Programme Notes
Fire in my mouth Thu 5 November 2026 • 20.15
PROGRAMME conductor Brad Lubman viola Roman Spitzer chorus Nationale Koren director Anne Kauffman scenic, lighting, and production designer Jeff Sugg costume designer Márion Talán executive producer Kenny Savelson associate director Asher Lloyd Ehrenberg produced by Bang on a Can the art in the hall is by students from the WDKA Igor Stravinsky 1882-1971 Élégie for solo viola (1944) Julia Wolfe 1958 Fire in my mouth (2019) • Immigration • Factory • Protest • Fire Dutch premiere. Fire in my mouth was commissioned from the New York Philharmonic, Jaap van Zweden, Music Director; Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts / University of Illinois at Urbana– Champaign; and the University Musical Society of the University of Michigan; with the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and of Linda and Stuart Nelson. there is no intermission concert ends at around 21.15 One hour before the start of the concert, Maartje Stokkers will give an introduction (in Dutch) to the programme, admission €7,50. Tickets are available at the hall, payment by debit card. The introduction is free for Vrienden. Cover: Photo Denny Muller (Unsplash)
‘New York’s Worst Fire’: Harper’s Weekly on the fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, 1 April 1911
Violinist Alphonse Onnou (on the right) and cellist Robert Maas of the Pro Arte String Quartet
A lament and an indictment The history of all major port cities, from New York to Rotterdam, is built on the stories of immigrants. Having fled war, persecution and poverty, they often found themselves unable to escape personal suffering and social injustice even after their arrival. This concert commemorates them with a lament and an indictment. When Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 and France declared war on Germany two days later, Igor Stravinsky – by then a French citizen for several years – was on tour in the United States. He decided not to return to France and settled in Los Angeles. Less than a year later, the Belgian Pro Arte string quartet also found themselves stranded in the US. The four musicians were offered a post at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. However, first violinist Alphonse Onnou died of leukaemia in November of that year. His quartet colleague, violist Germain Prévost, now a resident of New York, decided to ask Stravinsky to compose a work in memory of Onnou. Stravinsky responded with Élégie, a lament for solo viola. He admired Bach and was fascinated by the way the early composer allowed polyphony to resonate in his music for solo violin. Élégie, too, revolves almost entirely around two voices. At the beginning and end, the lower voice accompanies the higher voice; in the middle section, they
intertwine as equals. The harmony is often poignant, but at the end of the first section the two voices blend into a heavenly chord. The music inspired the dancer and choreographer George Balanchine, who had worked with Stravinsky in Paris with the famous Ballets Russes and had already emigrated to New York in 1933. He devised a choreography for two dancers whose bodies become entwined whilst they appear to be rooted to the spot.
Immigrants in New York
Stravinsky’s melancholic and jarring lament, played entirely with a mute on the strings, provides a fitting introduction to Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth. Stravinsky, Prévost and Balanchine were by no means the only European emigrants in New York. The city’s history of immigration can literally be found on every street corner. For years, on her way to work at New York University, Wolfe would pass a small bronze plaque on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place. The modest memorial commemorated the fire
at a garment factory in 1911, in which 146 workers perished in the flames. They were mostly young women who had fled poverty in Italy and pogroms in Ukraine. When Wolfe was asked in 2018 to compose a new work for the New York Philharmonic, based on a story from the city, she knew she wanted to give these young women a voice.
Strong women
As always, Wolfe set about her work thoroughly and carried out extensive research into the disaster at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. She read newspaper reports and interviews with immigrants. Gradually, the anonymous victims regained their face and their story. Fleeing poverty and violence, they found work in vast factory halls where, by the hundreds, they toiled for long hours behind sewing machines for a pittance. They turned out not to be defenceless victims, but strong women who fought to improve their working conditions. The title Fire in my mouth does not refer to the fire itself, but to a statement by the JewishUkrainian Clara Lemlich, who led a major strike in the garment industry in 1909. She addressed her colleagues in Yiddish, their own language, and encouraged them to walk out. Looking back on her life – whilst still helping the staff to organise themselves in the care home – she said: ‘I had fire in my mouth back then.’
No defenceless victims, but strong women who fought to improve their working conditions From victim to activist
In four parts, a choir of 146 young women sings of the history of their peers. In
‘Immigration’, they board a ship, bound for an unknown future. The music illustrates the uncertainty and fear, but also conveys the powerful energy and determination needed to take such a leap. The second part opens with the ominous clatter of hundreds of sewing machines and other factory noise. Against this intimidating backdrop, the choir simultaneously sings the lyrics of a Yiddish folk song about sewing and the words of an Italian folk song about two young lovers. In ‘Protest’, a rhythmic pulse of drumbeats and whistles underpins the young women’s longing to lead a new life as full-fledged Americans. Following a quotation from Clara Lemlich’s speech, the women down their tools, accompanied by the sound of snipping scissors. The 146 anonymous victims – from hem stitchers and steamers to buttonhole makers – have literally been given a voice. The quote ‘I had fire in my mouth’ leads into the final and longest section, about the fire in the factory. Whilst the orchestra brings the panic and chaos to life, the women’s voices bring time to a standstill with serene singing. The text in this section is based on eyewitness accounts from people who saw colleagues burst into flames or jump out of windows on the eighth and ninth floors. Finally, the names of all the victims are sung. Five years after the world premiere of Fire in my mouth, a monument bearing these 146 names was unveiled at the site of the fire. The previously anonymous young migrant workers are now part of New York’s history. Julia Wolfe’s work, however, is not a lament to mourn their deaths, but an indictment. The final movement admonishes the public: you did nothing to address these abuses. An indictment that is more relevant than ever. Carine Alders
Brad Lubman • conductor
Photo: Marco Borggreve Photo: Antim
Born: New York City, USA Current position: Conductor Ensemble Signal Education: State University of New York Subsequently: guesting conductor with Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Filarmonica della Scala, Münchner Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Professor of Conducting and Ensembles at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, and at the Bang on a Can Summer Institute Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 2026
Photo: Hans van der Woerd
Roman Spitzer • viola
Nationale Koren • chorus
Born: Saint Petersburg, Russia Eduacation: Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, Saint Petersburg with Vladimir Mazel, Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv with Gad Lewertoff Subsequently: member New Tel Aviv String Quartet; principal viola Tel Aviv Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra; guesting principal with London Philharmonic, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker With the Rotterdam Philharmonic: since 2017
Founded: 1989, as National Children’s Choir Consisting of: National Children’s Choir and National Boys’ Choir (for singers aged 10 to 15), Nation-al Women’s Youth Choir and National Mixed Youth Choir (age 16-29) Artistic Direction: Irene Verburg and László Nemes Co-operations: Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 1999
Agenda
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Clarinet/ Bass Clarinet Romke-Jan Wijmenga Bassoon Pieter Nuytten Lola Descours Marianne Prommel