World War II and the Holocaust ended the lives of some of Europe’s most talented composers and nearly silenced their music.
This week CPR Classical remembers the musicians murdered by the Nazis -- and their music that survived and continues to inspire.
“A Voice for the Silenced” airs on CPR Classical at 7 p.m. Monday through Friday April 21-25, in honor of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps as well as the Days of Remembrance.
The five-part series is co-hosted by CPR Classical’s Monika Vischer and conductor James Conlon -- who founded the OREL Foundation to champion recovered music from Holocaust-era composers. The series first aired in 2005 and is now part of the archival library at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
One of the recurring topics in “A Voice for the Silenced” is the Terezín ghetto, a concentration camp created by the Nazis to house prominent musicians and artists. The Nazis encouraged musical performances, stage productions and sporting events to create an apparent model community that masked the brutality taking place inside concentration camps across Europe, including at Terezín.
Some of Europe’s finest Jewish composers found themselves deported to Terezín. Many of them continued to compose and even wrote some of their best pieces in the ghetto, though few of them survived.
Here’s a sampling of music by composers imprisoned in Terezín, and some of the pieces written there. Each of the composers in this list wrote memorable pieces while imprisoned in the ghetto, and none lived to see the end of World War II.
Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944)
Ullmann was a gifted composer and conductor who studied under Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna and Alexander von Zemlinsky in Prague. When Ullmann was deported to the Terezín ghetto in 1942, the Nazis gave him an unusual assignment, telling him to compose and organize concerts there.
He composed prolifically at Terezín, writing music that included piano sonatas, a string quartet and an opera, “The Emperor of Atlantis.” The opera’s plot offered a veiled criticism of Hitler and the Nazis, and Nazi authorities halted the Terezín production before it could be performed. “The Emperor of Atlantis” saw its world premiere in 1975 (and a memorable Colorado performance in 2013).
Here’s a performance of his String Quartet No. 3, composed while Ullmann was imprisoned in Terezín in 1943.
Hans Krasa (1899-1944)
The Czech composer may be best remembered for “Brundibar,” a 40-minute children’s opera he wrote in 1938. The piece, which tells the story of children trying to find money to help feed their sick mother, was the last music Krasa completed before the Nazis sent him to Terezín in 1942.
In Terezín, “Brundibar” found new life. Krasa reworked the score for the instruments on hand in the ghetto. He and other prisoners staged dozens of performances. The symbolic elements in the story -- the main characters defeat a tyrannical antagonist and sing a victory march -- appealed to a crowd that had been imprisoned under Nazi rule. Krasa also continued to write new music in Terezín.
Listen to his Passacaglia and Fugue for String Trio:
Gideon Klein (1919-1945)
Like Ullmann and Krasa, Klein continued to compose and play piano after being deported to Terezín in 1941. He enthusiastically supported other artists at Terezin, encouraging Krasa, Ullmann and other composers to continue writing.
Because of his relative youth, he was sent to the Fürstengrube concentration camp in Poland and put to work as a coal miner. He died there before the end of the war.
Watch an Israeli Chamber Project performance of his String Trio, written in 1944:
Pavel Haas (1899-1944)
Haas distinguished himself first as a protege of composer Leos Janacek. In the 1930s, he became interested in jazz music and began working elements into his pieces.
Haas composed the piece “Study for Strings” in Terezín in 1943. It saw frequent performances in the ghetto and continues to be performed today.
Ilse Weber (1903-1944)
Weber worked in the children’s infirmary at Terezin after being sent there in 1942. Before the war, she had been a poet and a children’s author. While she never worked as a professional musician, in Terezín she began setting some of her poems to simple melodies. She’d sing them and accompany herself on guitar.
Here’s “Lullaby,” performed by mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter:
CPR Classical’s 5-hour radio documentary series, “A Voice for the Silenced, Lost Music of the Holocaust” first aired in 2005. The audio can be found at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Karla Walker was the lead producer and Martin Skavish was the audio engineer.
Hear CPR Classical by clicking “Listen Live” at the top of this website, or download the Colorado Public Radio app. Listen on your radio to CPR Classical at 88.1 FM in Denver, on radio signals around Colorado. You can also tell your smart speaker to “Play CPR Classical.”
