This is a remarkable,
moving document that will disturb and
illuminate in equal parts. The main
part of Capriccio’s product is Norbert
Bunge and Christine Fischer-Defoy’s
film that traces the effects of Nazism
on composers of that era. Interviews
with survivors are gripping (the film
is in German, with English subtitles
available), but it is perhaps the images
of Hitler and the speech by Goebbels
(subtitles over-write the German heading,
alas) that stick in the memory. Images
of rallies stagger the imagination in
the sheer volume of people present.
Ernst Krenek was ‘half-Jewish,
half-Czech’ and features heavily in
the documentary. It is easy to forget
how much he wrote, and how much of that
was opera, and all too easy to remember
him merely as the composer of ‘Johny
spielt auf’, a jazzy and therefore ‘degenerate’
work of art. But there is so much more
to discover, and this DVD makes one
want to explore much, much further.
Many names will be
familiar – Paul Dessau, Hanns Eisler,
Arnold Schoenberg, Berthold Goldschmidt.
Goldschmidt is accorded a fair amount
of attention, including a segment of
his Second String Quartet, a fine and
superbly written work, here performed
by the Mandreling Quartet. Some names
less so – for example, Alfred Goodman
(Gutman originally, presumably). On
the performer side, the name and image
of Wilhelm Furtwängler crops up
on several occasions. There is film
of him conducting Beethoven’s Ninth
with a distinct Nazi presence about
the whole affair and later in the film
footage of a Nazi emblem-bedecked Meistersinger
Overture where he is referred to as
‘State Counsellor’. However disturbing
all this may seem, it offers invaluable
contextualisation for a conductor whose
recorded legacy is the stuff of fanatic
record collectors everywhere. Images
of Bayreuth decorated with Nazi paraphernalia
are similarly disturbing.
An interview with Oskar
Sala centres on Paul Hindemith who taught
in Germany until 1937. Sala was a pupil
of Hindemith and a film music composer
and he talks of Hindemith’s compositions
for the Trautonium, organ-like, but
not quite, even playing one of them.
Accounts of musical life in concentration
camps offer a glimpse of what it must
have been like.
The Audio Highlights
are an Aladdin’s Cave of discovery,
each one immediately prompting a craving
for further investigation. The first
is the Prelude to Zemlinsky’s opera,
Es war einmal (which was performed
at the RFH here in London in 1999, memorably,
by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with
Christine Brewer heading the line-up
of soloists: http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/zemlinsky.htm
). The opportunity to hear a movement
of Viktor Ullman’s Symphony No. 2 (with
the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
under James Conlon) only whets the appetite.
Krenek’s string quartets come under
the spotlight in the interview with
Gladys Krenek, and here is the opportunity
to hear the fourth movement of the First
Quartet. Schoenberg features in the
Audio highlights with a section of Verklärte
Nacht (Camerata Academia des Mozarteums
Salzburg/Sandor Végh) and in
the documentary, including the Klavierstück
Op. 23/2 (not to mention a shot of Rockingham
Avenue, Los Angles, where he sought
refuge).
The close of the film
is infinitely touching – lists of composers
and performers lost due to the atrocities.
This is no easy ride,
but is necessary viewing for all concerned
with activities in and around Germany
in the War years.
Colin Clarke
You may also
be interested in
Verbotene
Klange. Komponisten
im Exil/Forbidden Sounds. Composers
in Exile Alexander
ZEMLINSKY (1871-1942)
Drei Ballettstücke Triumph der
Zeit (1903) Philharmonisches Staatsorchester
Hamburg/Gerd Albrecht Franz
SCHRECKER (1878-1934) Schwanensang
Op.11 WDR Rundfunkchor und Rundfunkorchester
Köln/Peter Gülke Erwin
SCHULHOFF (1894-1942) Duo
for Violin and Violoncello (1925) Gernot
Süssmuth (violin) Hans-Jakob Eschenburg
(cello) Viktor
ULLMANN (1898-1944) Don Quixote
tanzt Fandango (1944) – reconstructed
from the short score by Bernhard Wulff
Gürzenich Orchester Köln/James
Conlon Paul
HINDEMITH (1895-1963) Trumpet
Sonata (1939) Reinhold Friedrich (trumpet)
Thomas Duis (piano) Arnold
SCHOENBERG (1874-1951) Verklärte
Nacht for string orchestra Op.4 (1943)
Camerata Academica des Mozarteums Salzburg/Sandor
Végh Egon
WELLESZ (1885-1974) Symphonischer
Epilog (1969) Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester
Berlin/Roger Epple Darius
MILHAUD (1892-1974) String
Quartet No.1 Op.5 (1912) Petersen Quartet
Hanns EISLER
(1898-1962) Kleine Sinfonie Op.29
(1931/32) Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester
Berlin/Hans E Zimmer Franz
WAXMAN (1906-1967) Athanael
the Trumpeter – comedy overture for
trumpet and orchestra (1944) Joachim
Pliquett (trumpet)
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Hans
E Zimmer Kurt
WEILL (1900-1950) Die Dreigroschenoper
(1928) – two excerpts from historic
recordings Die Seeräuberjenny sung
by Lotte Lenya Die Moritat von Mackie
Messer sung by Gisela May with a studio
orchestra/Henry Krtischl Ernst
KRENEK (1900-1991) Zwölf
Variationen in drei Sätzen Op.79
(1937) Till Alexander Körber (piano)
Paul DESSAU
(1894-1979) Hagadah Shel Pessach;
Oratorio in Three Parts (1934-36) From
Part 2 Midnight Hymn Chor des Norddeutschen
Rundfunks/Philharmonisches Staatsorchester
Hamburg/Gerd Albrecht Manfred
GURLITT (1890-1972) Wozzeck
– Musical Tragedy Op. 16 (1926) – Scenes
17, 18 and Epilogue Wozzeck – Roland
Hermann (bass baritone) Marie – Celina
Lindsley (soprano) Gabrielle Schreckenbach
(contralto) 
RIAS Kammerchor/Deutsches Symphonie
Orchester Berlin/Gerd Albrecht Recorded
by German radio stations, undated
CAPRICCIO 67 097-99 [3 CDs 69.53
+ 76.09 + 56.30] [JW]
Recorded
quality from broadcast material varies
... never less than acceptable; often
much more. Performances are fully committed,
agile, idiomatic. ... see Full
Review
CAPRICCIO
93 506 [72’00: Documentary: 35’00: Specials
+ 70’00: Audio]