Spiritual Resistance: Music from Theresienstadt
BRIDGE 9280

International Record Outstanding Award

 

The German annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938 brought to an end the short history of a vibrant republic that had emerged at the end of World War I. At the end of 1941 the small 18th century garrison town of Terezín, also known as Theresienstadt, was transformed into a resettlement camp to sequester the country's Jewish population. The Nazis presented Theresienstadt as a model 'city of the Jews,' a self-governing ghetto with 'normal' civic, educational, and cultural life. This was the image presented to the world in a very public and unconscionable six-hour inspection by a committee of the International Red Cross in June, 1944. What these inspectors saw was a façade for the Nazi's brutal system of extermination. The bitter irony remains that in Theresienstadt there was indeed a remarkable flowering of cultural life between 1942 and 1944, involving concerts, opera, theater, cabaret, lectures, art exhibitions, and literary readings. Two generations of composers are represented in this remarkable collection- those that came of age after WW I, and those who were just finishing their studies when Germany invaded their home land. The superb Austrian baritone, Wolfgang Holzmair performs in both Czech and German. Wolfgang Holzmair and Russell Ryan can also be heard on 'Songs of Franz Schreker' (BRIDGE 9259).

 

Reviews:

“All of these songs are composed with considerable craft and inspiration and they repay repeated listening. Much of the material has almost never been recorded before, making this an extremely valuable release. First-rate performances and excellent sound.” - Fanfare

“Holzmair sings his ‘Die Nicht-Gewesenen’ with ardent and tender commitment.” - BBC Music Magazine

“A total imaginative involvement of all concerned, right down to the choice of pictures. Holzmair is in his element, his very individual baritone timbre and superlative diction utterly apposite for the spikiness of Haas, the rather Krenek-like angular lyricism of Krása, the more Schoenbergian contours of Klein’s Op. 1. Russell Ryan deserves every plaudit as well.” - International Record Review (IRR Outstanding Award)

 

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PDF Booklet

Pavel Haas: Four Songs after words of Chinese Poetry
Karel Berman: Six Reminiscences (for solo piano)
Hans Krása: Five Songs, Op. 4
Viktor Ullmann: Der Mensch und sein Tag; Der Müde Soldat; Three Songs, Op. 37
Wiegenlied; Ilse Weber: I wander through Theresienstadt
Zikmund Schul: What Never Was
Gideon Klein: Three Songs

Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone
Russell Ryan, piano

BRIDGE 9280