CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Anne Sofie Von Otter
Daniel Hope
Daniel Müller-Schott
Bengt Forsberg

Zankel Hall
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at 7:30 PM

Pre-concert talk starts at 6:30 PM in Zankel Hall: Bengt Forsberg and Daniel Hope in conversation with Jeremy Geffen, Director of Artistic Planning, Carnegie Hall.

Anne Sofie von Otter, Mezzo-Soprano
Daniel Hope, Violin
Daniel Müller-Schott, Cello
Bengt Forsberg, Piano

WEBER "Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt"
ŠVENK "Vsechno jde!" (Terezín March)
WEBER "Und der Regen rinnt"
E. KÁLMÁN Terezín-Lied from Gräfin Mariza
VIKTOR ULLMANN "Beryozkele" from Three Yiddish Songs, Op. 53
SCHULHOFF Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2
VIKTOR ULLMANN "Clere Vénus"
VIKTOR ULLMANN "Je vis, je meurs"
SCHULHOFF "Sangen Geigen überm See" from Drei Stimmungsbilder
SCHULHOFF "Weisst du" from Drei Stimmungsbilder
SCHUL Two Chassidic Dances for Violin and Cello
PAVEL HAAS 5 Songs from Sedm písní v lidovém tónu, Op. 18
·· Coz je víc!
·· Dárek z lásky
·· Prípoved´
·· Slzy a vzdychání
·· Statecný jonák
BERMAN Selections from 1938-1945 Reminiscences
·· Family- Home
·· Auschwitz - Corpse Factory
·· Typhus in Kauffering Concentration Camp
·· Alone - Alone!
·· (from) New Life
TAUBE "Ein jüdisches Kind"
WEBER "Wiegala"
SCHULHOFF Duo for Violin and Cello

Encore:
STRAUSS "Ich weiss bestimmt, ich werd dich wiedersehn!"

This concert is made possible with funding from The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation and by an endowment grant from the Jean & Jula Goldwurm Memorial Foundation in memory of Jula Goldwurm.

Program Notes:

On November 24, 1941, the first group arrived. Nearly 350 Jewish men took on the task of preparing Terezín, an 18th-century walled city about one hour north of Prague, for the arrival of deported Jews. Billed as a model ghetto for Jews of distinction, Theresienstadt was part of the “Final Solution” for the liquidation of European Jewry. More soon followed. Two transports pulled in from Prague (on November 30) and Brno (on December 2), each bringing some 1,000 new residents. On December 4, another detail of 1,000 skilled professionals arrived; others departed. On January 9, a train with 1,000 passengers left Terezín for Auschwitz. In June, the Gentiles in town were evacuated as trains began arriving not only from the occupied Czech territory, but also from across Europe: Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Holland, Luxemburg, Hungary, and Denmark. Ultimately some 150,000 Jews passed through Terezín (numbers vary): 90,000 were deported east to concentration or death camps; more than 30,000 died in Terezín itself.

Terezín was not a death camp, but a ghetto-cum-concentration camp. Basic living conditions were compromised by severe overcrowding. In cramped barracks, space to sit or sleep came at a premium; the town’s aged sewer systems proved inadequate; the daily diet of bread, potatoes, a small ration of horse meat, and watery soup totaled a mere 1300 to 1800 calories. In July 1942, the daily death toll was 32; in September, 131. As historian George E. Berkley writes in his history of Terezín, Hitler’s Gift, “the privations of the privileged ghetto affected and afflicted nearly everyone.” Yet the appearance of normalcy persisted. The ghetto had its own (tightly supervised and Nazi-approved) administrative Council of Elders, a Beth Din (“religious court”), stores, a local currency, and even a coffee house that featured the “Ghetto Swingers” performing popular songs.

