Holocaust Memorial Concert
31 October 2024
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
Presented in partnership with the Australian War Memorial.
Welcome
Welcome
THE HONOURABLE KIM BEAZLEY AC
Chairman, Australian War Memorial Council
We are here to remember the dead, murdered in the Holocaust, 80 years after the uncovering of the first death camps.
Through music, words and images we will tell this terrible history, so it is known and its lasting impacts made visible, so that healing may occur.
This concert will be a true account of the Holocaust and the impacts on those who survived.
It will show the musical contributions that Jewish refugees made in Australia, and how they changed the culture of the country that embraced them.
This project is called the Gift.
I am proud to formally give you the Australian War Memorial’s HolocaustMemorial
This Gift is to demonstrate to the communities who suffered that your history is known, that your experiences are interwoven into Australia’s fabric, and that your contributions have deeply enriched Australian culture.
MATT ANDERSON PSM
Director, Australian War Memorial
Tonight, there are no enemies, only the victims of war.
We have come here to clean and dress a great wound in the world.
The Holocaust was the tipping point when warfare shifted its focus from military to civilian targets.
Between 40-58 million civilians died in WW2, compared to 21-25 million military deaths, from starvation, disease, ground warfare, bombardment and bombing.
More than 12 million civilians were murdered in the Holocaust: 6 million Jews, the rest Poles, Russians, Slavs, the Romani people, the disabled, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, political opponents including communists, socialists and union leaders, as well as dissidents and asocials – a term that covered artists, academics, journalists, priests, and anyone else the Nazis hated.
The Holocaust contributed to civilian deaths outstripping military deaths. It is the story of civilians becoming the focus of war and violence -a catastrophic failure of compassion.
Through the incitement of hatred, supercharged by rising nationalism after WW1 and the Depression, many countries excluded their Jewish populations and others from the protections of citizenship; confiscating their possessions, blocking their ability to work, and eventually enslaving, starving and murdering them.
Conversely other nations protected their vulnerable citizens and did not obey Nazi directions to round them up and hand them over. All of this will be shown and known.
Soon the last witnesses to these events will fade and be gone. Let us bear witness together to the costs of hatred and division. Tonight, we will show where that path leads, how it caused a terrible reckoning to fall on the innocent, who we remember now, by doing this in their name.
FLOWERS OF PEACE
The Flowers of Peace does two kinds of work: responding to the past by writing music in the present, and cultural recovery where we play and record recovered music to connect to the past so we understand it more deeply. In turn better understanding the present.
These outcomes involve the living reaching out to the dead, and the reflection, when a lost manuscript finally surfaces, when the dead reach out to the living. The notes on the paper that they touched, in turn touch us, imprinting on our ears and eyes, connecting us through time.
These musical memorials we make are like magic mirrors, through which we experience the dead for as long as the music lasts.
Some of the composers being played tonight include Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Hans Krása, Gideon Klein and Ilse Weber, all killed 80 years ago. Likewise the murdered Terezín artists Malva Schalek, Bedrich Fritta, Leo Haas, Felix Bloch, Otto Ungar, Peter Kien, Charlotte Buresova, Karel Fleischmann and Friedl Dicker-Brandeis will be remembered by their images of camp life.
For the concert’s duration, we will know and remember them. We’ll send our love to them, as they will to us, and for a time there will be no sense of loss, only comfort.
Chris Latham OAM
Artist in Residence, Australian War Memorial Director, Flowers of Peace
Joanne Fisher
General Manager, Flowers of Peace
Artists Artists ProgramProgram
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Benjamin Northey conductor
Chris Latham OAM director
Leah Pisar narrator
Simon Tedeschi narrator
William Barton yidaki
Emily Sun violin
Jessica Aszodi mezzo-soprano
Edward Neeman piano
Alice Giles AM harp
MSO Chorus
Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus director
Leonard Weiss CF guest chorus director
Young Voices of Melbourne
Mark O'Leary OAM choir director
BERNSTEIN Symphony No.3 Kaddish Leah Pisar narrator
INTERVAL
THE HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
Simon Tedeschi narrations
ELENA KATS-CHERNIN The Night of Broken Glass*
WILLIAM BARTON William Cooper March*
SCHULHOFF Violin Sonata No.2: Andante**
KLEIN Lullaby**
ULLMANN Six Sonnets by Louise Labé: I. Claire Vénus**
BOULANGER Avant de Mourir (Before Dying)**
KRÁSA Brundibár: Lullaby**
BRUDNO Under Your White Stars
HAAS Suite for Oboe and Piano: Op.17, Mvt.III**
SZPILMAN Mazurka
BARTÓK Divertimento: Mvt.II Molto adagio
BISCHOFSWERDER (arr. Toltz) Phantasia Judaica
GEORGE DREYFUS Larino, Safe Haven**
WEBER Wiegala (Lullaby)
*World premiere
**Orchestrated by Chris Latham
Running time: Approx. 3 hours including interval
In consideration of your fellow patrons, the MSO thanks you for silencing and dimming the light on your phone.
This concert is designed to promote healing and deeper understanding and integration of historic trauma.
It contains racial slurs and graphic images of deceased persons and of intense suffering. If any content in this concert causes you distress, please visit headtohealth.gov.au
MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Committed to shaping and serving the state it inhabits, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is Australia’s preeminent orchestra and a cornerstone of Victoria’s rich, cultural heritage.
Each year, the MSO and MSO Chorus present more than 180 public events across live performances, TV, radio and online broadcasts, and via its online concert hall, MSO.LIVE, engaging an audience of more than five million people in 88 countries. In 2024 the organisation will release its first two albums on the newly established MSO recording label.
With an international reputation for excellence, versatility and innovation, the MSO works with culturally diverse and First Nations artists to build community and deliver music to people across Melbourne, the state of Victoria and around the world.
In 2024, Jaime Martín leads the Orchestra for his third year as MSO Chief Conductor. Maestro Martín leads an Artistic Family that includes Principal Conductor Benjamin Northey, Cybec Assistant Conductor Leonard Weiss CF, MSO Chorus Director Warren Trevelyan-Jones, Composer in Residence Katy Abbott, Artist in Residence Erin Helyard, MSO First Nations Creative Chair Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, Young Cybec Young Composer in Residence Naomi Dodd, and Artist in Association Christian Li.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra respectfully acknowledges the people of the Eastern Kulin Nations, on whose un‑ceded lands we honour the continuation of the oldest music practice in the world.
BENJAMIN NORTHEY CONDUCTOR
Australian conductor Benjamin Northey is the Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor – Learning and Engagement of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Northey studied conducting at Finland's Sibelius Academy with Professors Leif Segerstam and Atso Almila and completed his studies at the Stockholm Royal College of Music with Jorma Panula in 2006.
Northey appears regularly as a guest conductor with all major Australian symphony orchestras, Opera Australia (La bohème, Turandot, L’elisir d’amore, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Carmen), New Zealand Opera (Sweeney Todd ) and the State Opera South Australia (La sonnambula, L’elisir d’amore, Les contes d’Hoffmann).
CHRISTOPHER LATHAM OAM DIRECTOR
Chris Latham OAM has always been interested in the healing powers of music. He has followed this stream as a conductor, violinist, composer/ arranger and director. He has overseen over 1000 musical premieres in these various roles while also recovering the music of lost composers such as FS Kelly, killed in WW1, and making the first recording of the WW2 Changi Songbook. This balance between cultural recovery and new creative work is a fundamental characteristic of his artistic practice.
He is currently the first musician to be Artist in Residence at the Australian War Memorial (AWM) for whom he is making a set of seven War Requiems to reflect Australia’s experiences in war. These include the Gallipoli Symphony, the Diggers’ Requiem, the Vietnam Requiem and the POW Requiem. Following the Holocaust Memorial, the WW2 Requiem will premiere in 2025, with the Peace Symphony scheduled for 2028.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Canberra, made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government, and was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his work on music and war.
