By Gigi Yellen-Kohn, JTNews Correspondent
Expect a crowd May 10 at the Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya. That evening’s Music of Remembrance concert will not only be conducted by Seattle Symphony’s esteemed music director Gerard Schwarz and feature one of the contemporary opera world’s most awe-inspiring voices — that of soprano Jane Eaglen — but it will also present the world premiere of a new song cycle by the American composer Thomas Pasatieri, acclaimed for his exquisite ability to compose for the female voice. Pasatieri’s “Letter to Warsaw” resurrects poetry written in the Warsaw ghetto and in the Majdanek concentration camp by the cabaret artist Pola Braun.
“Pola Braun’s words open up a window to all women caught in the Holocaust tragedy,” says Music of Remembrance Artistic Director Mina Miller. “The victims and their lives aren’t marked in birth and death certificates. Pola’s poetry ensures that she and this whole period will be remembered.” In addition to the soloist, “Letter” is written for an eleven-piece chamber orchestra.
Before the war, Pola Braun is assumed to have worked in the Warsaw offices of an influential satirical review, Szpilki. She belonged to the small group of artists who were active in the Warsaw literary cabaret that included the pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, depicted in the award-winning film The Pianist.
“I would hope that the future of ‘Letter to Warsaw’ would bring the kind of exposure to Pola that that film brought to Szpilman,” says Miller.
The May 10 world premiere performance of “Letter” will launch a piece of music that will then be available to the rest of the world. Thanks to a formidable combination of efforts by Schwarz, Eaglen, Pasatieri, and Miller, the work, recorded at Benaroya several months ago, is to be released on the Naxos label’s American Classics series on or around May 10. So Miller’s hopes for an extended life for Braun’s work could come true.
Excitement about Eaglen’s involvement increased when the soprano, one of the most sought-after performers in today’s opera world, stepped forward at the last minute to sweep audiences off their feet as the replacement lead in Seattle Opera’s recent Ariadne auf Naxos. That high-profile appearance brought extra attention to Eaglen’s up- coming Seattle concert plans, spotlighting the May 10 date with Music of Remembrance. Seattle Opera general director Speight Jenkins, given the opportunity to hear the master recording of “Letter to Warsaw,” called the work “gorgeous,” “romantic,” and “extraordinarily moving.”
A recent transplant to Seattle, Eaglen jumped at the chance to perform a new work by Pasatieri, composer of more than 400 songs, whose often-performed operas include The Seagull, and whose many film orchestrations include Road to Perdition, Finding Nemo, and Angels in America. He requested Eaglen’s voice for the work he offered to compose for Music of Remembrance. Schwarz brought the two artists together, says Miller, pointing out that Braun’s words “communicate a message that everyone can relate to.
“The power of the music brings an aural picture of a woman living through the Holocaust,” Miller continues. “It’s intimate and lyrical, and it translates the emotion of the words in such an incredible way.”
The 70-minute cycle of six songs includes two poems written during Braun’s prewar ghetto days, and four written in the Majdanek Concentration Camp. Braun originally wrote music for them, and accompanied herself on piano. The story is told that a piano was stored in a barracks at Majdanek. Braun lifted the spirits of other women inmates with surreptitious performances before her murder there in 1943.
That music, and a great deal of information about Braun herself, has been lost. The little that is known for certain about her all fits on the notes to this one CD, says Miller. Even the album cover art had to be changed at the last minute, when re-searchers were unable to confirm the accuracy of a supposed photo of Braun. The cover now depicts another cabaret singer of the same period, Diana Blumenfeld, who sang Braun’s songs.
Much of the research that went into “Letter to Warsaw” was done in cooperation with Bret Werb, musicologist of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Werb will deliver a pre-concert lecture about Braun before the May 10 concert.
“The project has touched on lives today, people still with us, who were able to look at a photo and remember whether it was Braun,” says Miller. “It really does make our point, that even though we know little about her story in terms of the details that mark the lives of most people, the poetry brings it to life.”
Now in its fifth season, Music of Remembrance presents two concerts per year, timed to commemorate Kristallnacht — the “night of broken glass,” turning point in the Nazi rise to power — in November, and Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, in the spring. Its performers include members of the Seattle Symphony and others who represent the city’s most accomplished concert artists.
In addition to the concerts, MOR performers present school residencies and lecture series, often in cooperation with other Holocaust educators.
Funds for the recording of “Letter to Warsaw” came from a reader of Hadassah Magazine, who was moved to make a gift after reading about Music of Remembrance. The recording is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of a couple who survived the Holocaust; the donor and the honorees share a set of grandchildren. All will be in Seattle for the premiere of this most recent addition to MOR’s growing catalogue of commissioned works.
MOR’s first recording, Art from Ashes, Volume I, featuring commissioned works by Paul Schoenfield and David Stock, is available on the Innova label.
“Our mission, to commission new works, really distinguishes this organization from other groups that devote themselves to music of the Holocaust,” Miller emphasizes. “By building new works, testimony for tomorrow, we are opening up new worlds, new stories. We continue to find new messages in the stories that we tell.”
If you go: The world premiere of “Letter to Warsaw” is Mon., May 10, at 7:30 p.m. at the Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall, with a pre-concert lecture by Bret Werb at 6:45. Tickets, $25 each, are available at www.musicofremembrance.org or 206-365-7770.