132 Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944): Piano Sonata No. 7 (1944) I. Allegro II. Alla marcia, ben misurato III. Adagio, ma con moto IV. Scherzo - Allegretto grazioso V. Variations and Fugue on a Hebrew Folk Song Ullmann was a prominent conductor, critic, and composer who became the central figure of the musical life inside the Theresienstadt ghetto. This sonata was his final work, written in the ghetto, weeks before Ullmann was deported to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. The manuscript of the sonata was saved by a friend. The fast first movement is written in sonata form, followed by a rhythmic second movement and a slow lyrical melodic third movement. The fourth movement is dance-like scherzo with trio. The final movement is a set of variations and a double fugue on a Hebrew folk song (Rachel) combined with a 15th-century Hussite war song Ye Who Are Warriors of God, the Lutheran chorale Now Thank We All Our God and the motif B-A-C-H. The poem “Rachel” expresses a deep, spiritual connection to the biblical matriarch Rachel. Written by the Hebrew language poet named Rachel, it was set to music by Yehuda Sharett in 1926,and was sung in the Jewish Zionist youth movements. This combination was a defiant humanist statement. By weaving Jewish, Czech, Protestant and German musical heritage together, Ullmann asserted that culture could not be divided by race. It is widely considered a masterpiece of spiritual resistance. Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–1996): Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 8 (1942) I. Allegro II. Allegretto III. Adagio IV. Vivace Weinberg was a Polish, Soviet, and Russian composer and pianist. Born in Warsaw to parents who worked in the Yiddish theatre in Poland, his early years were surrounded by music. He taught himself to play the piano at a young age and eventually became skilled enough to substitute for his father as a conductor at Warsaw's Jewish Theatre. During this period, he began to compose. In 1938, Weinberg played for Josef Hofmann, who offered to teach him at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Weinberg declined, because he preferred to focus on composition instead. Weinberg fled Warsaw on foot to escape the Nazis, eventually reaching the Soviet Union. He became a close friend and collaborator of Dmitri Shostakovich. During his only subsequent visit to Poland in 1966, he learned that his family had been murdered at the Trawniki concentration camp. Jewish Composers
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