In early 1942, conductor and pianist Rafael Schächter teamed up with actor, writer, director, and composer Karel Švenk to produce an all-male variety show that culminated in the “Terezín March.” Looking defiantly into the future, to a day when all would laugh on the ruins of the ghetto, the march became the unofficial anthem of the town. Nazi authorities allowed and even encouraged cultural activities, recognizing their value as propaganda. In the summer of 1944, a delegation of the International Red Cross visited the camp; thanks to a Stadtverschönerung (“city-beautification”) program it shined disingenuously like a Nazi Potemkin village. Verdi’s Requiem was performed along with a children’s operetta, Brundibar by Hans Krása, composed in Terezín. That same summer, the Nazis made and distributed a propaganda film celebrating Theresienstadt as Hitler’s city for the Jews. The many artists in Terezín were eager to pursue their passions, no matter why they were so permitted or what purpose their work might serve. For them, creation was survival. As composer Viktor Ullmann defiantly wrote, “We did not simply sit down by the rivers of Babylon and weep, but evinced a desire to produce art that was entirely commensurate with our will to live.”

Schächter served on the Freizeitgestaltung, the committee of recreation established to supervise leisure activities in Terezín. The music division was divided into units for vocal and instrumental music (with Schächter in charge), as well as popular music. Working with composer and pianist Gideon Klein, who came to Terezín in December 1941, Schächter led his choruses (male, female, and mixed) in performances of various folk songs, opera choruses, and newly composed works—all a cappella (unaccompanied) because there was no piano yet available. Pianos and sheet music were eventually brought from Prague, as always with the permission of Nazi overseers. With instruments available, musical life flourished: Schächter accompanied a complete performance of Smetena’s opera The Bartered Bride in November 1942; pianist Bernard Kaff was perhaps the first to offer a proper piano recital, performing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition along with the Partita in Old Style, composed by Pavel Haas specifically for Kaff.

Haas and Ullmann were two of the most notable composers at Terezín. Viktor Ullmann studied composition in Vienna under Arnold Schoenberg and piano with Eduard Steuermann. He did not earn his degree but moved to Prague in 1919 and found work as chorus master at the opera house under the direction of Alexander Zemlinsky. He soon ascended the podium himself, earning international recognition as a conductor at the 1929 festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Geneva; that same year, he took a post with the Zürich Schauspielhaus as conductor and composer of instrumental music. When the Nazis rose to power, Ullmann was in Stuttgart; he fled Germany and returned to Prague, where he worked as a freelance conductor, composer, teacher, and music journalist. None of his works were performed publicly after 1938; the German occupation severely limited opportunities for Jews to pursue any profession. On September 8, 1942, Ullmann was sent to Terezín, where he continued to composer, perform, and write reviews. His music survives thanks to professors who smuggled manuscripts out of Terezín after the composer was sent to Auschwitz. Ullmann died in the gas chamber on October 18, 1944—the same day as his colleague Pavel Haas.

Pavel Haas was a Czech composer who studied in Brno under Janáèek and found work as a music teacher at a Jewish secondary school. During the German occupation, however, he was banned from employment; performances of his music were also forbidden. He wrote an unfinished symphony while confined at Terezín. His set of songs, the Sedm písní v lidovém tónu (Seven Songs in Folk Tone), Op. 18, were written in 1940 for soprano or tenor voice plus piano accompaniment, before he came to the ghetto.

Ilse Weber was a notable Jewish poet and writer of children’s books who played a variety of musical instruments. She and her husband arrived in Terezín in February 1942, having sent their eldest son to safety in Sweden; Ilse Weber took on the role of nurse to the children. She sang to them, composing words and music and accompanying herself on the guitar. In October 1944, her husband was sent to Auschwitz; rather than split up the family, she chose to go with him and bring their younger son, Tommy. They were killed upon arrival. Her widower, Willi, survived.

Czech composer and pianist Erwin Schulhoff attended conservatories in Prague, Vienna, Leipzig, and Cologne; he also took lessons from French composer Claude Debussy. A noted jazz pianist with an abiding interest in adopting jazz rhythms and harmonies in his music, he embraced the Soviet aesthetic doctrine of Socialist Realism in the early 1930s. In 1932 he composed a large-scale cantata in on texts by Marx and Engels—Das Manifest (Manifesto)—and dedicated his Sixth Symphony (1940–1941) to the Red Army. After Germany occupied Czechoslovakia 1939, Schulhoff was unable to find work and attempted to emigrate, first west to America then east to the Soviet Union. He was awarded Soviet citizenship but, after the Nazi invasion of Russia, was arrested, imprisoned, and sent to the concentration camp in Wülzberg, Bavaria. He died there, but his music had been sent ahead to the Soviet Union in advance of his planned arrival and so survives.

