Concert to honour Jewish composers
Leonard Bernstein's Kaddish Symphony with words by Samuel Pisar premiered in 2003 and has been narrated around the world.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) together with the Australian War Memorial is presenting Kaddish: A Holocaust Memorial Concert on October 31.
Curated by the Australian War Memorial’s Christopher Latham, the concert has two parts – it opens with the MSO, conducted by Benjamin Northey, alongside the MSO Chorus and Young Voices of Melbourne, performing Leonard Bernstein’s choral Symphony No.3 Kaddish (1963), with the libretto written by Samuel Pisar, one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz which will be narrated by his daughter Leah Pisar-Haas.
Pisar had a distinguished career in the UN and worked for John F. Kennedy, he also studied law at Melbourne University. His stepson is US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Pisar-Haas told The AJN that the collaboration originated from “a very great friendship between Leonard Bernstein and my parents”.
“One day, in 1989, toward the end of his life, Bernstein summoned [Samuel Pisar] and asked him to write a new text for his Kaddish Symphony. He felt that his original text was not strong enough, because he had never suffered. My father, he felt, had something powerful to say, as a result of his own suffering. At first, my father demurred, saying that he could never write anything equal to his music. But a decade later, after the September 11th attacks, he realised that it was time to take on this challenge.”
It premiered in 2003 and has been narrated around the world.
Pisar passed away in 2015 and his daughter described his legacy as “to look for our common humanity, to listen to others and to try to understand differences and forge a dialogue.”
Pisar-Haas is president of Project Aladdin which seeks to combat xenophobia and intolerance through exchange and education.
The second part of the concert features “almost lost” masterworks of those killed in the Holocaust including Erwin Schulhoff, Viktor Ullmann, Hans Krása, Gideon Klein and Avraham Brudno, as well as works by survivors Władysław Szpilman, Boaz Bischofswerder and George Dreyfus, narrated by renowned classical pianist Simon Tedeschi.
“I am speaking in this concert as a testament to my own maternal grandparents who, by enduring hell, instilled in me the imperative to speak, even when it is difficult, even when we are frightened,” Tedeschi said.
The concert will also premiere new works by Elena Kats-Chernin and William Barton honouring the legacy of Yorta Yorta man William Cooper who protested against the Nazi persecution of Jews after Kristallnacht.
Australian War Memorial Assistant Director National Collection, Major General (Retired) Brian Dawson will host a panel discussion on October 29, ahead of an open rehearsal of Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony.
Bookings:
Kaddish panel discussion, Tuesday October 29, 6pm at Hamer Hall
Kaddish open rehearsal, Tuesday October 29, 7.30pm at Hamer Hall
Kaddish: a Holocaust Memorial Concert, Thursday October 31, 7.30pm at Hamer Hall
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