Arnold Schoenberg and the Swiss Guards

A flash of vivid colour - the Swiss Guards in their Renaissance costumes, guarding the Pope in the Vatican. They have to be bright, physically fit, Swiss and Catholic which limits them to a fairly small gene pool.  Because there's no open recruitment, they're ferociously clannish and loyal to each other and to the standards they believe in. How does Arnold Schoenberg fit in ? Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden sets a poem by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825-1898), the Swiss poet and novelist.

"Und ein Reich will sich erbauen, das den Frieden sucht auf der Erde.......Und ein königlich Geschlecht wird erblühn mit starken Söhnen, dessen helle Tuben dröhnen: Friede, Friede, auf der Erde!" (and an empire will be built, that will bring peace on earth.....a kingly race will blossom with strong sons, whose shining trumpets call out : Peace, peace on Earth)

In this poem, Meyer wasn't writing about the Swiss Guards per se,  but he was fascinated by pageantry and especially by Rome. So it's interesting that when he did write about the Swiss Guards, in his poem Der Schweizer, he did so as satire. "Sie kommen mit dröhnenden Schritten entlang Den von Raffaels Fresken verherrlichten Gang, In der puffigen alten, historischen Tracht, Als riefe das Horn sie zur Murtener Schlacht: (They march in lordly formation, as if they were painted in a fresco by Raffael, in their antique garb, as if they were called to the battle of Morat, where they defeated Charles of Burgundy in 1467).

But the Pope is cutting back, skimping on coal and candles. How are the Swiss Knights to survive?

"Herr heiliger Vater, die Taler heraus, Sonst räumen wir Kisten und Kasten im Haus. Potz Donner und Hagel und höllischer Pfuhl, Wir versteigern dir den apostolischen Stuhl." (Lord, Holy Father, get out them Talers or we'll smash your walls and roofs. Thunder and lightning and hellish hailstorms. We'll sell off your apostolic Throne!)

So the Pope mumbles and ups their pay packet and the Lions become Lambs once more. The value of Industrial Action! 

Even deeper irony : the poem was set by Viktor Ullmann in 1942, when he was in Theresienstadt. Apart from Schoenberg and the Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck, hardly anyone set Meyer's poetry, so Ullmann must have had his reasions. He would almost certainly have been familiar with Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden, as he knew Schoenberg and his circle. Ullmann plays up the sardonic tone, emphasizing the rebellious anarchy. The Swiss Guards are beautifully kitted out but treat them badly and they'll turn on their master, even if he is the Head of the Church. And the Pope gives in, meekly.

photo : Andreas Walker

Terezin Theresienstadt Nash Holzmair Wigmore Hall

Is this an ordinary family making music? Look closely. Dad and the little girl are wearing  yellow stars. This is a drawing from Terezin Theresienstadt, by Helga Weissova-Hoskova, who was a teenager then. She survived and was at the Wigmore Hall for the Nash Ensemble's tribute last weekend.

Lots of people had come in from Israel and the Czech Republic. But the music of Theresienstadt speaks for everyone, because it shows how people can be creative in the most adverse situations, and that art has value, against all odds. That's why its significance resonates for all humanity.

Because camp conditions were strained, no huge Wagnerian orchestral extravagance. Instead, focus on chamber musi, song, things that ordinary people can do. Ilse Weber's poems and songs are loved because they are so simple and down to earth. They weren't meant to be fancy High Art but they  are moving because of their context. Terezin-Lied came from Emmerich Kálmán's hit operetta Countess Maritza,. Everyone knew the tune, so changing the words gave it another level of meaning. Trained voices not needed, everyone could sing along together.

Wolfgang Holzmair's song grained voice suited the songs he chose for this concert, which included Carlo Sigmund Taube's Ein jüdisches Kind, Zigmund Schul's Die Nicht-gewesen and Viktor Ullmann's Drei Lieder op 37.  Taube's song is gentle, but haunting: Ullmann's songs more barbed. Holzmair's diction sharpened well for Der Schweizer, savage satire on the Swiss Guards and the Pope. The original poem  was written in the late 19th century by Conrad Ferdnand Meyer, a Swiss radical. Another pointed adaptation.

