Track of the Month: August
Hans Krasa's Passacaglia movement from his String Trio (Terezín 1944)
In the Passacaglia movement of his string trio, Hans Krása masterfully weaves hauntingly rich sonorities. This last complete work was composed in August 1944 — just weeks before he was sent to the gas chambers of Auschwitz on October 16, 1944. Performed and recorded by Si-Jing Huang, violin; Mark Ludwig viola; and Sato Knudsen, cello.
HANS KRASA (1899-1944) was a leading figure of the cultural life of Terezín and is best remembered as the composer of the children's opera "Brundibar" ("The Bumble Bee"). He was an important member of the Czech- and German-speaking artistic community that defined Prague's distinctive cultural life in the first decades of the twentieth century. His youthful works include song cycles, several chamber works, a cantata, and an opera based on a Dostoevsky story. His 1923 symphony for small orchestra was performed in Zurich by his mentor Alexander Zemlinsky, the Boston Symphony with Serge Koussevitsky, and the Philadelphia Orchestra with Leopold Stokowski (1926-27). While Krása's style was influenced by Stravinsky, Mahler, early Schönberg, and French impressionism, his music remained melodic and lyrical. He wrote, "I am sufficiently daring, as a modern composer, to write melodic music. This reflects my whole attitude to music, whether it is called modern or anything else."
"Brundibar" was the last work Krasa completed before his arrest by the Nazis in 1942. In Terezín, he reworked the opera for the available players, and it was performed there fifty-five times as well as in the infamous propaganda film and a staged International Red Cross Committee visit in 1944. Krasa was transported to Auschwitz along with Terezín composers Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, and Gideon Klein. He was murdered there in October 1944. |
Children in the cast of Hans Krasa's "Brundibar" in Terezín.
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