LEAH PISAR NARRATOR
Leah Pisar chairs Project Aladdin, which works to counter anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred and extremism by teaching the universal lessons of the Holocaust and building bridges of knowledge among Jews, Christians and Muslims. It works with governments, civil society leaders and educators throughout the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia. Her father, a survivor of Auschwitz, instilled in her the firm belief that there is no such thing as hereditary enemies. Since his death in 2015, she has taken on his message as her mission.
In 2021, she served on the Jury of the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity, under the patronage of Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. In 2022, President Biden appointed her to serve on the Council of the United States Holocaust Memorial. She served in the Clinton administration on the staff of the National Security Council, at the U.S. Department of State and at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. Dr Pisar holds a BA from Harvard College, a Masters from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Paris and a PhD from the University of Paris. A U.S. citizen, she was born and raised in Paris. Her husband, Jérôme Haas, headed the French Accounting Standards Board until his death in May 2014. Their son, Jeremiah, was born in November 2014.
SIMON TEDESCHI NARRATOR
Simon Tedeschi is one of Australia’s most renowned classical pianists, recipient of prizes such as Symphony Australia’s Young Performer of the Year Award, the Legacy Award from the Creativity Foundation (USA), first prize in the Keyboard division of the Royal Overseas League Competition (UK), and a Centenary of Federation Medal. He has performed in major concert halls and for festivals throughout Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia, and for world leaders including former US President George W. Bush and the Dalai Lama.
As a writer, he has written for a number of publications, including Seizure Magazine, Art Edit Magazine, SBS Feast Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald and many others. In 2023, Simon’s first book, Fugitive, was released by Upswell and subsequently shortlisted for both the Judith Wright Calanthe Award for Poetry and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. In May of 2022, Tedeschi was awarded the Calibre Prize (Australian Book Review) for his essay ‘This woman my grandmother’. Tedeschi also holds a Masters in Arts (Writing and Literature) degree from Deakin University.
ELENA KATS-CHERNIN AO COMPOSER
One of Australia’s foremost contemporary composers, Elena Kats-Chernin's vibrant and distinctive music across all genres has reached millions worldwide, featuring at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, 2003 Rugby World Cup and 2018 Commonwealth Games. Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, she has received numerous prizes including Helpmann, Limelight, Sounds Australian and Sydney Theatre Awards, the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award and the 2022 Australian Women in Music Award (AWMA) for ‘Artistic Excellence’. Elena's 'Sarenka' double concerto premiered by the MSO was nominated for 'Work of the Year' in the 2024 APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards.
Kats-Chernin writes for ballet, opera, theatre, television and the concert hall, with her music performed by all major orchestras in Australia, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Brandenburg Orchestra and Australian World Orchestra; London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerorchester Berlin, City of London Sinfonia, BBC Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony and Luxembourg Philharmonie, as well as the opera houses of Antwerp, Stuttgart, and Berlin, and in festivals across the USA, Europe, and Australasia.
Elena Kats-Chernin’s music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes, and recorded by Deutsche Grammophon and ABC Classics.
WILLIAM BARTON YIDAKI / COMPOSER
William Barton is Australia’s leading didgeridoo player as well as a highly esteemed composer, instrumentalist and vocalist.
William first learnt the instrument from his uncle, Arthur Peterson, an Elder of the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga people and was working from an early age with traditional dance groups, fusion/rock/jazz bands, orchestras, string quartets and mixed ensembles.
Throughout his diverse career he has forged a path in the classical musical world from the London, Berlin and Bremer Philharmonic Orchestras to historic events at Westminster Abbey for Commonwealth Day 2019, at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli and the Beijing Olympics.
William holds honorary doctorates from both Griffith University and the University of Sydney. He has released 5 albums on the ABC Classics label including Heartland 2022 with Veronique Serret and the words of William’s mother, Aunty Delmae Barton. William has been developing a new musical language, which is epitomised in this record.
William was named Queensland Australian of the Year for 2023 and was an Australian of the Year Nominee. In 2023 he also received the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music.
In 2022 he was recognised for his work with the Australian Chamber Orchestra for the Soundtrack of the film River. River won Best Soundtrack Album and Best Original Song Composed for the Screen at the APRA AMCOS Screen Awards, Best Original Score in a Documentary at the AACTA Awards and Best Original Soundtrack at the ARIA Awards.
His other awards include the prestigious Don Banks Music Award from the Australian Council in 2021, winner of Best Original Score for a Mainstage Production at the 2018 Sydney Theatre Awards and Winner of Best Classical Album at the ARIA Awards for Birdsong At Dusk in 2012.
Emily Sun shot to fame as a young soloist in Australia, and internationally as a multi prize-winner. Now based in London, she is a fast-rising star with “a perfect balance of expressivity and formidable strength” (The Australian).
She has recently performed with major Australian orchestras and has appeared in venues including Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, Tchaikovsky Great Hall Moscow, and Buckingham Palace for HRH King Charles III. Among her accolades, she won the 2018 ABC Young Performers Award (Australia). Emily’s debut album, Nocturnes with Andrea Lam, reached No. 1 for four weeks in the ARIA Classical Charts.
Emily studied with Dr Robin Wilson, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Augustin Dumay and received mentoring from Pinchas Zukerman, Maxim Vengerov and Ivry Gitlis. Emily is violin professor at the Royal College of Music, London, and plays a 1753 G.B. Guadaganini, on generous loan from the UKARIA Cultural Trust.
Jessica Aszodi's career could best be described as genre-bounding and label-defying. The Australian vocalist has premiered dozens of new works and performed others long neglected, devised pieces, projects and festivals, sung roles from musicals and standard operatic repertoire, while collaborating with a constellation of artists from the far reaches of the cultural spectrum.
Aszodi has performed as soloist with ensembles as diverse as ICE (NY), London Sinfonietta, the Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, the New National Theatre Tokyo, Wiener Volksoper, Musikfabrik, Ensemble Remix Casa da Musica, Pinchgut Opera, the Tirolean Symphony, Victorian Opera, Sydney Chamber Opera, Chamber Made, and in the chamber series of the San Diego and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. She was awarded “Performance of the Year” by the 2019 Australian Art Music Awards for Liza Lim’s epic Atlas of the Sky and has twice been nominated for the Australian Greenroom Awards as ‘best female operatic performer’.
Aszodi has sung in festivals around the globe, including Beethoven Festival Bonn, Aspen Music Festival, BIFEM, Copenhagen Opera, the Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Festivals, Brisbane Music Festival, Darmstadt, Aldeburgh, Tectonics and Tanglewood.
EDWARD NEEMAN PIANO
The Australian-American concert pianist Edward Neeman has appeared as a soloist with the Prague Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Kentucky Symphony, Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, and the American West Symphony among others.
Dr. Neeman’s discography includes his critically acclaimed debut album, Rachmaninoff & Sitsky, as well as two contemporary music releases from 2022: Language of Angels (premiere recordings of Larry Sitsky’s piano works) and as a collaborative artist on David Pereira Cello Works (Tall Poppies). Dr. Neeman has made numerous piano duet arrangements for the Neeman Piano Duo, in which he performs with his wife, the Indonesian pianist Stephanie Neeman.
Dr. Neeman holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School. He is on the piano faculty at the Australian National University in Canberra.
ALICE GILES AM HARP
First Prize winner of the 8th Israel International Harp Contest, Artistic Director of the World Harp Congress Sydney 2014, Alice Giles has had a wide-ranging solo career, from London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Merkin, ‘92nd St Y’ and Carnegie Halls, to Mawson Station, Antarctica. Regarded by Berio as foremost interpreter of his Sequenza II, founding Director of the Seven Harp Ensemble (SHE), she has commissioned and performed many new works.
Guest artist at international festivals, soloist with orchestras, acclaimed recitalist and recording artist, she has given Master Classes in most of the major music institutions, and is Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Her annual master courses are held on the NSW South Coast. She was awarded an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) for “Significant service to the performing arts as a harpist, mentor and educator, and through contributions to Australia’s musical landscape.”
