Holocaust Remembrance “Before Sleep”
La Commemoration de la Shoah “Avant de dormir”
Kalan Ses Görüntü 740477 (CD+DVD+Booklet)
Renan Koen, piano / Ulrich Mertin, viola *
Nazım Hikmet Academy Chorus / Erdem Nusret Karakaş **
Muratcan Atam, baritone / Naile Ilgaz, organ ***
http://www.amazon.fr/dp/B017XMDA54 /
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/holocaust-remembrance-before/id1057637442
April 12th 2015
Zorlu Performance Arts Center Drama Stage, Turkey
Babajim Recording and Mastering Studio
Total Playing Time : 60:57
|
| 01 |
Zigmund Schul : Mogen Ovos ** *** (A concert video
for Zikmund Schul - Mogen Ovos :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6WBhvYglqU) |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW_tPXqx9J8 |
2:38 |
| 02 |
Gideon Klein : Spruch ** |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTo_1d6NuNo |
1:22 |
| Gideon Klein : Piano Sonata, PA 9' |
| 03 |
I. Allegro con fuocco |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sutvnw4vCGk |
5:15 |
| 04 |
II. Adagio |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p91QCM5n8x4 |
4:22 |
| 05 |
III. Allegro vivace |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b10EDxIzUVw |
2:54 |
| 06 |
Pavel Haas : Al S'Fod * |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJQtmgmd8cc |
2:24 |
| Viktor Ullmann : Klaviersonate, Nr. 7 "A mes
enfants, Max, Jean, Felice" |
| 07 |
I. Allegro |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrSDPhT7-8 |
4:50 |
| 08 |
II. Alla marcia, ben misurato |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G31upm3fWWw |
3:41 |
| 09 |
III. Adagio, ma con moto |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_6eXXEEZJA |
7:53 |
| 10 |
IV. Scherzo |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1zC0y048YY |
2:41 |
| 11 |
V. Variations und Fuge über ein hebraïsches Volkslied |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDudgxMeRhE |
7:49 |
| 12 |
Viktor Ullmann : Notturno : Première version du
second mouvement de la sonate pour piano No.5 - "Meiner lieben Frau Elisabeth in Memoriam Theresienstadt" |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3uFWvZBtVI |
5:36 |
| 13 |
Renan Koen : Ascension * |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LTA2eHiLW8 |
9:32 |
Holocaust Remembrance “Before Sleep”
Renan Koen’s third album project Holocaust Remembrance “Before Sleep” released
by Kalan Müzik will be available at music shops both in cd and dvd format on
November 24th 2015.
The Camp Composers
“Before Sleep” is the product of many years of detailed research conducted by
Renan Koen on the lives of Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Zikmund Schul and Viktor
Ullmann, 4 composers who were imprisoned in the Terezin Concentration Camp
during the Second World War and who died there or in the Auschwitz Concentration
Camp. The album is composed of piano and choral works composed by these four
composers before and during their imprisonment.
Turkey Premieres
The Turkey premieres of the piano and choral works of these 4 composers were
performed on April 12th 2015 at Zorlu Performance Arts Center Drama Stage, later
to be documented for future generations in the body of the
“Before Sleep” album project. The concert took place thanks to the contributions
of the Quincentennial Foundation, Municipality of Şişli and Anadolu Kültür. In
this concert, Renan Koen, who is also the researcher and creator of this project,
played the piano works. Choral works were performed by Nazım Hikmet Academy
Chorus under the direction of Erdem Nusret Karakaş.
A Document for Future Generations
The works selected by Renan Koen were recorded in Babajim Recording and
Mastering Studio. All of these works testify to the extremely difficult
circumstances they were composed in and the composers’ strong will and
discipline which is in part related to the strong musical education they
received during their childhood. What stands out in these works is the idea that
the composers relentlessly kept creating despite all these difficulties with
extreme determination and what Koen calls “positive resistance”. In the DVD,
there are extracts from the concert where Koen also talks about her project “Before
Sleep”, interviews both with people who lived the horrors of World War 2 and
their descendants; alongside interviews with Dr. Gottfried Wagner and Osman
Kavala. A musical analysis of the works, especially those on Viktor Ullmann and
Gideon Klein’s piano sonatas, can also be found in the DVD. The musical
analyses, the life stories of the composers when they were in the camp are
carefully documented to pass this heritage to future generations down to the
tiniest detail.
‘Ascension’ “in memory of the Heroes of the Holocaust”
The “ascension”, a work which Koen composed for viola and piano and collaborated
with Ulrich Mertin in the album, is the final track and has been dedicated
to the memory of “the Heroes of the Holocaust”.
A Lasting Work of Art
Thanks to the support of the Quincentennial Foundation,
Anadolu Kültür, Kariyo&Ababay Foundation and Dr. Erol Hakanoğlu,
the “Holocaust Remembrance “Before Sleep” project, in addition to the cd and the
dvd, has an additional booklet, with the biographies of the 4 composers, program
notes and Renan Koen’s analyses of their works in four different languages
including Turkish, German, French and English, which allows music-lovers and
researchers from all over the world to appreciate the project better.