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Commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz

Music by Schumann, Beethoven, Górecki and Ilse Weber, writing by Anne Michaels, Adam Zych and Primo Levi in a broadcast to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Writing by survivors like Primo Levi and Victor Frankl paints startling pictures of existence at Auschwitz. Despite the hellish conditions, music was made in concentration camps and we'll hear about the fate of Auschwitz's Roma Orchestra and the unexpected presence of Tango at Auschwitz and archive of an interview with Anita Lasker-Wallfisch who played the cello in the Auschwitz Women's Orchestra. She once played Schumann's Träumerei for Dr Josef Mengele, who came to be known as 'the angel of death'.

We play an early recording of the first song to be written in a concentration camp, the ‘Peat Bog Soldiers’, and songs by Ilse Weber, who wrote music for the children of the Theresienstadt camp and is said to have sung to her son and other children as she accompanied them into the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Poetry by survivors András Mezei and Annette Bialik Harchik reminds us that liberation was the end of a nightmarish journey but that living with the aftermath of the Holocaust was a burden which would be carried long after the camps were destroyed.

Our readers are Henry Goodman and Maria Friedman

Producer Georgia Mann

READINGS:
Extract from a letter by Salmen Gradowski,
The Survivor -András Mezei translated by Thomas Ország-Land
If This is a Man - Primo Levi
Man’s Search For Meaning - Victor E. Frankl, translated by Lisle Lasch
Earrings - Annette Bialik Harchik translated by Rafael Bielobradek
Boots At a Concert of Lydia F - Krzystof Janusz Boczkowkski translated by Adam A. Zych and Andrzej Diniejko
The Librarian of Auschwitz - Antonio Iturbe, translated by trans Lilit Zekulin Thwaites
Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels
Violins of Hope - James A. Grymes
First Thoughts: On Liberation Day From a Concentration Camp - Annette Bialik Harchik
The Survival Syndrome - Adam Alfred Zych translated by June Friedman

3 days left to listen

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 26 Jan 2025 18:00

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:01

    György Ligeti

    Atmospheres

    Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
  • 00:02

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Chaconne (Partita in D minor, BWV.1004)

    Performer: Yehudi Menuhin.
  • 00:05

    Ernest Bloch

    From Jewish Life

    Performer: Raphael Wallfisch. Performer: John York.
  • 00:07

    Maurice Ravel

    Kaddish (2 Melodies hebraiques)

    Singer: Nina Koshetz.
  • 00:11

    Isidore Isou

    Symphony no.4 (Juvenal)

    Performer: Isidore Isou. Performer: Maria Faustino.
  • 00:14

    Steve Reich

    Different Trains

    Ensemble: Kronos Quartet.
  • 00:17

    Gustav Mahler

    Symphony no.2 (4th mvt: Urlicht)

    Singer: Magdalena Kožená. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
  • 00:23

    Ludwig van Beethoven

    Sonata in F sharp major, Op.78

    Performer: Artur Schnabel.
  • 00:29

    Ilse Weber

    Ade, Kamerad!

    Performer: Gerold Huber. Singer: Christian Gerhaher.
  • 00:33

    Johannes Brahms

    Clarinet Quintet in B minor (2nd mvt: Adagio)

    Performer: Thea King. Ensemble: Gabrieli String Quartet.
  • 00:39

    Mark Waterfield

    Uno Dos Tango

    Composer: Steve Hellier. Performer: Mark Waterfield.
  • 00:40

    Anonymous

    The Tango from Auschwitz

    Ensemble: Tangele.
  • 00:44

    Anonymous

    Peat Bog Soldiers

    Singer: Erich Kunz. Orchestra: Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper.
  • 00:45

    Ilse Weber

    Ich wand're durch Theresienstadt

    Performer: Bengt Forsberg. Singer: Anne Sofie von Otter.
  • 00:50

    Gustav Mahler

    Symphony No.2 (Resurrection)

    Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
  • 00:53

    Johann Sebastian Bach

    Dona Nobis Pacem (Mass in B minor)

    Ensemble: Dunedin Consort & Players. Conductor: John Butt.
  • 00:56

    George Gershwin

    Someone to watch over me

    Ensemble: The Columbians.
  • 00:57

    Roby Lakatos

    Klezmer Csardas

    Ensemble: Roby Lakatos Ensemble.
  • 01:02

    Alexander Wertynski

    Lullaby for my little son in the crematorium

    Performer: Aleksander Kulisiewicz.
  • 01:06

    Henryk Mikołaj Górecki

    Symphony of Sorrowful Songs

    Singer: Joanna Kozlowska. Orchestra: Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Kazimierz Kord.
  • 01:10

    Ludwig van Beethoven

    Piano Sonata in C minor, Op.111

    Performer: Peter Wallfisch.

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