EMILY SUN VIOLIN
JESSICA ASZODI MEZZO-SOPRANO
For almost 60 years the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus has been the unstinting voice of the Orchestra’s choral repertoire. The MSO Chorus sings with the finest conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, Edward Gardner, Mark Wigglesworth, Bernard Labadie, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Manfred Honeck, Xian Zhang and Nodoko Okisawa, and is committed to developing and performing new Australian and international choral repertoire.
SOPRANO
Shirin Albert
Aliz Cole
Keren Evans
Rita Fitzgerald
Catherine Folley
Susan Fone
Nicole Free
Penny Huggett
Tania Jacobs
Judy Longbottom
Susie Novella
Karin Otto
Beth Richardson
Jodi Samartgis
Veryan Croggon
Tracey Thorpe
ALTO
Ruth Anderson
Tes Benton
Cecilia Björkegren
Alexandra Chubaty
Nicola Eveleigh
Jill Giese
Kristine Hensel
Helen Hill
Helen MacLean
Christina McCowan
Penelope Monger
Natasha Pracejus
Kerry Roulston
Lisa Savige
Julie Lotherington
Commissions include Brett Dean’s Katz und Spatz, Ross Edwards’ Mountain Chant, and Paul Stanhope’s Exile Lamentations. Recordings by the MSO Chorus have received critical acclaim. It has performed across Brazil and at the Cultura Inglese Festival in Sao Paolo, with The Australian Ballet, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, at the AFL Grand Final and at the Anzac Day commemorative ceremonies.
TENOR
Adam Birch
Steve Burnett
Allan Chiang
James Dal-Ben
James Dipnall
Simon Gaites
Alex Gorbatov*
Lyndon Horsburgh
Michael Mobach
Ben Owen*
Robert Simpson
Elliott Westbury
Stephen Wood
BASS
Tharanga Basnayake
Roger Dargaville
Simon Evans
Elliott Gyger
Steven Hodgson*
Jordan Janssen
Lachlan McDonald*
Douglas McQueenThomson
Bailey Montgomerie*
Alex Owens*
Douglas Proctor
Stephen Pyk
Liam Straughan
*guest Chorus member from Consort of Melbourne
The MSO Chorus has prepared for this performance with guest chorus director Leonard Weiss. Leonard is the MSO’s Cybec Assistant Conductor in 2024-2025, a position generously supported by the Cybec Foundation.
WARREN TREVELYAN-JONES CHORUS DIRECTOR
Warren Trevelyan-Jones is regarded as one of the leading choral conductors and choir trainers in Australia. He is Head of Music at St James’, King Street, Sydney, a position he has held since relocating to Australia in 2008. Under his leadership, The Choir of St James’ has gained a high-profile international reputation through its regular choral services, orchestral masses, concert series and a regular program of recording and both interstate and international touring.
Warren has had an extensive singing career as a soloist and ensemble singer in Europe, including nine years in the Choir of Westminster Abbey and regular work with the Gabrieli Consort, Collegium Vocale (Ghent), the Taverner Consort, The Kings Consort, Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen and the Tallis Scholars.
He is also a co-founder of The Consort of Melbourne and, in 2001 with Dr Michael Noone, founded the ‘Gramophone’ award-winning group Ensemble Plus Ultra. In September 2017 he was appointed Chorus Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and has recently been appointed Chorus Master of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He is also an experienced singing teacher and qualified music therapist.
YOUNG
VOICES OF MELBOURNE
Young Voices of Melbourne was founded by Mark O’Leary OAM in 1990, and is now regarded as one of Australia’s finest choral programs for young singers. Its choirs are admired for their passionate performances, engaging repertoire and outstanding Kodály based music education program (Sight Singing School) which is now used in over 50 countries.
Young Voices of Melbourne performs regularly in and around Melbourne, and has released 13 recordings. The choir has performed for major events such as the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, as well as at popular events
Teresa Anthony
Henry Bakes
Xanthe Bowden
Alex Brown
Madeleine Caruso
Ryan Carter-Fourcroy
Kian Carter-Fourcroy
Lila Chatfield
Lulu Chiappi
Chloe Close
Amelie Charlton
Chloe Charlton
Qian-Yi Dawson
Benjamin Fullarton
Zoe Kalanis
Pearl Lee
Ava Loke
Ada Lopes
Evelyn Mitchell Kempe
Celia Langley
Prepared by Mark O’Leary OAM and Juliana Kay
such as the National Folk Festival in Canberra, and Festival of Voices in Hobart.
It regularly hosts visiting choirs from overseas and interstate, and its voice was widely heard singing the theme song of Chris Lilley’s popular television shows We Can be Heroes, and Summer Heights High.
The choir has a proud history of touring, having undertaken 40 tours to all states and territories of Australia as well as to Europe, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, the USA, Ireland, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Samoa, New Zealand and Japan.
Sophie Mallet
Dorothea Moore
Carson Mott
Sabrina Mott
Marianne Panas
Stephanie Panas
Lillian Sanders
Gabrielle Scully
Nyah Trewin
EXAUDI MEMBERS JOINING YVM FOR THIS PERFORMANCE
Laura Armstrong
Caitlyn Bosch
Alex Campbell
Harriette Christie
Sienna Couzens
Charlotte Glassell
Ismini Karamesinis
Sonia Kulkarni
Jean Liebel
Emily Fairweather
Liam Straughan
MARK O'LEARY OAM CHOIR DIRECTOR
Mark O’Leary OAM has worked with young choirs for nearly 40 years. He is the Director of Young Voices of Melbourne which he founded in 1990 and has been Gondwana Voices’ Principal Guest Conductor since its first season in 1997. He has been on more than 45 national and international tours and has made 18 Cd recordings with Young Voices of Melbourne, Gondwana Voices and Exaudi. He publishes choral music for young singers in the YVM Choral Series and is the creator of the Sight Singing School website and books, used in more than 50 countries. He is a Churchill Fellow, an Honorary Life Member of Kodály Australia and was awarded an OAM for services to choral music in 2018.
MUSICIANS PERFORMING IN THIS CONCERT
FIRST VIOLINS
Tair Khisambeev
Acting Associate
Concertmaster
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio#
Deborah Goodall
Karla Hanna
Lorraine Hook
Eleanor Mancini
Anne Neil#
Mark Mogilevski
Michelle Ruffolo
Anna Skalova
Kathryn Taylor
Emily Beauchamp*
Adrian Biemmi*
Juliette Boirayon*
Josef Hanna*
Michael Loftus-Hills*
SECOND VIOLINS
Matthew Tomkins, Principal
The Gross Foundation#
Monica Curro
Assistant Principal
Dr Mary Jane Gething AO#
Mary Allison
Isin Cakmakçioglu
Freya Franzen
Cong Gu
Newton Family in memory of Rae Rothfield#
Andrew Hall
Isy Wasserman
Roger Young
Shane Buggle and Rosie Callanan#
Jacqueline Edwards*
Emma Hunt*
Marie-Louise Slaytor*
Oksana Thompson*
VIOLAS
Christopher Moore, Principal
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio#
Lauren Brigden
Katharine Brockman
William Clark
Morris and Helen Margolis#
Jenny Khafagi
Aidan Filshie
Molly Collier-O'Boyle*
Karen Columbine*
Ceridwen Davies*
Lisa Grosman*
Lucas Levin*
CELLOS
David Berlin Principal
Rohan de Korte
Andrew Dudgeon AM#
Rebecca Proietto
Peter T Kempen AM#
Angela Sargeant
Caleb Wong
Jonathan Chim*
Tama Darmasakti*
Erna Lai*
Alexandra Partridge* Zoe Wallace*
DOUBLE BASSES
Jonathon Coco Principal
Ben Hanlon,
Acting Associate Principal
Di Jameson OAM and Frank Mercurio#
Stephen Newton Acting Assistant Principal
Rohan Dasika
Suzanne Lee
Emma Sullivan° Gustavo Quintino*
FLUTES
Prudence Davis, Principal Jean Hadges#
Wendy Clarke, Associate Principal
Sarah Beggs
PICCOLO
Andrew Macleod Principal
OBOES
Michael Pisani Acting Principal
Alexandra Allan^
COR ANGLAIS
Rachel Curkpatrick ° Acting Principal
CLARINETS
David Thomas Principal
Philip Arkinstall Associate Principal
Romola Smith*
BASS CLARINET
Jonathan Craven Principal
BASSOONS
Jack Schiller Principal Dr Harry Imber#
Tasman Compton^
CONTRABASSOON
Brock Imison Principal
HORNS
Nicolas Fleury
Principal
Margaret Jackson AC#
Saul Lewis, Principal Third
The late Hon Michael Watt KC and Cecilie Hall#
Josiah Kop
Aidan Gabriels*
Rosie Yang*
TRUMPETS
Owen Morris Principal
Shane Hooton
Associate Principal Glenn Sedgwick#
Tristan Rebien*
Adam Davis^
TROMBONES
Liam O'Malley* Guest Principal
Richard Shirley
BASS TROMBONE
Mike Szabo Principal
TUBA
Timothy Buzbee Principal
* Denotes Guest Musician
^ Denotes MSO Academy
o Denotes Contract Musician
# Position supported by
Correct as of 23 October 2024. Learn more about our musicians on the MSO website.
