Repertoire
Driven out by the Nazis, escaped from Europe
Franz Waxman, Miklos Rosza, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin, Ernest Bloch, Erich Zeisl...
These musicians had already attained prominence, in some cases wide renown, in Europe, such as the Viennese E.W. Korngold. Initially banned from performance by Hitler, and eventually threatened with murder, many fled to the United States, where they often had to start their careers over from scratch. Many gravitated to Los Angeles, and began working in the film industry. They had had excellent training, since their teachers included the likes of Zemlinsky, Reger or Mahler; this acquired mastery is equally evident in their film scores and their concert works.
Murdered by the Nazis
Erwin Schulhoff, Pavel Haas, Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein...
These were composers who failed to escape from Europe; they were murdered in the Nazi camps, and their music vanished with them. Their works are particularly important to our project.
Banned from performance by the Nazis
This master’s music has long since returned to the German concert stage. Nonetheless, there is a series of works which are hardly ever played here: the wonderful Sinfonias for Strings which he composed and performed as a very young composer. It is our aim to eventually present all of them in our concerts.
This composer was driven to his death by the Nazis - and is only gradually re-emerging from obscurity today. Once a celebrated composer in all the German speaking countries, his name is practically unknown to today’s audiences.
