Music of Remembrance - Remembering Holocaust Musicians

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KRISTALLNACHT COMMEMORATED WITH MUSIC
-Melinda Bargreen, The Seattle Times, November 10, 1998

Sixty years ago last night, the Nazis and their hired thugs overran many German cities and villages, destroying Jewish property in a night that lives on in infamy: Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass.

It’s an apt anniversary for a concert commemorating those who died and suffered in the ensuing Holocaust - particularly those who composed music in spite of the horrors around them.

That music is the mission of a new organization called "Music of Remembrance," whose first concert was presented last night at the Nordstrom Recital Hall.

The artistic director, pianist Mina Miller, chose some first-rate performers (many of them associated with the Seattle Symphony) for the inaugural program, which was called "Music of Death and Life." The music chosen included works by composer/arranger Zikmund Schul (who died in the Terezin concentration camp), Vilem Zrzavy (who died in Zamoschsche), Erwin Schulhoff (who died in Wülzburg), Carlo Taube (who died in Auschwitz, along with his lyricist/wife Erica), Ilse Weber (who died in Auschwitz) and Gideon Klein (who died in Fürstengrab), as well as contemporary composer Jonathan Kramer (who was in last night’s audience) and the venerable Ernest Bloch (who escaped the Nazis in Switzerland, and later [came to] the U.S.)...

Bloch’s "Baal Shem" ("Three Pictures of Chassidic Life") brought together Miller (at the piano) and violinist Leonid Keylin, who created three sharply drawn vignettes with a bravura conclusion. With the unusual combination of flute, viola and double bass, Schulhoff’s thorny Concertino got a fine performance by Jody Schwarz, Susan Gulkis and Mark Bernat.

Julie Mirel gave deeply personal, touching readings of three songs by Taube, Weber and Klein, with Miller at the piano. Jonathan Kramer’s new "Remembrance of a People," for string quintet and piano, was both eerie and thought-provoking, especially in its ghostly waltz movement.

The entire concert was worth hearing on two levels: for its artistic content and for its capacity to make us remember what must never be forgotten.

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