Alban Berg (1885-1935)

Sonata op.1 (ca. 1909)

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Prelude op.28, no.4 in E minor

Josima Feldschuh (1929-1943)

(1940, Warsaw Ghetto)

Mazurka no.4, op.8 in E minor

Nocturne op.16 in G minor

Sabbathiada no.2, op.15 in C minor

Gideon Klein (1919-1945)

Sonata no.1 (1943, Theresienstadt Ghetto)

1. Allegro con fuoco

2. Adagio

3. Allegro vivace

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

“The Little Shepherd” from Children’s Corner (1908)

“La Soirée dans Grenade” (1903)

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942, d. Wülzburg concentration camp)

“Suite dansante en Jazz” (1931)

1.  Stomp

2.  Strait

3.  Waltz

4.  Tango

5.  Slow

6.  Fox – Trot

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

“Oiseaux tristes” (“sad birds” from Miroirs, 1905)

Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984)

5 pieces op.34 (1943)

1. Pastorale

2. Intermezzo

3. Capriccio Agitato

4. Canzonetta

5. Toccata

About the music and the composers:

This program introduces obscure music by great composers whose Jewish identity sealed their fate as musicians and human beings in the period surrounding the two world wars. The colorful, imaginative soundscape these composers created was influenced by other composers they were personally associated with, such as Debussy and Berg, by their geographical journeys to Eastern, Western Europe and Palestine, and ultimately by the turbulent circumstances of their time - a monumental chapter in history. Their compositions bear witness to their rich life experiences, encompassing great stylistic diversity and a vast range of emotions. 

With the exception of the Chopin Prelude which connects the Berg and Feldschuh, the program covers a span of 40 years - 1903 to 1943. Each half of the program ends with a composition from 1943. 

Gideon Klein, who was a prodigy and rising star, found death in a concentration camp at the age of 25. He was a central figure in the cultural life of Theresienstadt, active as a pianist, composer and ambassador of the new music composed by his peers. 

Paul Ben-Haim escaped from Germany to Palestine when the Nazis were elected in 1933, changing his name from Paul Frankenberger, and lived a long prolific life. The name Ben-Haim means the son of Haim - son of life. Amongst the Jewish composers on this program, Ben-Haim was the only one who survived the Second World War. Therefore,  I chose to end the first half with Klein, and the second half with Ben-Haim, ending with life as opposed to death. 

Alban Berg’s sonata was composed before the two world wars, while he was studying with Schönberg. This dark and dissonant work could be considered a prophecy of the havoc and grief that was to come. In the early 1930s, Berg’s music was banned in Germany and Austria, partially because of his association with many Jewish musicians. One of these Jewish musicians was Erwin Schulhoff, who performed this sonata and was also a student of Schönberg. 

Josima Feldschuh was a Polish Jewish child prodigy, a pianist and composer who perished in the Holocaust. She spent 3 years in the Ghetto from the age of 11-14, where she composed a volume of piano compositions. Her music is clearly inspired by Chopin. However, in the Sabbathiada one can hear original melodies in Jewish style and freedom of form. One can only imagine what other jewels she would have written had she lived to fulfill her potential. 

Schulhoff took some lessons with Debussy, whose influence is clearly palpable, and was also a brilliant jazz pianist. While traveling with his band across Europe, he was exposed to new music, including that of American jazz, ragtime and improvisation. Considering their music, the two composers clearly shared a love of these genres. At the same time, French composers like Ravel and Debussy were popular among American composers like Zez Confrey and George Gershwin. 

Although France in 1920 was known for having had a rich jazz scene, there were also Spanish and Latin influences that made their way into the music of Ravel and Debussy. Spanish elements are also very prominent in Jewish Sephardic and Middle Eastern music, easily recognized by their ‘exotic’ sound: distinctive rhythm, modes, images and the use or emulation of indigenous instruments.

In the second half of this program, one can easily hear the motive of the flute and the birds suggesting that exotic atmosphere; the shepherd in Debussy, the sad bird in Ravel, and the ‘Pastorale’ of the desert in Ben-Haim. Ravel’s music resonates in the set of Ben-Haim. In this context, “Sad birds” is my personal contemplative elegy. You will hear the residue of Ravel’s lament spreading its wings in Ben-Haim’s Pastorale. 

-Renana Gutman