About Schulhoff’s Duo for Violin and Cello, heard tonight, violinist Daniel Hope wrote:

The freedom of the first movement builds a bridge to episodes of increasingly folk-like excitement. The Zingaresca (“gypsy-like”) second movement is a perfect example of Schulhoff’s own statement that “music is never philosophy; it arises from an ecstatic condition and finds its expression in rhythmic movement.” The Andantino third movement is a beautiful, sad melody which lingers above alternated pizzicato from both violin and cello, before the finale, which, after reiterating material from the first movement, eventually explodes in a mixture of relentless energy and conviction.

Czech singer, pianist, composer, and conductor Karel Berman conducted the girls’ chorus and performed in Švenk’s cabaret shows. The role of Death in Ullmann’s opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis) was written for Berman. A chorale closes the work with the following poignant lines: “Come Death, our honored guest / Enter the chamber of our hearts / Take from us life’s pain and woe / Lead us to rest after grief and sorrow.” An obvious critique of the Nazis, the opera was prevented from reaching the stage. The consequences of such artistic audacity were severe: After the one and only rehearsal, many of the musicians and performers, along with the composer himself, were sent to Auschwitz. Berman had been taken there a few days earlier and avoided the gas chambers by denying he was an artist. He survived not only the death camp of Auschwitz, but also the concentration camp of Dachau, and restarted his life as well as his career in Czechoslovakia after the war.

As much of the world watched with eyes shut tight, the Holocaust claimed the lives of an estimated sex million Jews; 200,000 Roma; and 200,000 of the mentally and physically disabled. Some who knew the horrors first-hand did their best to interest others. In August 1942, Kurt Gerstein was traveling by train from Warsaw to Berlin, where he came into contact with the Swedish diplomat Baron Göran von Otter. Gerstein’s sister-in-law had died in a mental institution under suspicious circumstances (a likely victim of euthanasia); he served the Nazi regime in order to sabotage it. In his role as a Waffen-SS officer, he delivered the deadly poison Zyklon B to the gas chambers at Belzec; witnessed the murder of some 5,000 Jews; and toured Treblinka. On the train home, he told von Otter all that he had done and seen. Gerstein penned this account of their meeting in 1945:

I met the secretary of the Swedish legation in Berlin, Baron von Otter in the train ... Still under the immediate impression of the terrible events, I told him everything with the entreaty to inform his government and the Allies of all of this immediately because each day’s delay must cost the lives of further thousands and tens of thousands.
 
I met Mr. von Otter twice again in the Swedish legation. Meanwhile, he had reported to Stockholm and informed me that this report has had considerable influence on Swedish-German relations. At the same time, I tried to report to the Papal Nuncio in Berlin. There I was asked if I am a soldier. Then any further conversation with me was refused and I was asked to leave the embassy of His Holiness. While leaving the embassy, I was shadowed by a policeman on a bicycle who shortly passed me, got off, and then absolutely incomprehensibly, let me go.

Baron Göran von Otter believed Gerstein, but his superiors in Sweden did not. No one ever acted upon the report he filed, relaying the information from Gerstein. At war’s end Gerstein was imprisoned by the French for his role in the killings. He hung himself in his cell.

The daughter of Baron Göran von Otter is Anne Sofie, inspired by her father to perform the music of Terezín.


—Elizabeth Bergman

© 2009 The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Anne Sofie von Otter, Mezzo-Soprano
Anne Sofie von Otter is considered one of the finest singers of her generation and is sought after by many of the world’s major conductors, orchestras, opera companies, and recording companies. Born in Sweden, her studies began in Stockholm and continued with Vera Rozsa at London’s Guildhall. She commenced her professional career as a principal member of the Basel Opera before she was launched on an international career that has now spanned more than two decades. Renowned for her interpretation of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, she has recorded the role for EMI with Bernard Haitink, and also performed it in Stockholm, Munich, Chicago, Covent Garden, and at the Paris Bastille, as well as in Vienna, at the Metropolitan Opera, and in Japan with the late Carlos Kleiber (the latter available on DVD).