TIMPANI
Matthew Thomas Principal
PERCUSSION
Shaun Trubiano Principal
John Arcaro Tim and Lyn Edward#
Robert Cossom
Drs Rhyl Wade and Clem Gruen#
Leah Columbine*
Brent Miller*
Peter Neville*
Greg Sully*
Hugh Tidy*
HARP
Yinuo Mu Principal
PIANO
Aidan Boase*
CELESTE
Louisa Breen*
SAXOPHONE
Niels Bijl*
Program Notes TextText
Program
LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918-90)
Symphony No. 3 Kaddish
I. Invocation – Kaddish 1
II. Din-Torah – Kaddish 2
III. Scherzo – Kaddish 3 – Finale.
To the Jews of the world, the word Kaddish ("Sanctification") has a highly emotional connotation, for it is the name of the prayer chanted for the dead, at the graveside, on memorial occasions and, in fact, at all synagogue services. Yet, strangely enough, there is not a single mention of death in the entire prayer. On the contrary, it uses the word chayei or chayim ("life") three times. Far from being a threnody, the Kaddish is a series of paeans in praise of God, and, as such, it has basic functions in the liturgy that have nothing to do with mourning.
This doxology (the first two sections) is written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic, the vernacular language at the time of Jesus. In fact, there is reason to believe that the doxology became the basis for the Christian Paternoster (Lord's Prayer). Originally, in the period following the destruction of the Second Temple (70 A.D.), fragments of the Kaddish recited by a preacher at the end of a discourse when he was expected to dismiss an assembly with an allusion to the Messianic hope. It was not until the 12th century, however, that the prayer reached its present-day form, and through folklore came to be associated with mourning.
In his Kaddish Symphony, Leonard Bernstein exploits the dualistic overtones of the prayer: its popular connotation as a kind of requiem, and its celebration of life (i.e., creation). He does this both in his speaker's text and in his music. In the original version, the choice of a woman as the Speaker and as vocal soloist (singing sacred words traditionally reserved for men in the synagogue) was in itself a dualistic decision. The woman represented in the Symphony, that aspect of humankind which know God through intuition, and can come closest to Divinity, a concept at odds with the male principal of organized rationality.
Because he was not satisfied with the original (1963) version, the composer, in 1977, made some revisions. These included a few cuts, some musical re-writing and even more re-writing of the spoken text. Furthermore, he made it possible for the speaker to be either a woman or a man.
But the dualism is more than a matter of which gender is the narrator. The Speaker mourns, in advance, humanity's possible imminent suicide. At the same time, it is observed that people cannot destroy themselves as long as they identify themselves with God. Hence, human beings as creators, as artists, as dreamers (as, therefore divine manifestations), could be immortal.
Musically, this dualism is illustrated by the dramatic contrast between intensely chromatic textures (which employ twelve-tone techniques) and simple expressive diatonicism. For example, there is a particularly anguished outburst by the Speaker in the middle of the Din-Torah (trial-scene or "Judgement by Law") in which God is accused of a breach of faith with humanity. Such "blasphemy" has a Biblical precedent in the story of Job and also has its roots in the folk traditions, as in the legend of Rabbi Levi Yitzhok of Berditchev. Bernstein strongly felt the peculiar Jewishness of this "I-Thou" relationship in the whole mythic concept of the Jew's love of God, from Moses to the Hasidic sect, there is a deep personal intimacy that allows things to be said to God that are almost inconceivable in another religion.
This change is manifested by agonized, non-tonal music which culminates in an eight-part choral cadenza of vast complexity. But immediately after this, the Speaker begs God's forgiveness and tries to be comforting; and the ensuing lullaby is explicitly tonal, with gentle modulations.
Again, at the climax of the Symphony (in the Scherzo), another painful spoken moment, musicalized in extreme, angular motives, is followed by a gradual clarification and resolution into G-flat major. The critical word of the Speaker at this point is "believe". Indeed, the composer's credo resided in his belief in the enduring value of tonality.
© Jack Gottlieb
Reproduced with permission from Cantor Josh Breitzer, The Theophilous Foundation
KADDISH
Yit'gadal v'yit'kadash sh'mē raba, amen b'al'ma div'ra chir'utē, v'yam'lich mal'chutē b'chayēchon uv'yomēchon uv'chayē d'chol bēt Yis'raēl, ba'agala uviz'man kariv, v'im'ru: amen.
Y'hē sh'mē raba m'varach l'alam ul'al'mē al'maya. Yit'barach v'yish'tabach v'yit'pa ar v'yit'romam v'yit'nasē v'yit'hadar v'yit'aleh v'yit'halal sh'mē d'kud'sha, b'rich Hu, l'ēla min kol bir'chata v'shirata, tush'b'chata v'nechemata, da amiran b'al'ma, v'im'ru: amen.
Y'hē sh'lama raba min sh'maya v'chayim alēnu v'al kol Yis'raēl v'im'ru: amen.
Oseh shalom bim'romav, Hu ya aseh shalom alēnu v'al kol Yis'raēl v'im'ru: amen.
Magnified and sanctified be His great name, Amen Throughout the world which He hath created according to His will; And may He establish His kingdom During Your life and during Your days, And during the life of all the house of Israel, Speedily, and at a near time, And say ye, Amen
May His great name be blessed, Forever and to all eternity.
Blessed and praised and glorified, And exalted and extolled and honored, And magnified and lauded Be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He; Though He be beyond all blessings, And hymns, praises and consolations, That can be uttered in the world. And say ye, Amen.
May there be abundant peace From heaven, and life for us And for Israel; And say ye, Amen.
He who maketh peace in His high places, May He make peace for us And for all Israel; And say ye, Amen.
PRELUDE
Eternal God, our Father in Heaven, This is my personal Kaddish – an ode to life and peace inspired by the noble Aramaic prayer for the Dead, written for the monumental Symphony of Leonard Bernstein, and dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy –My beloved mentors and kindred souls. In our age of anxiety, marked by a century of hot and cold wars, which began with carnage and ended with terror, the composer wanted my living testimony, drawn from history’s greatest man-made catastrophe, and the miracle of his survival and rebirth, to resonate in Your kingdom with his celestial music.
I. INVOCATION
Mine is a layman’s Kaddish, Lord, modern, universal, ecumenical and addressed to You, as well as Your tormented children, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and all others - believers and non-believersyearning for peace, freedom and justice in a genocidal and fratricidal world. I utter this lament with grief and anger welling up from my own traumatic past, and the deluge of hatred, violence and fear that is engulfing us again.
On continent after continent, hereditary enemies of all stripes, mired in bigotry and terror, are at each other’s throats.
Even in Your holiest lands, where they worship only You, and implore You to turn their swords into ploughshares. I weep for them all, the dead and the living.
