Glance at Culture - Defiant Requiem: Maestro Murry Sidlin on Terezín Concentration Camp, Verdi's Requiem, the Arts & Social Justice

Warfare of Art & Law Podcast

For more information, please visit the Defiant Requiem Foundation's website.
3:30 Maestro Murry Sidlin’s creation of concert-drama Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

6:00 Eizenstat’s contribution to formation of Defiant Requiem foundation

8:00 Rafael Schächter’s background and work before being interned at Terezín

10:40 Schächter’s decision to pack the Czech opera, Bedrich Smetana’s Bartered Bride

11:50 Schächter’s decision to pack Verdi’s Requiem Mass

14:30 Terezín Commandants, including SS First Lieutenant Karl Rahm

16:45 Terezín became a hotbed of arts and humanities

19:00 Schächter taught Verdi’s Requiem Mass
to approximately 150 singers by rote

20:20 Edgar Krasa’s recollection of Schächter as “merciless” in rehearsals because they “could not afford for any minds to wander”

21:15 Verdi’s Requiem Mass was performed 16 times at Terezín

21:45 Edith Steiner Kraus’ recollection that the chorus led by Schächter in Terezín would make one proud “in any urban setting” and the singers were “so far inside the music that we’d returned to Verdi’s desk”

24:00 Edgar Krasa’s recollection about controversy between Jewish Council and Schächter over performing Verdi’s Requiem Mass

31:15 Jewish Council’s concern that Requiem Mass had Catholic origin

36:50 Sidlin’s one act “speculative history” drama Mass Appeal 1943 based on Schächter’s meeting with Jewish Council

38:00 Schächter’s use of Verdi’s Requiem as an act of defiance and to uplift prisoners

39:30 Jewish Council’s censorship of Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Kael Švenk’s The Last Cyclist

44:00 Performance of Defiant Requiem at Terezín

48:30 composer Ilsa Weber at Terezín

49:55 Inspiration for Foundation’s concert, Hours of Freedom: The Story of the Terezín Composer that includes work by composers such as Victor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Krasa, James Simon, Zikmund Schul, Rudolf Karel and others

54:00 Pianist and Composer James Simon’s background and work

56:15 Simon’s colleague Violinist Alma Rosé

59:00 Pavel Haas and Karel Ančerl

1:00:20 Conductor Karel Ančerl

1:01:30 Phillip Silver’s contribution to Hours of Freedom

1:04:10 Hours of Freedom arranged by chapters that include Longing, Hope, etc.

1:05:00 Composer, Conductor, Pianist, Singer Karel Berman created Terezín Suite that includes Auschwitz Corpse Factory

1:06:20 10-minute memorial by Martinů

1:09:00 Maestro Sidlin’s challenge to a description of Ullmann as ‘finding his voice’ in Terezín and his thoughts on Ullmann’s critical essay that described his experience at Terezín

1:13:45 cloud over many composers was their background training in the law

1:16:10 misconception that Gideon Klein learned to compose at Terezín

1:16:50 Strauss’ unsuccessful efforts to have daughter-in-law’s grandmother released from Terezín

1:20:00 Maestro Sidlin as messenger

Please share your comments and/or questions at [e-mail]
To hear more episodes, please visit Warfare of Art and Law podcast's website.
Music by Toulme.
To view rewards for supporting the podcast, please visit Warfare's Patreon page.
To leave questions or comments about this or other episodes of the podcast and/or for information about joining the 2ND Saturday discussion on art, culture and justice, please message me at [e-mail].
Thanks so much for listening!
© Stephanie Drawdy [2024]