UNITED STATES
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES
STEVEN HONIGBERG, DIRECTOR
The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Theater
Voted 'Best New Chamber Music Series' of 1994 by the Washington Post, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was proud to present its chamber music series from 1994 to 2002 with Steven Honigberg as its director. The concerts included music by Józef Koffler, Ervin Schulhoff, Leo Smit and Laszlo Weiner, talented composers who perished at the hands of the Nazis, as well as works by Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Krása and Viktor Ullman, composers who were permitted -- for a brief time -- to continue their creative activities while imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp. The series also features works by Emil Frantisek Burian, Petr Eben, Paul Hindemith, Olivier Messiaen, Bohuslav Martinu, Dmitri Shostakovich and Moise Vainberg that evoke the suffering from these devastating times.
European émigrés such as Samuel Adler, Berthold Goldschmidt, Paul Hindemith, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Ernst Krenek, Szymon Laks, Jean Martinon, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Alexandre Tansman, Ernst Toch, Franz Waxman, Karl Weigl, Kurt Weill and Eric Zeisl were also spotlighted. In addition, the series also explored Jewish and Hebraic themes by Joseph Achron, Tzvi Avni, Ernest Bloch, Julius Chajes, Aaron Copland, Paul Ben-Haim, Moses Milner, Joachim Stutschewsky, as well as Holocaust-related works by contemporary composers Herman Berlinski, Allan Blank, Joanna Bruzdowicz, Morris Moshe Cotel, David Diamond, Michael Cohen, Lubos Fiser, Lukas Foss, Benjamin Frankel, Osvaldo Golijov, Janice Hamer, Kent Holliday, Agi Jambor, Michael Karmon, Jonathan Kramer, Lori Laitman, Benjamin Lees, Leon Levitch, Max Lifchitz, Tom Myron, George Perle, Shulamit Ran, Simon Sargon, Jeffrey Schanzer, Michael Shapiro, Sheila Silver, Robert Starer, Robert Stern, and Lazar Weiner.
Of all composers of Jewish origin, Felix Mendelssohn caused Nazi propagandists the greatest difficulty. During World War II, the Nazis forbade the music of Felix Mendelssohn. By 1938, the Nazis had managed to remove Mendelssohn's name form all lists of recording and publishing catalogues throughout Germany. Nazis also demolished an immense monument of Mendelssohn that had been in place in front of the Leipzig Conservatory, which he had founded in 1843. No trace of the monument exists today. The music of Felix Mendelssohn was also featured on the music series.
Holocaust Memorial Music Series Discography
DARKNESS & LIGHT
Music Performed in Concert from
The Chamber Music Series at the
Holocaust Memorial Museum
STEVEN HONIGBERG, MUSIC DIRECTORPaul Ben-Haim - Sonatina for Piano, Op. 38 (1946)
Robert Starer - Elegy For A Woman Who Died Too Young (violin & cello 1990)
Herman Berlinski - From The World Of My Father (cello & piano 1948)
George Perle - Hebrew Melodies for solo cello (1945)
Moisei Vainberg - Piano Trio, Op. 24 (1945)
Darkness & Light, Vol. 2
Józef Koffler - Sonatine for Piano, Op. 12 (1930)
Szymon Laks - Passacaille for cello and piano (1946)
David Diamond - String Quartet No. 1 (1940)
Olivier Messiaen - Louange à l’éternité de Jésus (1940)
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Piano Trio No. 2 in G (1932)
Paul Ben-Haim - Music for Violoncello Solo (1974)
Darkness & Light, Vol. 3
Robert Stern – Hazkarah for cello and piano (1998)
Tom Myron – Käthe Kollwitz (for soprano and string quartet 1998)
Lukas Foss – Anne Frank for cello and piano (1999)
Karl Weigl – Piano Trio (1939)
Darkness & Light, Vol. 4
Leó Weiner – Románc Op. 14 for cello and piano (1921)
Robert Starer – Song of Solitude for solo cello (1995)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold – Don Quixote: Sechs Klavierstücke for solo piano (1909)
Benjamin Lees – Piano Trio No. 2 Silent Voices (1998)
ERNST TOCH
COMPLETE WORKS FOR CELLO(1887-1964)
Cello Sonata, op. 50 (1929)
Kathryn Brake, Piano
Concerto for Cello and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 35 (1924-25)
Eclipse Chamber Orchestra
Impromptu for solo Cello in Three Movements, Op. 90c (1963)
ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD
(1897-1957)
CHAMBER MUSIC
Piano Quintet in E Major, Op. 15 (1920-21)
Suite, Op. 23 for 2 Violins, Cello and Piano-left hand (1930)
