Every November for the past six years, the Music of Remembrance organization has observed the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the infamous "Night of Broken Glass." On that evening (Nov. 9, 1938), Nazis in an organized campaign of anti-Jewish violence smashed windows and destroyed Jewish property throughout Germany, escalating a movement that led to the Final Solution.

Music of Remembrance artistic director and founder Mina Miller gave her concert audience much to reflect upon Monday, when the organization's seventh season opened with a Kristallnacht commemoration. The evening's major work was the premiere of an English-translation version of Paul Schoenfield's searing "Camp Songs," five bitterly ironic songs for chamber quintet and two voices. The work was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and it is an unforgettable piece — one that packs considerably more punch in English, especially as it was enunciated in Monday night's performance.

Schoenfield set five poems by the Polish poet Aleksander Kulisiewicz, who wrote them in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It was an act of subversive daring, considering the themes: a boastful blast from the man who ran the camp's incinerators, a lengthy sneer at Hitler, a stab at Churchill (the "Mr. C." who puffs his cigar while Europe crumbles). Most of the same performers who premiered "Camp Songs" in 2002 were on hand for the Monday concert: vocalists Erich Parce and Julie Mirel (who really own this score), plus clarinetist Laura DeLuca (irreplaceable), violinist Mikhail Shmidt (ditto), with the fine double bass Jonathan Green and cellist Amos Yang (a first-rate newcomer). Craig Sheppard brought his imposing energy and technical strength to the harrowing piano part.

Mirel, looking and sounding great, threw herself into the mordantly sarcastic torch/cabaret style of "The Corpse Carrier's Tango." Parce was all expressive authority, and the instrumentalists were beyond praise.

There was much more. Especially interesting was the Erwin Schulhoff String Quartet No. 2, a substantial and inventive work that got an energetic performance from Shmidt, Leonid Keylin, Susan Gulkis Assadi and Mara Finkelstein. The first half showcased Finkelstein's eloquent, opulent cello tone and violinist Keylin's interpretive finesse in solo/duo works of Leo Zeitlin, Aleksander Krein and Solomon Rosowsky, all with Miller providing able partnership at the piano. Most of the program was either West Coast or world premieres, bringing forth compositional voices that certainly deserve a hearing, performed with heart and passion.