THERESIENSTADT COMPOSERS

We all know that where words fail music can speak yet it is still remarkable to think that during times of unimaginable horror the musicians held in Theresienstadt were able to garner any creativity at all, let alone enough to compose works as meaningful and moving as these. However, they did so to promote survival and signify hope for a better world one that so many of them did not get to see, and as such, more so perhaps than with any other music, it is our duty and privilege to give these works a voice now and long into the future, so that generations current and future can enjoy them and reflect upon them.

This concert features two young artists hand-picked by Julius Drake; BBC New Generation Artist and Kathleen Ferrier Prize winning mezzo soprano Ema Niklovska and multi-award winning baritone Konstantin Krimmel.

Ilse Weber Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt | Ade, Kamerad! | Wiegenlied
Viktor Ullmann Berjoskele from Three Jewish Songs | Five Love Songs of Richarda Huch | Three songs on poems by Friedrich Hölderlin | Three songs on poems by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer | Little Cakewalk
Gideon Klein Wiegenlied
Pavel Haas Four Songs on Chinese Poetry
Adolf Strauss Ich weiss bestimmt, ich werd dich wiedersehen!
Carlo Taube Un niño judío

The Scottish mezzo and her experienced pianist place Mahler in the context of one of the earliest masters of Lieder and one of his own greatest contemporaries. With the exception of the first of the Op. 15 group (whose text is by Michelangelo), Strauss’s 1884-6 collection set texts by the poet and art collector Adolf von Schack.

• Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
  • • Die junge Nonne D828
    • An den Mond D193
    • Nacht und Träume D827
    • Rastlose Liebe D138
    • Frühlingsglaube D686
    • Gretchen am Spinnrade D118
• Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
  • • Kindertotenlieder
• Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
  • • Madrigal Op. 15 No. 1
    • Winternacht Op. 15 No. 2
    • Lob des Leidens Op. 15 No. 3
    • Aus den Liedern der Trauer Op. 15 No. 4
    • Heimkehr Op. 15 No. 5

In their Festival debuts, mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron and pianist Julius Drake perform several powerhouse miniatures, including Brahms’s atmospheric “Nachtwandler” and Ives’s distinctive arrangement of “At the River” as well as the Chinese folk song “Northeast Lullaby” and the Uyghur art song “Ananurhan,” which Zubaida Azezi wrote for Ms. Barron. The program also features Chen Yi’s two-song collection Meditation, which draws its text from ancient Chinese poetry, and two landmark song cycles: Berg’s Four Songs, Op. 2—a youthful, exploratory work that dates from Berg’s student days with Schoenberg—and Dvořák’s much-loved Cigánské melodie, Op. 55.

BERG “Schlafen, schlafen,” Op. 2, No. 1

BRAHMS “Wie traulich war das Fleckchen,” Op. 63, No. 7

BERG “Schlafen trägt man mich,” Op. 2, No. 2

BRAHMS “O wüßt ich doch den Weg zurück,” Op. 63, No. 8

BERG “Nun ich der Riesen stärksten überwand,” Op. 2, No. 3

BRAHMS “Nachtwandler,” Op. 86, No. 3

BERG “Warm die Lüfte,” Op. 2, No. 4

DVOŘÁK Cigánské melodie, Op. 55

CHEN YI “Know You How Many Petals Falling?” from Meditation

IVES “My Native Land”

ZUBAIDA AZEZI & EDO FRENKEL “Ananurhan”

IVES “At the River”

CHEN YI “Monologue” from Meditation

TRADITIONAL “Northeast Lullaby”

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828)Die Nacht (Uz), D 358

Der Abend (Matthisson), D 108

Seufzer (Hölty), D 198

Der Sänger am Felsen (Pichler), D 482

Wiedersehn (A. W. v. Schlegel), D 855

Three Lieder, op. 80

on poems by Johann Gabriel Seidl

Der Wanderer an den Mond, D 870

Das Zügenglöcklein, D 871

Im Freien, D 880

Two Lieder, op. 81

on poems by Johann Friedrich Rochlitz

Alinde, D 904

An die Laute, D 905

Two Lieder, op. 93

on poems by Ernst Schulze

Im Walde, D 834

Auf der Bruck, D 853

HENRI DUPARC (1848–1933)

Chanson triste (Cazalis)

Soupir (Sully-Prudhomme)

Le Manoir de Rosemonde (de Bonnières)

Phidylé (Leconte de Lisle)

L’invitation au voyage (Baudelaire)

FRANZ SCHUBERT

Three Lieder, op. 56

Willkommen und Abschied (Goethe), D 767

An die Leier (Bruchmann), D 737

Im Haine (Bruchmann), D 738

Four Lieder, op. 59

Du liebst mich nicht (Platen), D 756

Daß sie hier gewesen (Rückert), D 775

Du bist die Ruh (Rückert), D 776

Lachen und Weinen (Rückert), D 777