My first tears are for my family and my people, perpetual victims of religious and racial persecution that reached its climax during my childhood, destroying everyone and everything around me, while You, Supreme Ruler of the Universe, stood idly by.
Equally indifferent were You when I agonized In Auschwitz, Maidanek and Dachau, where Eichmann and Mengele's gruesome reality eclipsed even Dante's vision of inferno.
To this day I am haunted by guilt for having survived, when so many of mine were murdered.
Now I must atone for the ritual Kaddish I could never recite, because I had no dates of their demise,
No closure… no burials… no tombs for a stone, a flower, a prayer -A prayer for their redemption.
Yt'kadal v'itkadash sh'me raba.
KADDISH 1
Magnified...
And sanctified... Be his great name.
Amen!
Chorus: Kaddish
Amen! Amen! May abundant peace Descend on us all.
A -- men!
The loved ones I mourn today are many: My heroic father, David, tortured, executed by firing squad, and tossed into a mass grave.
My beautiful mother, Helena, deported in a cattle-train to die with my angelic little sister, Frida, who had hardly lived.
My schoolmates, and one and a half million other children.
Why did You spare me, o lord, and why not them?
What crimes, what sins could they have committed at so tender an age?
All wiped out, in one fell swoop. According to the unfathomable logic that reigns in Your realm.
Chorus: Kaddish
II. DIN TORAH
Lord, today I reach out to You With the same visceral voice
I once raised against You blasphemously, as a skeletal kid, with shaved head and sunken eyes, trembling at the threshold of a Birkenau gas chamber.
Trembling and demanding to know: Almighty Savior, where are You? How can You allow such slaughter? Do You even care?
At that cursed place and time, where I saw the barge of human civilization go under, when I endured endless horrors and humiliations You failed me, Lord!
And in my abysmal despair, I lashed out at You like Moses smiting the rock in the Sinai desert, like Job protesting his undeserved punishment. Hallucinating from hunger, pain and anguish, while the crematoria spewed fire and smoke, I even gave up praying.
How could I go on murmuring that You are great, and the other pious verses of adoration I had absorbed with my mother's milk, like all the children of Abraham, since Isaac and Ishmael, since Mary and Jesus?
No. I could not. I would not. Not there. Not in Auschwitz!
Can You pardon my sins, Lord? Can I pardon Yours?
I can forgive, but I cannot forget. the wounds of my flesh and my soul may have healed long ago. but wounds of the heart that bleed for loved ones, never heal. Now, one of the last living survivors of those monstrous crimes, my life is no longer entirely my own. They also live within me!
I must transmit their awesome legacy to future generations of all colours, races, and creeds, lest similar crimes destroy their world, as they once destroyed mine.
For the unimaginable is again possible. When rampant economic and political upheavals unleash turmoil, insecurity and fear, populist folly empowers bloodthirsty leaders. This is how democracies perish, and hunts for innocent scapegoats begin. Lord, do You recall the desperate cries of the men, women and children that shook Your heavens day and night, as the gas choked them to death?
I was there and I heard them die with Your hallowed name on their lips: "shema isroel, adonai eloheinu, adonai ehad” (the Lord our God, the Lord is one!)
After the steel doors were shut they had only three minutes to live. Yet they found enough strength to dig their fingernails into the walls and scratch in the words: "never forget!”
Those cries, those words, impose on us all sacred obligations to be ever vigilant, and to warn other vulnerable peoples against genocides that may still lie ahead.
The Auschwitz number engraved on my arm Reminds me of it every day… and today, Lord, I remind You.
Chorus: cadenza
How can one even be sure that our catastrophe was totally man-made?
We know from the book of Genesis, and the survivors of Noah’s ark, how wrathful a God You can be when You lose Your notorious temper. Is it anger or indifference that explains Your absence, Your silence, while we were being defamed, dehumanized and decimated?
I dread the thought, Lord, but this perplexing passivity may have persuaded many a demon, and a largely uncaring world, that the Holocaust, the genocides and the ethnic cleansings against Gypsies, Cambodians, Bosnians, Rwandis, Yazidis and others, were and are acceptable -- even to this day.
KADDISH 2
I can still hear my grandmother’s sweet voice, singing me lullabies about how good, how loving, how merciful a God You are. How You would always be there to protect and comfort us in need.
I have often tried to summon her voice when I needed Your protection and comfort. That sweet voice, so cruelly silenced in the ovens of Treblinka.
Soprano solo and boys' choir: Kaddish
The memory of my beloved grandmother's lullabies has always soothed me to sleep, even when i became an adult.
But in my nightmares all I could see was her pale face, raised in ardent prayer to You, as the killers took her away.
Yt'kadal v'itkadash sh'me raba!
III. SCHERZO
Oh Lord, how full of sorrow is the history of Your so-called "chosen people."
Look at the calamities that have come down upon us since time immemorial:
The slavery in Egypt, the Babylonian exile, the Roman conquest, the marauding Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian pogroms, the Nazi exterminations, and the specter of jihad.
The list is endless, lord. and new, incendiary demagogues, calling the Holocaust a « myth », are again plotting to wipe us out.
In their eyes we are always guilty. Guilty, when we recognized You as the sole and eternal God, proclaimed Your lofty commandments to a pagan world, and engendered other great monotheistic faiths. Guilty, in the diaspora, when peace-loving and unarmed we were slaughtered like lambs. Guilty, in the promised land, when we took up arms so we will never be slaughtered again.
True, extremists of many stripes parading as holy men kill and maim other minorities too, including their own kin, indeed themselves, as if possessed by a yen for death in the name of You, our common God, who ordered us to choose life, and love our neighbours as ourselves? Lord, something is seriously awry in Your heavenly kingdom, as it is here, in our global Babel.
Albert Einstein has assured us that You do not play dice with the universe. but why do You toy with the destiny of mankind?
Must all of us now brace for an apocalyptic «final solution», with plagues of toxic gas Nuclear bombs, and ballistic rockets in the murderous hands of new despots and fanatics?
The writing is on the wall.
Repeat after me, Lord: “never forget, a-men!” “never again, a---men!”
Father, from the age of thirteen, You have pushed me to the limits of physical and mental endurance.
Brutally severed from my family, my native soil, my spiritual roots, I was brainwashed by Stalin, who wanted me red, mutilated by Hitler, who wanted me dead.
In the wake of the Normandy landings, as the Allied armies approached Berlin, I escaped from a death march in a hail of bullets, and was liberated by tanks emblazoned with stars and stripes of freedom, yelling: "God Bless America!”.
Yet I have never deserted Your fold. Nothing could ever shake my ancestral vow to worship You,
If only in my own unorthodox ways. That vow emboldens me to say to You today: Behold, grave disorders are invading The minds and hearts of the faithful. Many of us suspect that the heavens are empty, or worse, that they breed discord, superstition and chaos on earth.
That with or without You, we must count only on ourselves.
It is high time that You reaffirm our everlasting covenant.
That You renew Your promise of a messianic age.
Renew Your promise!
KADDISH 3
Childrens' choir: Kaddish
It is said that in ancient Greece, when gods were more human, Men were more divine.
Lord, can’t You be a little more humane, so we can become a little more godly? We strive to honour the teachings of Your venerable prophets. We want to, we can believe in You. But do you believe in us?
Grant us a touch of Your transcendental wisdom so we can learn to live in harmony, and chant in unison joyous psalms to Your greater glory.
Majestic, mysterious Creator, whoever You are, wherever You are, Your omnipresence in our midst is so old, so immense, so ingrained, that I dare not ask myself if it is reality or illusion.
Either way, You are an indispensable source of consolation and hope for us all.
Still, my Kaddish is not a confession of sudden religious awakening.
Like most of my fellow-men, I remain torn between faith and reason, revelation and enlightenment, tradition and modernity.
After my comeback from oblivion, a rage to live, to learn, to serve the public good, helped me triumph over my cruel fate. I was redeemed and restored in the warm embrace of democracy, I went on to study, work and thrive at illustrious hubs of American, British and French culture.
