''Terezín – Theresienstadt'' is a 2007 recital album by

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...

Anne Sofie von Otter Anne Sofie von Otter (born 9 May 1955) is a Swedish mezzo-soprano. Her repertoire encompasses lieder, operas, oratorios and also rock and pop songs. Early life Von Otter was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Her father was Göran von Otter, a Swedi ...

, her regular pianist Bengt Forsberg and guests. Von Otter is accompanied by baritone

Christian Gerhaher Christian Gerhaher (born 24 July 1969, in Straubing) is a German baritone and bass singer in opera and concert, particularly known as a Lieder singer. Career Christian Gerhaher studied with Paul Kuën and Raimund Grumbach at the Hochschule ...

in some of the songs and Daniel Hope concludes the disc with

Erwin Schulhoff Erwin Schulhoff (; 8 June 189418 August 1942) was an Austro-Czech composer and pianist. He was one of the figures in the generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime in Germ ...

sonata In music a sonata (; pl. ''sonate'') literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cantare'', "to sing"), a piece ''sung''. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until th ...

for solo violin.

Overview

The album starts with

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

songs by Ilse Weber, Karel Švenk and

Martin Roman Martin Roman (23 April 1910 – 12 May 1996) was a German Jewish jazz pianist and Holocaust survivor. At the time of the Reichstag fire in February 1933, Martin was stopped by SS men at the entrance to the huge Vaterland emporium in Berlin, where ...

(one of the very few who survived the camps), as well as classical composers Hans Krása,

Viktor Ullmann Viktor Ullmann (1 January 1898 – 18 October 1944) was a Silesia-born Austrian composer, conductor and pianist. Biography Viktor Ullmann was born on 1 January 1898 in Cieszyn (Teschen), which belonged then to Austrian Silesia in the Austro- ...

Pavel Haas Pavel Haas (21 June 189917 October 1944) was a Czech composer who was murdered during the Holocaust. He was an exponent of Leoš Janáček's school of composition, and also utilized elements of folk music and jazz. Although his output was not l ...

, and

.2007 International Record Review – Volume 8, issue 1 – p. 75 "Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo); Christian Gerhaher (baritone); Hausmann (clarinet); Daniel Hope (violin) ... Theresienstadt or Terezin was the concentration camp some kilometres from Prague to which the Nazis deported the Jewish community of that ... Anne Sofie von Otter has the pianist Bengt Forsberg for the lullabv Wiegala and its hint of Schubert is almost unendurable."

References

2007 classical albums Anne Sofie von Otter albums Classical music about the Holocaust {{classical-album-stub