Randol Schoenberg's video: A Survivor from Warsaw Op 46 Arnold Schoenberg

A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46 — Schoenberg Edward Levy, soloist Iain Farrington, Piano Los Angeles Zimriyah Chorale Nick Strimple, Conductor The impetus for "A Survivor from Warsaw" was a meeting Schoenberg had in Los Angeles with the Russian dancer Corinne Chochem. She described a scene from the Warsaw Ghetto “how the Jews started singing before going to die.” Chochem had wanted Schoenberg to compose a setting of the Partisan Song, but Schoenberg decided to write his own text. As he explained to the conductor Kurt List, “Now, what the text of the Survivor means to me: it means at first a warning to all Jews, never to forget what has been done to us, never to forget that even people who did not do it themselves, agreed with them and many of them found it necessary to treat us this way. We should never forget this, even if such things have not been done in the manner in which I describe in the Survivor. This does not matter. The main thing is, that I saw it in my imagination.” Schoenberg’s narrator describes the scene in English, while also imitating the German of the Nazi guard directing the Jews to line up and be counted, yet the work concludes with a stirring chorale in Hebrew of the Shema Yisroel, the central credo of Judaism. “The Shema Yisroel at the end has a special meaning to me. I think, the Shema Yisroel is the Glaubensbekenntnis, the confession of the Jew. It is our thinking of the one, eternal, God who is invisible, who forbids imitation, who forbids to make a picture and all these things . . . The miracle is, to me, that all these people who might have forgotten, for years, that they are Jews, suddenly facing death, remember who they are.” (Arnold Schoenberg writing to Kurt List, November 1st, 1948). Once again the orchestral score of the original has been reduced and will be performed tonight on piano by Iain Farrington. Survivor was performed earlier this month by the New York Philharmonic, paired, as it often is, with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46 I cannot remember everything. I must have been unconscious most of the time. I remember only the grandiose moment when they all started to sing, as if prearranged, the old prayer they had neglected for so many years - the forgotten creed! ut I have no recollection how I got underground to live in the sewers of Warsaw for so long a time. The day began as usual: Reveille when it still was dark. “Get out!” Whether you slept or whether worries kept you awake the whole night. You had been separated from your children, from your wife, from your parents. You don't know what happened to them... How could you sleep? The trumpets again – “Get out! The sergeant will be furious!” They came out; some very slowly, the old ones, the sick ones; some with nervous agility. They fear the sergeant. They hurry as much as they can. In vain! Much too much noise, much too much commotion! And not fast enough! The Feldwebel shouts: “Achtung! Stilljestanden! Na wird’s mal! Oder soll ich mit dem Jewehrkolben nachhelfen? Na jut; wenn ihrs durchaus haben wollt!” [Attention! Stand still! Now you’re going to get it. Or should I help you with some gunshots? Ok then, if you really want it] The sergeant and his subordinates hit (everyone): young or old, (strong or sick), quiet, guilty or innocent ... It was painful to hear them groan- ing and moaning. I heard it though I had been hit very hard, so hard that I could not help falling down. We all on the (ground) who could not stand up were (then) beaten over the head... I must have been unconscious. The next thing I heard was a soldier saying: “They are all dead!” Whereupon the sergeant ordered to do away with us. Edward Levy, baritone, has been singing in Los Angeles and around the country since the 1980's. A native of Phoenix, Arizona, Mr. Levy at- tended Arizona State University where he studied organ and choral music. Since moving to L.A., Mr. Levy has performed with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Music Center Opera Company, has been featured in the Carmel, Oregon, and Los Angeles Bach Festivals, many local churches and synagogues, and has appeared on many movie soundtracks. Mr. Levy's solo repertoire is wide-ranging, including the music of Perotin and Machaut, cantatas and oratorios of Bach, Händel and Telemann, Requiems of Mozart, Brahms, Dvorak, Fauré and Duruflé, and music of Schönberg, Stravinski, Penderecki and John Adams. Mr. Levy has been a frequent guest artist and soloist with such ensembles as The Lark Musical Society, The Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, The Los Angeles Chamber Singers/Capella, and wide variety of other chamber ensembles.