Yes, providence has smiled upon me, and today my cup truly runneth over.
But in the end, what am I, if not a humble messenger from a world that once collapsed, alarmed to see the present world heading for another collapse?
And what is my message, if not that man, though created in Your image, and endowed with freedom to choose between good and evil, remains capable of the worst, as of the best, of hatred, as of love, of madness as of genius.
That unless we heed the lessons of the past, cherish the sanctity and dignity of human life, and uphold the core values of all great creeds, sacred and secular, the forces of darkness will doom our dreams of a radiant future, with peace, freedom and prosperity for all.
FINALE
Father, Father...
Do You remember that wondrous spring dawn, when the GIs appeared, like angels from heaven, to rescue me from hell?
I was still a boy, alone in the cauldrons of fascist and communist Europe, like the young Joseph in the dungeons of Pharaonic Egypt.
But I no longer felt abandoned because Your godliness became so sublimely humane.
You performed dazzling miracles on a biblical scale, delivering the oppressed, the dispersed and the enslaved from the clutches of tyranny.
You performed miracles for me, too, rekindling from the ashes my weak flicker of life into a flame. You opened my shattered soul to the magic of knowledge, culture and beauty, and even taught me to dream and love again.
Above all, Father, You blessed me with a new and happy family. a wife, children and grand-children whose sparkling faces, sterling characters and brilliant minds, resurrect every day the memory of those I have lost.
One day, may they say Kaddish for me.
Thus, o great and unique God of Abraham, it is with respect for the beliefs of all, and with malice to none, that I bow to eternal Jerusalem.
Its synagogues, churches and mosques, its Wailing Wall and shrine of Yad Vashem, and sing for You this fervent prayer of hope drawn from torrents of blood.
Bond with us again, Lord, guide us toward reconciliation and tolerance, brotherhood and peace, on this small, fragile, violent planet -our common home.
Amen!
Amen!
A -- men!
Soprano solo, chorus and childrens' chorus: Kaddish
© Samuel Pisar 2014
Gandel Foundation and the extended Gandel family are proud to support the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and their presentation of Kaddish: A Holocaust Memorial Concert
Through the vision of founders, John Gandel AC and Pauline Gandel AC, the Foundation empowers communities to deliver programs that make a lasting positive impact.
Gandel Foundation is a leader in advancing Holocaust awareness and education, promoting understanding and healing.
The Holocaust Memorial The Holocaust Memorial
The Holocaust Memorial is a weaving of music, images and history designed to aid those affected by these events to heal, by making the Holocaust’s traumatic legacy more conscious, identified and understood. Often the beginning of healing is knowing the true nature of the wound.
Consisting of seven works by murdered composers and five works by composers who escaped the Nazis, the intention of the work is to ease historic trauma.
Nick Cave recently said “Music is a thing that makes things better. It is one of the last legitimate opportunities that we have for a transcendent experience. For me music is at the very soul, at the core of the world. It is the glue that binds us together.” May this musical memorial enable healing.
CHAPTER 1 OVERTURE: KRISTALLNACHT
9-10 November 1938: Nazis attack Jewish homes, hospitals and schools throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland (German speaking Czechoslovakia).
267 synagogues are destroyed.
7,000+ Jewish businesses are damaged.
30,000 Jewish men are arrested and taken to concentration camps.
6 December 1938: William Cooper and a delegation from the Australian Aborigines’ League walk ten kilometres across Melbourne from Footscray to the City to deliver a formal petition to the German Consulate condemning Kristallnacht.
Elena Kats-Chernin AO The Night of Broken Glass World premiere
Elena Kats-Chernin based The Night of Broken Glass, her response to Kristallnacht, on J.S. Bach’s Prelude in E flat minor (BWV 853). The original key of E flat minor is one of the most excruciating keys of the baroque period, torturous both to play and hear in the standard tunings of the time. Bach’s prelude speaks profoundly of deep pain and suffering as seen from the benefit of distance, a viewpoint we share as we look back now at the events of 9 November 1938.
This prayer for peace was written in wartime. It contains all the contradictions you would expect from trying to understand how the culture that gave birth to Bach could also produce the Holocaust and offers beauty in response to this great outpouring of violence.
Bach’s music, a Lutheran touch stone, was first recovered by Felix Mendelssohn, a German Jewish composer, whose music the Nazis later banned. Elena sits in the long line of composers who drew inspiration from Bach, whose music somehow transcends all national boundaries, elevating us all.
In the same way, may this music help bind us together and keep us whole.
William Barton
William Cooper March World premiere
This musical tribute honours a great Yorta Yorta Elder, William Cooper, who helped establish the Australian Aborigines’ League, and as secretary, circulated petitions seeking direct representation in parliament, enfranchisement, and land rights. He was an upstanding man who sought to bring peace between people, or if something was going wrong, to call it out.
History has been kind to William Cooper but his own time was not.
He failed at almost every one of his major campaigns, but his pioneering work helped build the legal framework on which traditional owners’ land rights were finally won. Even though his petition to Melbourne’s German Consulate condemning Kristallnacht made no change in the world and was likely thrown away the same day, this story continues to command widespread respect and admiration.
May this work fully embody the nobility of William Cooper’s character, his moral dignity and his courage to be upstanding in the world.
William Cooper
CHAPTER 2 THE APOCALYPSE BEGINS
Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)
Funeral March (Violin Sonata No.2: Andante)
Jews are herded into ghettos where they starve before being sent to labour and extermination camps.
The largest, the Warsaw Ghetto, holds more than 400,000 Jews. Other major ghettos are established in Lodz, Krakow, Bialystok, Lviv, Lublin, Vilna, Kovno, Czestochowa and Minsk.
Erwin Schulhoff is the most accomplished Jewish composer caught up in the Holocaust.
A committed communist, he tries to flee to Russia when the Nazis invade Czechoslovakia in 1939 but is arrested and imprisoned before he can leave.
Schulhoff dies of tuberculosis in Wulzburg prison on 18 August 1942.
CHAPTER 3 SLAVE LABOUR
Gideon Klein (1919-1945)
Lullaby
The need for military manpower drastically reduces Germany’s industrial workforce. Concentration camps are built near factories, so that prisoners, both male and female, can replace those workers.
Prisoners are used to make bricks, repair roads and railways, work in quarries, on farms, in forestry, on building sites, in mills, foundries and factories.
I.G. Faben, the German industrial giant which makes Zyklon B, the gas used in the death camps, declares in its corporate policy:
‘All inmates will be fed, sheltered and treated in such a way as to exploit them to the highest possible extent, at the lowest conceivable level of expenditure’.
Gideon Klein, a Czech Jewish pianist and composer, is murdered on 25 January 1945 during the liquidation of Fürstengrube, a sub-camp of Auschwitz.
Ukolébavka by Emanuel Harusi Hebrew transliteration
Sh’chav b’ni, sh’chav bimnucha, Al na tivke mara.
Al yadcha yoshevet imcha, Shomeret mikol ra.
M’yalel m’yalel ba’yaar HaTan, Haruach haruach noshevet sham, Sh’chav b’ni, sh’chav bimnucha, Numa, numa shan.
Layla tsel, yauf maher m’od, Assur, assur, assur l’hit’atsel, Machar tsarich la'avod. Machar yetse aba lacharosh, B’telem yelech ha'av, Hine(y) tigdal, tarim harosh, Tets'u lassade az yach'dav.
Lullaby English translation
Lie down, my son, lie down restfully Do not cry bitterly
Your mother is sitting next to you, Guarding against any evil
The jackal wails outside, The wind is howling there.
Lie down, my son, lie down restfully Sleep, sleep, slumber Night, night, night, shadow Will fly very quickly
You mustn’t, mustn’t, mustn’t be lazy.