The Nash played Gideon Klein's String Trio, written in camp in 1944. Perhaps this is the piece being played in Helga Weissova-Hoskova's drawing? It doesn't matter, but the thought gives the music extra poignancy. Klein's music is so elegant that it's good to hear whatever the context, but on this occasion, the connotations did take on extra meaning, and rightly so. Holzmair sang Klein's song in the encore. including the wonderful Lullaby.
  
Hans Krása's Brundibar is famous all over the world these days, performed in many languages. At the Wigmore Hall, in the presence of people who took part in the original performances, it was unique. The Nash  played two Hans Krása works for string trio, the Passacaglia and Fuga, and Tanec, so Brundibar can be appreciated in the wider context of the composer's work.


The Nash Ensemble came out in full force for the second evening concert, which placed Terezin music in the wider context of Czech music. Here, too, adaptation and renewal. Smetana's Overture to the Bartered Bride, but in a new arrangemnt by David Matthews (who was at Aldeburgh the previous day).  You can see a a film of the opera on this site HERE, in full, It's quite unusual, because it was made in the UFA studios in Germany during the Third Reich but features Czech singers and looks like it may have been filmed in Bohemia. It's in German, which is no big deal, as opera was frequently sung in different langauges in the past, but it does make you wonder about what was going on in UFA despite the official Nazi control..
 
Then Petr Pokorny's arrangement of Krása's Brundibar for 13 instruments. Although the opera is worth hearing because it's such a good piece for children's voices, hearing the Suite highlights the composer's orchestration. As music it works well, especially when performed by top notch musicians, which isn't always the case with the opera. 

For me the high point of the evening was Erwin Schulhoff's Duo for violin and Cello. Schulhoff wasn't in Terezin. He was a Communist and non-religious, which made him an outsider both in Nazi Germany and in Czechslovakia.  The Duo dates from 1925. It's quite remarkable. Its starts with brio, hurtling incisively into the first theme: no messing about. The violin (Marianne Thorsen) flows a long melody at the upper ends of the range: exquiste. The cello (Paul Watkins) listens, pauses, then repeats the melody in  a lower timbre. The second movement is a Zingaresca, gypsy dancing, but muted, a nostalgic memeory rather than a dancer in the here and now. The Andantino's edgy, decidedly modern. Strings plucked, jerkil : folk music this is not, despite the references. The final movement, marked Moderato, sounds almost pentatonic, alien to the Austro-German tradition. Part way it breaks off in false ending, then resumes, brighter and firmer.

Ian Brown played Viktor Ullmann's Piano Sonata no 6, writtten in Terezin, and Holzmair returned to sing Krása's Three Songs and Pavel Haas's Four Songs on Chinese Poetry.  Enjoy these and more on his CD, reviewed HERE.on this site, where there's plenty more Theresienstadt and suppressed music. The second evening concert is being broadcast on  BBC Radio 3 on Monday 5 July and will be available on line on demand for a week.

Terezin Theresienstadt Children Brundibár

These are the children of Theresienstadt, or Terezin (depends whether you come from east or west). They're singing cheerfully but  those who made the film were connected to those who would murder the children. The full propaganda movie can be downloaded, but I can't do that. It's too awful; there is a surreal scene where a prisoner is beating steel to the soundtrack of the cancan.....mail me if you want the link. There are actually two films, this one from 1942 and another recently unearthed.

This coming weekend the Nash Ensemble will be holding a weekend of Theresienstadt/Terezin music, films and talks, and some survivors will be there - maybe some of the children in this very film.  I've been writing about this for months, so use the search facility at right and go to the Wigmore Hall website. There'll be a short bit on Hans Krása's Brundibár an opera written for the children of the camp. It's not as powerful as Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis but Krása was trying to cheer the kids, not depress them. Brundibár gets performed all over the world, in many languages and rightly so. Kids need to know.

Here is a link to an excellent article in the Observer by Ed Vulliamy about the Nash Ensemble's Theresienstadt project at the Wigmore Hall.

You don't need to know Italian to be moved by the film below. These kids are even happier, their eyes shine, they're so innocent, even though they've already seen things no child should ever experience. It's like this everywhere, no matter how barbaric the world is, kids are kids, and they are pure. .I used to do a lot of work about war and camps (not Europe), and those who were kids would remember differently from those who were older and wiser. Which is a mercy. (My mother is in some very famous newsreel photographs, she just happened to be around when the camera crews came by.)

