Musicians
The ARC Ensemble
Erika Raum, violin
Marie Berard, violin
Steven Dann, viola
Winona Zelenka, cello
David Louie, piano
Dianne Werner, piano
Concert Summary
The Nazi rise to power in 1933 cut short the careers of a generation of Jewish composers just entering their prime. Those who survived found their music branded as racially impure and banned from the concert hall. Even after the war, the shadows of Nazism continued to engulf these composers, obscuring some of their greatest masterpieces. In this concert, Pro Musica Hebraica presented a listening tour of the moment just before 1933 through three unique works all composed between 1928 and 1931. Perennial favorites The ARC Ensemble (Artists of the Royal Conservatory of Canada) return with stunning pieces by three titans of the post-World War I generation of European Jewish composers–Viennese romantic Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Polish modernist Jerzy Fitelberg, and Italian neoclassicist Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco.
Performance Timing: Part One – 40 min.; Intermission – 15 min.; Part Two – 38 min.
Concert Program
FITELBERG: String Quartet No. 2 (1928)
CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO: Piano Quintet No. 1 (1931–32)
KORNGOLD: Suite for 2 violins, cello, and piano left hand (1930)
“Sets the skin rippling at every turn…totally compelling and authoritative.”
—The Strad, on the ARC Ensemble