Ms. von Otter has scored many personal successes on the main operatic stages of Europe. Recent engagements include Gluck’s Orfeo in Geneva, Alceste at the Châtelet; Handel’s Ariodante, Sesto in both Clemenza di Tito and Giulio Cesare, and Clairon in Strauss’s Capriccio at Paris’s Palais Garnier; Oktavian at Vienna’s State Opera; the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos; Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Aix-en-Provence Festival; and Ottavia in the same work at the Theatre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, where she also made debuts as Handel’s Xerxes and Lully’s Thesée. In addition, she returned to Sweden’s historic Drottningholm Festival for performances as Ruggerio in Handel’s Alcina and made her debut as Carmen at the Glyndebourne Festival. At the Royal Stockholm Opera, she added the role of Concepcion in Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole to her repertoire and enjoyed success as Orphée in a new staging by Mats Ek; in addition, she returned to the Geneva Opera as Didon in Iannis Kokkos’s staging of Berlioz’s Les Troyens.

Ms. von Otter enjoys an ongoing relationship with the Metropolitan Opera and James Levine; in recent seasons she has sung numerous performances of Rosenkavalier, Clemenza di Tito, and Idomeneo there and made her stage debut as Mélisande. In 2006 she made her debut at the Santa Fe Opera Festival as Carmen, conducted by Alan Gilbert.

An acclaimed recitalist, Ms. von Otter performs around the globe with her accompanist, Bengt Forsberg, and an equally busy concert career takes her regularly to the major halls of Europe and North America. Last season Ms. von Otter enjoyed a residency at Vienna’s Musikverein, where her performances included Chausson’s Poeme de l’amour et de la mer with Philippe Jordan, lieder recitals with Mr. Forsberg, and chamber music and jazz concerts. Ms. von Otter also appeared twice with the Boston Symphony and James Levine in Das Lied von der Erde and Les Troyens, the latter at Tanglewood. In 2007 she joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen for semi-staged performances of Tristan und Isolde, in which she debuted her highly acclaimed Brangäne.

Ms. von Otter’s recording relationship with Deutsche Grammophon began in 1985, and today she boasts an extensive personal discography. Together with Mr. Forsberg, she has made many award-winning lieder and chamber music recordings featuring works by Schubert, Chaminade, Schumann, Korngold, Brahms, and Grieg, among other composers. With orchestra she has recorded Weill, Mahler, Bach, and Zemlinsky (Gardiner); Berlioz and Brahms (Levine); Mozart (Pinnock); Berg, Mahler, and a Grammy Award–winning Schubert collection (Abbado); Ravel and Mahler (Boulez); and Offenbach (Minkowski). Other recordings for DG have included For the Stars, an award-winning collaboration with Elvis Costello; Music for a While, a Baroque recital with harpsichord and lute; I Let the Music Speak, a celebration of the music of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus; and, most recently, her highly acclaimed and award-winning Terezín/Theresienstadt recording with Bengt Forsberg and Daniel Hope, a collection of moving songs and musical works composed by musicians imprisoned in the Theresiensdadt concentration camp.

Ms. von Otter’s opera catalogue includes Dorabella with Solti, Monteverdi’s Ottavia, and Glück’s Orfeo, as well as Sesto and Idamantes with Gardiner, Cherubino with Levine, Marguérite with Chung, Dido with Pinnock, and Strauss’s Composer with Sinopoli. A frequent performer of opera in concert, Ms. von Otter has also made live recordings of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle, Charlotte in Werther, Ariodante, Hercules, Sesto in Giulio Cesare, and Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress, all for DG Archiv.