Tomorrow it is necessary to work
Tomorrow your father will go out to plow
In the farrow, in the farrow, in the farrow father will walk
Only you, my little son, Sleep, sleep, slumber
Erwin Schulhoff
Portrait of Gideon Klein, by Charlotte Buresova
CHAPTER 4 THERESIENSTADT (TEREZÍN)
4
Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944)
Claire Vénus (Radiant Venus)
November 1941: The Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto is established near Prague to hold Czech Jews, joined in June 1942 by German and Austrian Jews, with Dutch and Danish Jews arriving in 1943.
8 September 1942: Viktor Ullmann arrives in Terezín. He takes a leading artistic role, creating more than 20 works. For him and the other Terezín composers, artistic creation is a form of spiritual resistance, ‘commensurate with our will to live’.
Ullmann and the other Terezín composers make choral arrangements of songs in Yiddish or Hebrew (the only common languages) for inmates to sing.
He also plays piano, organises and directs concerts, and writes reviews of musical events.
Due to the number of significant Jewish artists, Terezín sees a blossoming of Jewish culture.
1944: The Nazis trick international Red Cross delegates into thinking Jews are being well treated. The Nazis also make a propaganda film showing off this cultural production.
16 October 1944: Ullmann is deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he is murdered two days later.
Claire Vénus words by Louise Labé Modern French
Claire Vénus, qui erres par les Cieux, Entends ma voix qui en plaints chantera, Tant que ta face au haut du Ciel luira, Son long travail et souci ennuyeux.
Mon œil veillant s'attendrira bien mieux, Et plus de pleurs te voyant jettera. Mieux mon lit mol de larmes baignera, De ses travaux voyant témoins tes yeux.
Donc des humains sont les lassés esprits De doux repos et de sommeil épris.
J'endure mal tant que le Soleil luit ; Et quand je suis quasi toute cassée, Et que me suis mise en mon lit lassée, Crier me faut mon mal toute la nuit.
English translation Radiant Venus, wanderer in the skies, hear my lamenting voice which will expound - as long as in the stars your face is foundmy song of long distress and anxious cries.
The sight of you will help my sleepless eyes more easily to melt and bathe my bed with more abundant flow of tears shed, since you are witness to my pangs and sighs.
Now is the time when weary people rest and find sweet refuge in the arms of sleep. I suffer pain enough when the sun is strong; and when, utterly broken and depressed, I take myself to bed in a crumpled heap, then I must cry my heartache all night long.
Viktor Ullmann
Cabaret performance in Terezín, by Ferdinand Bloch
CHAPTER 5 THE ROMANI PEOPLE
Georges Boulanger (1893-1958)
Avant de Mourir (Before Dying)
250,000-500,000 European Roma are killed out of a pre-war Romani population of around 1 million. More recent research puts European Roma deaths as high as 1.5 million out of 2 million – up to 75% of the population.
Avant de Mourir (Before Dying) becomes the signature tune of Terezín’s Ghetto Swingers. They play it to close all their concerts and for the Nazis' deception of the International Red Cross delegation visit.
CHAPTER 6 MUSIC AND ART THERAPY FOR CHILDREN
Hans Krása (1899-1944)
Brundibár: Lullaby
Terezín artists focus on children’s artistic education to increase their emotional resilience. Friedl DickerBrandeis teaches children art to ‘unlock and preserve for all, the creative spirit as a source of energy’. She wishes to ‘stimulate fantasy and imagination, to strengthen children’s ability to judge, appreciate, observe and endure’. She makes children sign their creations with their name and age, as a testament to their identity and their existence.
Before she is deported and killed in Auschwitz, she hides 4,397 of their paintings in two suitcases. They make up the largest body of Holocaust Art and are used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials.
1944: Hans Krása’s children’s opera Brundibár is performed for the International Red Cross delegation inspection and for the Nazis' propaganda film.
words by Adolf Hoffmeister (Czech)
English translation
Mum rocks a cradle, humming a lullaby, wondering what will be, when days have drifted by.
Every bird must one day, spread his wings, leave his nest, Spring is gone, Summer's done, The World awaits its quest
Trees grow up, weeks go by, clouds move on, in the sky day by day far away.
Dear Mummy you should see, how we grew strong and tall
Maybe you'll feel a blush when Mummy you recall
How you used to bathe us, in the tub naked bare, and with love gave us names, Kitten, Teddy Bear.
Trees grow up, weeks go by, clouds move on, in the sky day by day far away.
Mum rocks a cradle
Her hair is soft and grey, Mummy the cradle's cold, the bird has flown away
CHAPTER 7
EINSATZGRUPPEN THE KILLING SQUADS
Abraham Brudno (1874-1967)
Unter dayne vayse shtern (Under Your White Stars)
Einsatzgruppen were Nazi paramilitary death squads responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, in Germanoccupied Eastern Europe. They implemented the “Final Solution to the Jewish question” murdering much of the intelligentsia and
cultural elite of Poland. They murdered civilians, targeting the intelligentsia, Soviet political officers, Jews, Romani people, and partisans.
Between 1941-1945 the Einsatzgruppen and local fascist forces murdered more than two million people, including 1.3 million of the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust.
words by Avraham Sutsekever Yiddish transliteration
Unter dayne vayse shtern
Shtrek tsu mir dayn vayse hant. Mayne verter zaynen trern Viln ruen in dayn hant. Ze, es tunklt zeyer finkl In mayn kelerdikn blik. Un ikh hob gornit keyn vinkl Zey tsu shenken dir tsurik.
English translation
Under your white starry heaven Offer me your pale white hand. All my words are flowing teardrops. I would place them in your hand. Gone the luster from their brightness, Seen through morbid cellar view –And I no longer have my own space To reflect them back to you.
CHAPTER 8 RESISTANCE
Pavel Haas (1899-1944)
Victory Bells
St Wenceslas was the medieval patron saint of Bohemia. The St Wenceslas Chorale symbolises Czech statehood and sovereignty and is used by Czechs to protest against foreign rule.
4 October 1939: Nazis order church bells rung to celebrate their victory over Poland. Pavel Haas writes this work in response. Originally an Oratorio with anti-Nazi text, Haas realises the risk of having his manuscript discovered and destroys the score. Instead, he makes an instrumental version without words, called the Suite for Oboe and Piano which is based on the St Wenceslas Chorale, thus creating a form of resistance that can only be read by musicians.
2 December 1941: Haas is arrested in Brno, Czechoslovakia and is interned in Theresienstadt/Terezín. He has divorced his Christian wife, Sonia, to protect her and their daughter Olga, (who both survive
the war). In Terezín, he writes his Study for Strings, filmed for the Nazi propaganda film, The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City
16 October 1944: Pavel Haas and the artists of Terezín, having served the Nazis' propaganda purposes are transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where they are murdered on 18 October 1944.
It is the largest slaughter of artists in history. Despite all of this, his Victory Bells ring on.
Armed Resistance
Jews who escape the Nazis often choose to fight them as partisans, or as members of the Resistance. Armed uprisings are widespread.
April/May 1943: Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rise up when the Nazis start to deport them to the Treblinka extermination camp. Uprisings also occur in the Bialystok Ghetto and Czestochowa Ghetto. Uprisings take place in 5 major cities and 45 towns.
Portrait of Hans Krása,by Otto Unger
Pavel Haas
Friedl Dicker-Brandeis
CHAPTER 9 THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
Władysław Szpilman (1911-2000)
Mazurka
31 October 1940: Composer/pianist
Władysław Szpilman is interned with his family in the Warsaw Ghetto.
1942: When they are being deported to the Treblinka extermination camp, Szpilman is pulled out of line by a Jewish Policeman and told to run and hide. He spends 2 years hiding in Warsaw and witnesses the Ghetto Uprising and Warsaw Uprising.
19 April 1943: The Ghetto uprising begins, with 700 Jews fighting deportation. The Nazis burn and destroy the entire ghetto. By 16 May 1943 the uprising is crushed.
1 August 1944: This inspires the Warsaw Uprising, WWII’s largest civilian military operation.
Following the destruction of Warsaw, Szpilman is helped by Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, a German officer who brings him food and protects him. Szpilman’s account, titled The Pianist, is later published and made into an awardwinning film.
