A Concert of Remembrance

Christoph Eschenbach conducts Schoenberg and Brahms with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Arnold Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw, for speaker, choir, and orchestra, is dedicated to to the victims of the Holocaust. Schoenberg wrote the text himself, drawing on testimonies he received. It ends with the central Jewish prayer Shema Yisrael in Hebrew. He described the work as “a warning to all Jews never to forget what was done to us... and that some even approved or found it necessary.”

Though often seen as a conservative, Johannes Brahms was deeply admired by the avant-garde Schoenberg. Ein deutsches Requiem is a remarkable piece—meditative, melancholic, and free of the dramatic Last Judgment imagery of Mozart, Berlioz, or Verdi. Instead of using liturgical texts, Brahms set German psalm translations by Martin Luther.

Eighty years after World War II, Christoph Eschenbach, who fled Breslau with his grandmother, led the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic for five years. The orchestra plays in the National Forum of Music, a striking hall near the city’s castle and opera house, opened in 2015 with excellent acoustics.

Arnold Schönberg
A Survivor from Warsaw

Johannes Brahms
A German Requiem

NFM Wrocław Philharmonic
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Aleksandra Zamojska, soprano
Michael Nagy, narrator/baritone
NFM Choir

Livestream on Arte Concert: Friday, 25 April, 19:00
From the National Forum of Music, Wrocław

A production of Accentus Music in coproduction with ZDF, in cooperation with Arte.