Viktor Ullmann

The composer Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) is representative of many musicians and composers, most of them with Jewish roots, who lost their lives in the Nazis' extermination camps. To mark this 75th liberation anniversary, the pianist Annika Treutler has devoted her new release to proscribed music. To musicians and composers like Viktor Ullmann, Bohuslav Martinu, Pavel Haas and many more: none of whom ever had the opportunity to fully develop their creativity because they were barred from pursuing their artistic careers in freedom.

The composer Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) is representative of many musicians and composers, most of them with Jewish roots, who lost their lives in the Nazis' extermination camps. To mark this 75th liberation anniversary, the pianist Annika Treutler has devoted her new release to proscribed music. To musicians and composers like Viktor Ullmann, Bohuslav Martinu, Pavel Haas and many more: none of whom ever had the opportunity to fully develop their creativity because they were barred from pursuing their artistic careers in freedom.

The composer Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) is representative of many musicians and composers, most of them with Jewish roots, who lost their lives in the Nazis' extermination camps. To mark this 75th liberation anniversary, the pianist Annika Treutler has devoted her new release to proscribed music. To musicians and composers like Viktor Ullmann, Bohuslav Martinu, Pavel Haas and many more: none of whom ever had the opportunity to fully develop their creativity because they were barred from pursuing their artistic careers in freedom.

The first fully-staged productions of the LA Opera House groundbreaking Recovered Voices project, highlighting the works of composers affected by the Holocaust. A double bill of one-act operas: Viktor Ullmann's Der zerbrochene Krug, taken from a comedy by the Romantic German poet Heinrich von Kleist, and Alexander Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg, based on Oscar Wilde's powerful tragedy The Birthday of the Infanta. The music of Alexander Zemlinsky and Viktor Ullmann remained buried for decades in the wake of the destruction wrought by the policies of the Nazi regime. Dozens of composers and thousands of compositions are still largely unknown to musicians and lovers of classical music and opera.

Award-winning baritone Äneas Humm and his pianist Renate Rohlfing present equally flawless and distinctive performances on their album “Embrace”, encompassing songs by Franz Liszt, Edvard Grieg, Viktor Ullmann and Fanny Hensel. This selection of rarities from the art song repertoire draws together the different circumstances of four composers under the banner of a cohesive concept. Franz Liszt’s search for simplicity, Edvard Grieg’s desire for recognition beyond any reduction to nationalist stereotypes, Viktor Ullmann’s acts of composing against death and suffering at the concentration camp at Auschwitz, and Fanny Hensel’s emancipation from her brother Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: “Embrace” encompasses all these stories, recounting situations of hope, fear, love and heartache.