It might seem contradictory to show pieces by subjugated and doomed artists in a peaceful environment, in a country and world full of discord and strife, but it speaks to the Terezin Music Foundation’s larger goal, to the performers who lived and worked it, who expressed the desire for their artistic vision to be as equal to what they wanted to live. That one cannot be cut from the other.
In a dinner that included the launch of two income based on the independence theme, TMF’s” In the Joyous Light” addressed that paradox at Symphony Hall on Monday. The life and creativity lost in the Holocaust are restored by commissioning living artists in honor of those murdered in the holocaust, keeping the consistency of music history. They are not lost.
Also, the composers represented Monday increase the framework of suffering to a not wholly Israeli issue. Bosba is of Thai history, a society that suffered its own genocide and murder. Tyson Davis has a Egyptian British history. Maybe it’s time to name the Middle Section and slavery as what they were: a murder. To link the sufferings of several “groups” removes their “otherness”. We could all be subject to some of the heartlessness of others, or we might be lifted by creativity’s triumph. We are all mortal, of equal value and skills. We can generally choose what to help, what to engage in, what to have against.
The three pleasant Holderlein Lieder for Soprano &, Piano ( 1944 ), Sonnenuntergan, Der Fruhling, and Abendphantasie by Victor Ullman, a Terezin composer who was a member of Schoenberg’s circle in Vienna, must have felt very far removed from the reality of the camp where he composed them. They referred to new time, mourning that is dissolving in joy, and a new career that wants to manifest itself in the near future. Ideally, Ullman was able to find some relief in the splendor he had made. Elizabeth Banke-Biggs in a beautiful silver dress gave a superb performance. Her words would become wonderful to hear in musical jobs. Michael Recchiuti, a piano, worked well with her.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of the focus camps in Europe, TMF Director Mark Ludwig invited writers from all over the world to write a song about the topic of independence. Coro Allegro came to the stage to accomplish Bosba’s I see people like me, a building of one of TMF’s Liberarte writings,” Clouds” by Fanny Howe.
As a song whose people consists of LGBTQ+ people and their supporters, once underlined the concept of vulnerable populations. Massachusetts is fortunately a fairly safe place to be open about one’s identity, but that is n’t always the case in many other parts of the state right now. Under the manner of David Hodgkins, Coro Allegro gave a smooth top. The pointillistic report triumphantly emphasized the phrase” Home” in lush, major tranquility while evoking raindrops in a mist of musical clusters that flung nebulously. All in all an intriguing part, an interesting environment. A respectable TMF fee.
Tyson Davis’s Additions of Illumination for solo music took its inspiration from by an intangible expressionist artwork, Winter Light, by Helen Frankenthaler. Jonathan Biss gave a commanding efficiency, his long hands creating suspended day as they gently arced over the console, enhancing the perception of spaciousness. Additionally, Biss also carried out some wonderfully quick passages without much work. The performance was periodically interrupted by a medical emergency in the audience, which meant it was not quite as simple as it might have been to identify the three movements moving from one to the other. However, the composer’s intention was to express the artist’s poetic and contemplative intentions in a literary, contemplative manner.
Over a large active range, with careful attention to detail, and comforting charm of tone, Biss ended the music with a thoughtful, delicate, and private interpretation Schubert’s Piano Sonata No. 22 in A Major, D. 959 ( 1828 ). However, we were left wondering how a society that produced Schubert might carry out the Holocaust.
Once again, the Terezing Music Foundation presented a thought-provoking system of the highest artistic caliber, honoring those who lived at Terezin, and encouraging us all to choose imagination over loss.
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Elisa Birdseye, senior director of the Boston Chamber Ensemble, is an effective independent violist and main violist of the New Bedford Symphony. Moreover, she has held positions with Boston Musica Viva and the New England Philharmonic.