After WWII, Szpilman resumes his career on Polish Radio as a concert pianist and composer, writing hundreds of songs, many still popular today.
CHAPTER 11 THE DUNERA BOYS
Boaz Bischofswerder (1895-1946)
Phantasia Judaica
During WWII Australia interns approximately 7,000 civilians, mainly German, Italian and Japanese residents. A further 8,000 people are interned in Australia after being detained overseas by its allies.
10 July 1940: The transport ship HMT Dunera leaves Liverpool for Australia carrying 2,500 men, aged between 16 and 66. The Dunera internees are transported alongside 450 Italians and Germans purported to have fascist sympathies. The refugees are robbed and beaten by guards.
6 September 1940: On arrival in Sydney the refugees are transported by train to Hay in New South Wales. Dunera internees are also later held at camps in Orange, New South Wales and Tatura, Victoria.
These refugees, now commonly known as the 'Dunera Boys', produce artworks which show the strain from their internment. They create their own currencies and develop rich cultural programs, featuring ambitious music performances.
CHAPTER 10 THE HUNGARIAN JEWS
Bela Bartók (1881-1945)
Divertimento for Strings, II. Moto Adagio
Béla Bartók is Hungary’s greatest composer but resents its relationship with the Nazis so much that he leaves for the US in 1940, dying there in 1945. He refuses to play in Hitler’s Germany and his criticism of fascism and Hungary’s antisemitic laws also make it impossible for him to stay. He refuses to refute rumours he is Jewish, cutting off his music royalties. In his will, he says nothing in Hungary can be named after him as long as there is a street or square named after Hitler or Mussolini anywhere
March 1944: When Hitler finds out Hungary is brokering a peace deal with the Allies, he orders the Nazis to invade.
Hungary has a Jewish population of 825,000, the largest remaining in Europe, bolstered by Jews escaping from elsewhere to relative safety there. Adolf Eichmann arrives in Budapest to supervise the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.
15 May – 9 July 1944: More than 424,000 Jews are deported, mainly to Auschwitz, where around 80% are gassed on arrival. It is the largest Holocaust killing after 1942 and takes place as the war is drawing to a close.
By the end of 1942, most are released from detention. Around 500 join the Australian Army’s 8th Employment Company providing essential manual labour for the war effort.
While many return to Britain after the war, more than 600 remain in Australia, joining the faculties of Melbourne University, Australian National University and other institutions, and become active in Australia’s post-war cultural life.
Violinist Ivan Pietruschka, who directs the orchestra in the camps, premieres this work while also performing with pianist Peter Stadlen. He joins the Melbourne Symphony after the war, performing into the early 1970s.
The Dunera Boys are now regarded as the greatest influx of academic, scientific and artistic talent to have entered Australia on a single vessel.
However, Rabbi and composer Boaz Bischofswerder is unable to adapt to life as an alien in Australia. On 28 June 1946, he dies in a hospital in Malvern, Victoria aged 59, still separated from his wife and second son in England.
CHAPTER 12 ENRICHING AUSTRALIA
George Dreyfus (b. 1928) Larino, Safe Haven
1939: Frances Barkman sets up a home for refugee children in a mansion in Balwyn, Victoria known as Larino.
17 German Jewish children, escorted by Dr Erna Falk, travel on HMS Orama from Germany to Australia. The group includes the brothers George and Richard Dreyfus, whose parents follow six months later. Their reunion was extremely rare, as most of the unaccompanied children never saw their parents again.
The composer George Dreyfus is a leading figure in a wave of Jewish
talents who migrate, both preand post-war, enriching cultural life in Australia. They lift standards, teach the next generation of artists, and create and build many of Australia’s music organisations.
Musica Viva and Richard Goldner
1945: Musica Viva is co-founded in Sydney by Romanian/Austrian violinist Richard Goldner, along with the German musicologist, Walter Dullo. It begins was a string ensemble of 17 European immigrants, blocked from working by the Musicians’ Union of Australia. Funded by Goldner’s WWII invention of a zipper that wouldn’t jam, it becomes a touring music ensemble.
Larino
Portrait of Ivan Pietruschka, by Robert Hoffman
FINAL PRAYER
Ilse Weber (1903-1944)
Wiegala (Lullaby)
February 1942: Ilse Weber and her family arrive at Theresienstadt where she works as a night nurse in the children’s infirmary. She writes poems, sets them to music, sings them to the children while playing guitar.
October 1944: When her husband Willi is deported to Auschwitz, she goes with him and their son Tommy to keep the family together. When she, Tommy and the other Terezín children are sent to the gas chamber, she has them sing this song.
Wiegala, wiegala, weier, der Wind spielt auf der Leier. Er spielt so süß im grünen Ried, die Nachtigall, die singt ihr Lied. Wiegala, wiegala, weier, der Wind spielt auf der Leier.
Wiegala, wiegala, werne, der Mond ist die Laterne, er steht am dunklen Himmelszelt und schaut hernieder auf die Welt. Wiegala, wiegala, werne, der Mond ist die Lanterne.
Wiegala, wiegala, wille, wie ist die Welt so stille! Es stört kein Laut die süße Ruh, schlaf, mein Kindchen, schlaf auch du.
Wiegala, wiegala, wille, wie ist die Welt so stille!
Beddy-bye, beddy-bye, bire, the wind plays on the lyre. He's playing sweetly in the reeds, the nightingale sings in the meads.
Beddy-bye, beddy-bye, bire, the wind plays on the lyre.
Beddy-bye, beddy-bye, blantern, the moon, she is a lantern, she looks from heaven's tent up high a twinkle in her tired eye.
Beddy-byes, beddybyes, plantern, the moon, she is a lantern.
Beddy-bye, beddy-bye, blying, the world in stillness lying! No sound disturbs your peace and rest, my baby, huddle in your nest.
Beddy-byes, beddybyes, blying, the world in stillness lying!
Acknowl Acknowledgements
The Holocaust Memorial is a partnership between the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Australian War Memorial, the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance and the Flowers of Peace.
The Flowers of Peace and MSO wish to thank those who supported this project and the Music of Memor y series which helped build awareness and ensured that the Holocaust Memorial was true.
Matt Anderson PSM, Director, AWM
Maj Gen (Rtd) Brian Dawson, Assistant Director, AWM
Stephanie Boyle, Head of Images, Film and Sound, AWM
Sir Jonathan Mills AC
Robert Salzer Foundation, Donor
Dr Merav Carmeli and staff of the Lamm Jewish Library of Australia, presenter and funders of the Music of Memory series
Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance, presenter of the William Cooper March
Melbourne Holocaust Museum
Musica da Camera, presenter of Son et Lumiere
Wesley Music Centre, presenter of The Mirror
Performance supported by Gandel Foundation.
With support from our concert media partner, The Australian Jewish News.
We recognise the contributions of Nachman and Lazar Suchowolski and their families, in bringing Samuel Pisar to Melbourne where he was nurtured, educated, and made whole again.
The Flowers of Peace wishes to deeply thank the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for premiering and recording the Holocaust Memorial
Cover image: One Spring by Karl Bodek and Kurt Conrad Löw, courtesy of Yad Vashem
Art Song Canberra, presenter of Lost Love Songs of the Holocaust
Sydney Conservatorium of Music, presenter of Lost Love Songs of the Holocaust
ANU School of Music, host of Holocaust Memorial preview
King David School, host of Holocaust Memorial preview
Dr Edward Neeman, pianist and recital partner
Simon Tedeschi, narrations and cultural advisor
Dr Seumus Spark, the Art of the Dunera Boys
Dr Joseph Toltz, cultural and musical advisor
Bob Scott, recording engineer
Kate Garrett, German translation, the Dunera Boys
Jon Rosalky and the ACT Jewish Community
Family of George Dreyfus
Family of William Cooper
Family of Samuel Pisar
Freydi Mrocki
Tomi Kalinski
Hanna-Mari Latham
Stephanie Neeman
Ilse Weber