Ms. von Otter’s engagements in the current season include her house debut at Theater an der Wien in The Rake’s Progress, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and her debut as Waltraute in Götterdämmerung at the Stockholm Opera, followed by the same role at the Aix-en-Provence Festival conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. In concert Ms. von Otter will return to Los Angeles in a Peter Sellars staging of Oedipus Rex conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen; tour with Concerto Copenhagen and Lars Ulrich Mortensen in Bach, and Les Arts Florissants and William Christie in French Baroque; and take her band on tour to the Far East for a series of Christmas concerts.

Daniel Hope, Violin
British violinist Daniel Hope is world-renowned for his musical versatility and creativity. In January 2007, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and has since released two albums, featuring the original 1844 version of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and more recently a recording of Vivaldi Concertos. In 2004, Hope won three major awards for his recording of Berg and Britten Concertos: the Classical Brit Awards in England, and the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis and the ECHO Klassik Prize in Germany. At the 2005 Grammys he received two nominations, and in October 2008 he won the ECHO Prize.
This season, Hope tours Europe with the Swedish Chamber and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestras. He also performs with the Oslo Philharmonic, London Symphony, American Symphony, Tchaikovsky Symphony, Real Filharmonia de Galicia, Orchestra da Camera di Mantova, Tirol Symphony, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and L’Arte del Mundo orchestras. He continues to appear in recital performances around the world and performs in chamber music projects at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Hope has worked with many notable conductors, including Kurt Masur, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Roger Norrington, Yehudi Menuhin, Kent Nagano, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Sakari Oramo, Andrew Litton, Jeffrey Tate, Eliahu Inbal, Vladimir Fedosseyev, John Axelrod, Thomas Hengelbrock, and Hans Graf. He appears regularly with major orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Dresden Staatskapelle, Royal Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Detroit Symphony, Concerto Köln, Dallas Symphony, RSO-Vienna, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, RSO Moscow, Orchestre de Toulouse, Wiener Kammerorchester, Royal Scottish National, the Hallé, NDR-Hannover, and many others. Hope has performed in all the world’s major halls, including the Berlin Philharmonie, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Barbican, the Wigmore, and the Queen Elizabeth and Royal Albert halls.

Daniel Müller-Schott, Cello

Bengt Forsberg, Piano
Swedish pianist Bengt Forsberg studied at the Gothenburg College of Music, majoring in both piano and organ. As a soloist, chamber musician, and accompanist, Mr. Forsberg enjoys promoting music by lesser-known composers such as Medtner, Alkan, and Franz Schmidt, as well as rarely heard music by more well-known figures such as Fauré, Sibelius, and Franck. His repertoire of both well-known and unknown composers is wide and varied, and he manages his own Chamber Music Society in Stockholm to him promote this music.

Together with Anne Sofie von Otter, Mr. Forsberg has made recordings of songs by composers as diverse as Strauss, Korngold, Stenhammar, Schumann, Weill, Chaminade, Schubert, and Grieg, all on the Deutsche Grammophon label. He has also made several highly praised recordings for Hyperion with Swedish cellist Mats Lidström and solo recordings of piano music by Schubert and Schumann and late-Romantic Swedish composers, as well as various chamber music recordings.

Mr. Forsberg has traveled the world for recital tours and chamber music concerts, including a three-concert showcase at Alice Tully Hall, where hs also has seved as artistic advisor, and as guest artist for two consecutive years at the Perth Chamber Music Festival in Australia. With Ms. Von Otter he has appeared in recital in Berkeley, Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka, Perth (Scotland), and at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Solo engagements have included Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 with the Jönköping Sinfonietta; Stravinsky’s Piano Concerto in Gothenburg; Nicolas Medtner’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra; Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety,” d’Indy’s Sinfonie cévenole, and Ingemar Liljefors’s Piano Concerto, Op. 11, with Uppsala Chamber Orchestra; and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19 with Dalasinfoniettan. Mr. Forsberg appears regularly at many of the world’s international festivals, including a leading role in the recent Dutilleux Festival in Stockholm.

In the current season, Mr. Forsberg will perform in recitals with Anne Sofie Von Otter throughout the US, Asia, and Europe.