Concerto della Memoria
In memory of the children of Theresienstadt/Terezin
Quartetto MusicaVenezia
Margherita Busetto, violin
Martina Molin, violin
Francesca Levorato, viola
Giuseppe Barutti, cello
Giovanna Bragadin, mezzosoprano
Daniel Castro, piano
Narrator:
Roberta Reeder, English
Francesca Toic, Italian
Sunday January 24, 2010 - at 8 p.m.
Gran Teatro La Fenice - Sale Apollinee, Venice
DMITRIJ SHOSTAKOVICH;
Quartetto n. 8
In memory of the victims of Fascism and of war
ERWIN SCHULHOFF
11 Invenzioni
5 Studi di Jazz
GUSTAV MAHLER
Kindertötenlieder
As one of the events this January for Venice's "Giornata della Memoria," there will be a special concert presented by the Associazione Culturale MusicaVenezia commemorating the children who were sent to the concentration camp in Terezin, a little city in Bohemia once known as Theresienstadt, which later became Terezin under the Czechs. On 10 June 1940 the Gestapo took over Terezin and transfomred i tinto a prison. The main function of the camp was to direct the extermination of the Jews. Terezin served as the transit camp for Jews sent to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.
In association with the death of these children, there will be a performance of Kindertötenlieder (Song for Dead Children), poems by Friedrich Rückert set to music by Gustav Mahler. This year is the 150th anniversary of Mahler's death, who was a Jew. Early in his career, he suffered anti-Semitism, and although he converted to Catholicism, which made it possibile for him to become Director of the Vienna Opera, his work was banned in the Nazi period. The songs will be performed by Giovanna Bragadin da Venezia. She graduated from the B. Marcello Conservatory and has had an active concert career with various ensembles in Italy and abroad. She has also been a soloist with many orchestras and has sung in important festvals. Some of the poems written by the children at the camp in Terezin, which have been collected and published, will be read by Francesca Toich in Italian and Roberta Reeder in English. The concert will include Shostakovich's Quartet n. 8, subtitled "in memory of the victims of Fascism and war," performed by the Quartet MusicaVenezia, with Margherita Busetto, violin, Martina Molin, violin, Francesca Levorato, viola, and Giuseppe Barutti, violoncello. There will also be works by Erwin Schulhoff, a Jewish composer who died in a concentration camp in Bavaria in 1942. Schulhoff's works will be performed by Daniel Castro, a pianist from Costa Rica who has won many awards as a concert pianist, but is also a gifted jazz musician. He will play some of Schulhoff's works, both classical and jazz.