FULL Terezín Ghetto Requiem (Sylvie Bodorová) Bratislava 2015 Ivan Kusnjer
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Terezín Ghetto Requiem
- Composer: Bodorová Sylvie
- Libretto: Hebrew and Latin liturgical excerpts
- Venue & Opera Company: Concert Hall of the Slovak Philharmonic, Bratislava , Slovakia
- Recorded: April 17, 2015
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Ivan Kusnjer
- Conductor: Petr Altrichter
- Orchestra: Slovak Philharmonic
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: filharmonia.sk
- Date Published: 2015
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: filharmonia.sk FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Program
Sylvie Bodorová (1954)
Terezín Ghetto Requiem
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)
Symphony no. 8 in C minor, Op. 65
Terezín Ghetto Requiem is dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust. It was commissioned with funds from Warwick Arts Foundation to be premiered at the 1998 Warwick and Leamington Festival, and is written for the Skampa String Quartet.
The inspiration for Terezin Ghetto Requiem is based on the twenty performances of Verdi´s Requiem which took place in the Terezin ghetto during 1943 and 1944.
Jewish and Catholic religious texts are juxtaposed to represent the two cultures. Synagogue Chant is used differently in each movement. The quotation of Verdi´s Lacrymosa becomes a theme for canonic work in the strings in the First movement, while the singer creates an independent layer using the synagogue chant Shema Yisrael.
The Second movement is based mostly on the strings, while the voice part uses two short quotations: The Latin “Dies irae” (Dreaded day, that day of ire, when the world shall melt in fire, told by Sibyl and David´s lyre. Fright men´s hearts shall rudely shift, as the Judge through gleaming rift comes each soul to closely sift), from the Catholic requiem mass, and the Hebrew „Redeemer of Israel“ as an exclamation of liberation at the end of the movement.
The Third movement, “Libera me” (Deliver me, O lord, is predominantly calm in mood), and uses the Hebrew quotation “Elokei neshama…” (My God, the soul which you have placed within me is pure.)
The legacy of the holocaust doesn´t belong only to the prisoners and victims, but to all of us who couldn´t or wouldn´t help. I often ask myself how people could allow all that happened in Terezin /Theresienstadt/ and other concentration camps during World War II. If they had known the consequences – including endless lists of the murdered – could or would they have prevented it? Why did they not act?
I had always been afraid to visit the Memorial in Terezin. I had been afraid of the walls, which had witnessed so much. Then I realised that not only did the Nazi „Übermenschen / Supermen kill, not only they did the walls of Terezin strike fear, but that the fear itself, raised in the minds of those living outside the ghetto, too had the power to kill. That´s why I knew I had to accept this commission by Mr Richard Phillips from Warwick Festival. I wanted to honour those who, under the most extreme conditions and in the face of death, found the courage to protest against their torture by means of something as ultimately human as Verdi´s ,i>Requiem.
In September 1997, when my composition was almost finished I too, like the prisoners in 1943/44, heard Verdi´s Requiem at Terezin. I was dwarfed by the walls surrounding the Ghetto: how much humiliation is soaked into them. But when the music started I looked up and felt an extraordinary sense of liberation. And as the music came to an end the small group of survivors gathered in front of the stage were suddenly and magically illuminated by the setting sun.
I would like my composition to assist towards the goal of eternal humanity and tolerance.
Author: Sylvie Bodorova
Contributor: Jiří Štilec