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Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra Presents: Pieces de Resistance: Music Celebrating the Polish Spirit

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Over the past five years the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra has performed in Lower Manhattans most inspiring performing spaces
Over the past five years the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra has performed in Lower Manhattans most inspiring performing spaces
On Sunday, May 18, at 2:30 p.m., the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust welcomes the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra for a powerful musical event — Pièces de Résistance: Music Celebrating the Polish Spirit, inspired by the Museum’s new exhibit, A Town Known As Auschwitz: The Life and Death of a Jewish Community, which opens to the public on May 16.

The concert, which is conducted by Gary S. Fagin and features violinist Shir Victoria Levy, will include a haunting violin concerto by Karl Szymanawski; a waltz by Władysław Szpilman, subject of the award-winning film The Pianist; a composition for string orchestra by film composer Wojciech Kilar; and other works by Chopin and Dvořák that pay tribute to the musical landscape of pre-war Polish-Jewish life.

Gary S. Fagin, the KCO’s music director and conductor, says, “As the son of a Holocaust survivor from Radomsko, Poland, about 40 kilometers from Oświęcim (Auschwitz), this concert is personally very meaningful to me. I am drawn to the music of Poland and particularly to the Jewish musicians who grew up in Poland prior to World War II. I hope the audience is as moved by the spirit of these exceptional musicians who either emigrated from Poland prior to World War II or escaped the Holocaust. Many achieved greatness as performers, composers and teachers, and were among the pre-eminent interpreters of Polish composers such as Chopin and Szymanowski.”

See below for the full program.

Tickets are $18, $15 for students and seniors, and $12 members. Tickets are available online at www.mjhnyc.org or by calling the Museum box office at 646.437.4202.

This program has been made possible through generous support of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany: Rabbi Israel Miller Fund for Shoah Research, Documentation and Education. The Museum’s public programs are made possible through a generous gift from Mrs. Lily Safra.

About the Performers

The Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra (KCO), led by music director Gary Fagin, is a classical music ensemble launched in 2009. The mission of the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra (KCO) is to enrich, inspire, and educate Downtown’s diverse communities by bringing outstanding orchestral and chamber music performances and educational programs to the neighborhood. The KCO strives to present innovative performances and educational programming through collaboration with acclaimed soloists, choral, dance, and literary organizations.

Shir Victoria Levy was the youngest musician ever to win the Kaufman Center Concerto Competition. Other awards include winning the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Competition and American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition. She has performed nationally and internationally at Merkin Concert Hall, Steinway Hall, New Jersey PAC, Tel-Aviv Opera House, and Carnegie Hall. She is studying at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

About the Program

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849): Polonaise, Op. 40, No. 1 (1838)

During the September 1939 German invasion of Poland, Polskie Radio broadcast Op. 40 No. 1 daily in protest.

Frederic Chopin: Nocturne in C sharp minor (Lento con gran espressione), Op. Posth.

Władysław Szpilman, subject of the 2002 film, The Pianist, started playing for Polish Radio in 1935 as their house pianist. On September 23, 1939, Szpilman was in the middle of broadcasting Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor when German fire opened on the studio and he was forced to stop playing. This was the last live music broadcast that was heard until the war’s end. When Szpilman resumed his job at Polish Radio in 1945, he did so by carrying on where he left off six years before, poignantly opening the first transmission by once again playing the same Chopin Nocturne. The piece was also famously played by Holocaust survivor Natalia Karp for the Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Goeth. Goeth was so impressed with the rendition that he spared Karp’s life.

Władysław Szpilman (1911-2000): Waltz in the Olden Style (1937)

Even when living in the Warsaw Ghetto, Szpilman never gave up the will to write music, including orchestral works, concertos, piano pieces, and music for radio and films, as well as more than 500 songs. This piece exemplifies an optimistic, pre-World War II sensibility.

Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904): Allegretto grazioso from Suite for Orchestra, Op. 39 (1879)

Dvořák was heavily influenced by the music of his native Bohemia and of Poland, which shares a border with Bohemia. He borrowed liberally from the folk music of his region. This Allegretto grazioso polka, the second of five movements of his Czech Suite, exudes none of the raucousness that is often associated with polkas (an indigenous Polish dance form), but, rather, exudes a gentle wistfulness.

Wojciech Kilar (1932-2013): Orawa for Chamber String Orchestra (1988)

Wojciech Kilar was a Polish classical and film music composer, who, in 2003, won the César Award for Best Film Music for The Pianist. He resided in Katowice, Poland, 5 miles from Oświęcim (Auschwitz).

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937): Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 35 (1916)

Shir Victoria Levy, soloist

Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 35, is considered one of the first modern violin concertos to expand significantly traditional tonality and romantic aesthetics. It was written in 1916. The likely inspiration for the concerto was Noc Majowa, a poem by the Polish poet Tadeusz Miciński. The Violin Concerto No. 1 was premiered November 1, 1922 in Warsaw.

About the Exhibition

A Town Known as Auschwitz: The Life and Death of a Jewish Community

Opens May 16, 2014

Discover the rich history of Oświęcim, Poland — the town the Germans called Auschwitz — through photographs that trace the life of the town and its Jewish residents, from the 16th century through the post-war period.

This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany: Rabbi Israel Miller Fund for Shoah Research, Documentation and Education; The David Berg Foundation; Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation; Trust for Mutual Understanding; and the Nartel Family Foundation.

 

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