements of jazz and by the of the inmates whose works are included in our concerts), after which the conductor IJ I theatrical poses of Dadaism. and orchestra acknowledge the applause of the audience, and the camera focuses on The Sonata for Flute and Piano represents the most "romantic" of his three works the composer while the commentator declares "musical performances are happily included on tonight's concert. It includes a readily-recognizable sonata form attended by all. The work of a Jewish composer in Theresienstadt is performed." A movement, a scherzo, a lied-like "aria", and a rondo. The pseudo-romanticism of the performance of an opera by Hans Krasa (one of whose works are included on our 11 I · "Romanzero" movement in the Divertissement for Oboe, Clarinet. and Bassoon is concerts) was staged during the visit to Theresienstadt by the International Red fundamentally different from the romanticism of the nineteenth century. In it, the Cross Committee and scenes from it were included in the film. Life in Theresienstadt clarinet breaks out in a cry of despair at the fact that the sentimentality that is an for this cultural community was far from a "paradise-ghetto" or "Spa Terezin". The integral part of a Romanza doesn't really manage to make itself felt against the uncertainty of one's existence was a constant undercurrent. An artist performing in I I background of a grotesque, rigidly antiquated style. And with the Charleston and the Theresienstadt on one day might well be on a transport to Auschwitz on the next. 5oruJa, the hustle and bustle of everyday life in the Twenties penetrate the lofty Indeed, only a few months after the Red Cross visit and the making of the film, Pavel sphere of art music. The first movement of the "Hot Sonata" for Saxophone and Haas and Hans Krasa and most of the musicians who performed in those works were ,Piano is in classical sonata form but the melodies and harmonies include impres consigned to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. ll I sionistic and jazz elements. The second movement, a dance-like movement, is Of the 141,000 Jews who were imprisoned in Theresienstadt, 33,500 died in the reminiscent of a charleston while the third movement sounds like a blues song.