Der müde Soldat

Ein kahles Mädchen. Heckenblaß entlaubt.
Sie steht am Weg, ich gehe weit vorbei.
So stehen sie alle Reih' an Reih'
und Haupt an Haupt.

Was weiss ich noch von heiligen Gewässern,
was von des Dorfes Abendrot.
Ich bin gespickt mit tausend Messern
und müde... müde von dem vielen Tod.

Der Kinder Augen sind wie goldner Regen,
in ihren Händen glüht die Schale Wein.
Ich will mich unter Bäumen schlafen legen
und kein Soldat mehr sein.

A bald girl, white as a ghost. She was standing in my way. I had to go past. And they were all there, standing row on row, head to head.

What do I know of holy waters, or the village sunset. I've been pricked by a thousand daggers. I'm tired - tired of too much death.

The children's eyes are like golden rain. In their hands glow goblets of wine. I willl go and lie under the trees to sleep and be no more a soldier.

A poem written by Li Po, a thousand years ago about China, translated in the 19th century by a German poet, set as a song by Viktor Ullman in 1943. In Theriesenstadt.  My translation from German

More music from Terezin (Theresienstadt) von Otter South Bank

Why would people write and perform music in a concentration camp ? As Viktor Ullmann, who was at Terezin but was murdered at Auschwitz, 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".

Last week I was at a recital at the South Bank.The audience was very mixed, young and old, music regulars and people who don't usually go to concerts. The programme notes were minimal, because the performers talked about the music and read the poems in the songs, in English. It was much more personal than an ordinary recital. I didn't much like the CD but I loved the recital, because of its informal, direct format (and better choice of music). Read about the concert HERE. Quite a lot of detail about the music and background not that easy to come by. Read about Karel Berman's Reminiscences, which I'd really like to hear Forsberg record in full. Also Erwin Schulhoff, and the amazing Viktor Ullmann of whom I'll be writing more at some stage (a favourite).

The sketch is by Bedrich Fritta, an artist in Terezin, who made this drawing in 1943.

There's more on Terezin music and music suppressed by the Nazis on this blog, follow the label Entartete Musik

More Terezin Theresienstadt music - Von Otter

For obvious reasons, music from Terezin (Theresienstadt) wasn't heard outside the camp. In the immediate post-war years, people were still too traumatized to deal with the music. Now, though, the music is enjoying a renaissance, as lost materials are collated, transcribed and performed more regularly, including by big-name professional musicians.

Recently I praised Wolfgang Holzmair's CD on Bridge Records (see HERE) and was asked about other recordings. So here's a bit about another recent issue. It's Terezin/Theresienstadt with Anne Sofie von Otter, Daniel Hope and Christian Gerhaher, issued by Deutsche Grammophon. Huge label with plenty of money behind and megastar performers so you'd assume it might be a "first choice"? But in musical terms, Holzmair on Bridge is infinitely the better buy.

Anne Sofie von Otter came relatively late to Terezin music though she's an excellent singer and champion of unusual repertoire. She'll be doing a concert of Terezin songs at the South Bank on 30 September, so it's worth finding out about her 2007 recording. pictured here.

The advantage of the DG CD is that it includes material not available elsewhere, such as the songs of Ilse Weber, who was a mother who became a camp nurse and sang to the children. Her poem Ich wandledurch Theresienstadt is good as a poem, particularly recited with the force Holzmair gives it on the Bridge recording. Von Otter sings it as a song, together with four others. Weber was heroic: she sacrificed her life to accompany the children when they were shipped to Auschwitz. Her husband survived. But as music the songs are charming rather than impressive. Which is utterly appropriate. She wrote them to keep the children happy. They were never meant to be great art. So they're worth listening to as a record of human goodness.

Similarly, there are songs here from Karel Švenk, Adolf Strauss, Carlo Sigmund Taube, Martin Roman and one poignantly "anonymous". Its remarkable that anything survives at all, so each fragment means a lot. But most of these are minor work as music, preserved as a testimony to history.

