Conductor(s): Schwarz, Gerard
Label: Naxos
Series: American Classics
Genre: Orchestral; Vocal
Period: 20th Century
Catalogue No: 8.559641
Barcode: 636943964125
Release Date: 11/2009

SCHOENFIELD, P.: Camp Songs / Ghetto Songs / SCHWARZ, G.: Rudolf and Jeanette (Niederloh, Parce, Music of Remembrance)

American composer and pianist Paul Schoenfield is at the keyboard for two searing, heart-piercing works commissioned by Music of Remembrance. Schoenfield gives voice to the words of two brilliant poets—one a Holocaust survivor, one murdered—and the range of their emotions through rage, bitter humor, tenderness and fragile hope. This first English-language recording of his Camp Songs (a 2003 Pulitzer Prize finalist) joins his newest song cycle Ghetto Songs—transporting listeners from the horrors of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin to life in the Kraków Ghetto. Gerard Schwarz’s Rudolf and Jeanette is a haunting, romantic chamber orchestra work evoking the life and love of the composer’s Viennese grandparents, who were killed by the Nazis. Produced by Music of Remembrance, a Seattle-based non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the precious cultural legacy of works created by musicians during the Holocaust, and to commissioning new works in memory of their spiritual resistance.

Tracklist

Schoenfeld, Paul
Kulisiewicz, Aleksander - Lyricist
Jerzak, Katarzyn - Lyricist
Parce, Erich (baritone)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
Niederloh, Angela (mezzo-soprano)
1No. 1. Black Boehm04:24
Parce, Erich (baritone)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
2No. 2. The Corpse Carrier's Tango04:56
Niederloh, Angela (mezzo-soprano)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
3No. 3. Heil, Sachsenhausen!06:13
Parce, Erich (baritone)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
4No. 4. Mister C.03:23
Niederloh, Angela (mezzo-soprano)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
5No. 5. Adolf's Farewell to the World06:45
Niederloh, Angela (mezzo-soprano)
Parce, Erich (baritone)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
Schoenfeld, Paul
Gebirtig, Mordecai - Lyricist
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Smith, Morgan (baritone)
Niederloh, Angela (mezzo-soprano)
6No. 1. Shifrele's Portrait04:37
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Smith, Morgan (baritone)
Niederloh, Angela (mezzo-soprano)
7No. 2. Moments of Despair03:52
Niederloh, Angela (mezzo-soprano)
Smith, Morgan (baritone)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
8No. 3. Tolling Bells04:08
Niederloh, Angela (mezzo-soprano)
Smith, Morgan (baritone)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
9No. 4. Our Springtime04:00
Niederloh, Angela (mezzo-soprano)
Smith, Morgan (baritone)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
10No. 5. A Ray of Sunshine03:24
Niederloh, Angela (mezzo-soprano)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
Smith, Morgan (baritone)
11No. 6. Moments of Confidence04:18
Niederloh, Angela (mezzo-soprano)
Smith, Morgan (baritone)
Schoenfeld, Paul (piano)
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
Schwarz, Gerard
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
Miller, Mina (piano)
Schwarz, Gerard (Conductor)
12Rudolf and Jeanette15:05
Music of Remembrance (Ensemble)
Miller, Mina (piano)
Schwarz, Gerard (Conductor)

Total Playing Time: 01:05:05