Terezin did hold top-rank composers, so the DG set includes Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Hans Krása and Erwin Schulhoff. Both sets have Pavel Haas's Four Songs on Chinese Poetry. so it's a question of whether you like Gerhaer or Holzmair. Both singers have a similar light, soft grained timbre, Holzmair having the edge with a shading of melancholy. The Ullman songs on the DG are from his op 34, rather than the striking op 37 (with Der Schweiz) that Holzmair does with such vigour. On the other hand, the DG set goes beyond piano and voice, and includes Daniel Hope , playing Schulhoff's Sonata for Solo Violin. In many ways, this is the main draw of the recording. Hope will be playing at von Otter's QEH concert. Devotees of this genre will of course have the ancient multi CD set of Ullmann songs with Christine Schafer and Axel Bauni. Schafer's excellent, Holzmair again has the edge on the songs he shares with Bauni.

Music from Theresienstadt - Holzmair Ullmann

Even in Theresienstadt (Terezin) , music thrived, against all odds. "Our will to create culture was as strong as our will to live" wrote Viktor Ullmann, the theosophist and composer. In the concentration camp, Ullmann wrote extensively, even producing an opera, the Emperor of Atlantis. Others, like Ilse Weber, wrote poems. "Ich wandle durch Theresienstadt", she writes. She stands on a bridge looking out on the valley. "Wann sind wir wieder frei"? Others articulated their thoughts only in abstraction. Karel Berman's Auschwitz - Corpse Factory describes in jagged piano what is too horrible to put in words.

Wolfgang Holzmair and Russell Ryan have just released a new recording, Spiritual Resistance : Music from Theresienstadt. (Click on link for more). There are many recordings of music from the camps. This new CD matches sincerity with artistic merit, so it is a must. Holzmair has long pioneered entartete Musik : his version of Hanns Eisler's Hollywood Liederbook was the finest version before Goerne came along. Holzmair's older now, but it gives his voice greater credence. Much as I've liked so many previous recordings, Holzmair's Der Müde Soldat is so good that it shows why this song means so much in the repertoire of music about war.

The poem on which Der Müde Soldat is based was written a thousand years ago in China but the sentiments still pack a punch. A soldier passes a girl, head shorn bare, who reminds him of the many others he's seen Reih' und Rieh', und Haupt und Haupt. He's seen too many burning villages. The eyes of children haunt him. He's müde von dem vielen Tod, and want to be a soldier no more.

This is perhaps the most famous song in this set, which contains all 12 songs of Der Mensch und sein Tag op 47 . These are short, but cryptic. They set poems written by Ullmann's close friend Hans-Günter Adler who collected Ullmann's effects when Ullmann was taken to Auschwitz in 1944. It's thanks to Adler we know so much of what happened in Theresienstadt, for he survived, and preserved as many of the hand-written manuscripts as he could.

Pavel Haas is famous for his string quartets - the Pavel Haas Quartet is named in his honour. Here we hear his Four songs after words of Chinese poetry. Hans Krása's Fünf Lieder reveal his more delicate style, quite different from Brundibár, the opera he wrote for the children of the camp. Listen to the Rilke setting Mach, dass etwas uns geschiet. Holzmair doesn't overload the fragile line wir wollen uns erheben wie ein Glanz, so it rises, like light.

Gideon Klein's songs are here, too, Three Songs, and his Lullaby, where a father speaks of "going into the furrows". Although the song is in Czech, one can't help but associate the feelings this song evokes with the circumstances in which it was written. Not a soothing lullaby.

Another reason for getting this CD is that it includes large portions of Karel Berman's Reminiscences. a long series of works wrtten from 1938 to 1945. They range from straightforward images of home to the quite unsettling Typhus in the Kauffering Concentration Camp. Its flickering, febrile notes are like halting breath. Berman was a singer, so perhaps it's significant that he chooses piano to express these images - photographs in sound, to bear witness without words. Russell Ryan, the pianist, Holzmair's long-time accompanist, plays thoughtfully. At times Berman's music breaks into vaguely effusive colour, but Rachnaminoff like flourish would not be appropriate. Ryan's sober approach works well. As Ullmann said "The deepest pain cannot become music".

Oddly enough, it's the pacifist Viktor Ullmann who comes up with explicit protest.. Der Schweizer is a savage blast at the Swiss Guards, who mutiny because the Pope won't pay them enough. "We'll auction off your Apostolic Throne!" It's a swipe at piety, at hypocrisy of all kinds, not solely Christian. Quite understandable in the circumstances.
IN June 2010 the Nash Ensemble and Holzmair will be doing a weekend at the Wigmore Hall on Theresienstadt music - do not miss !