Ravinia 2023 Issue 6

in one year. A remarkably inquisitive mind led Klein to pursue musicology courses at Charles University in the fall of 1939 and to attend Alois Hába’s lectures on quarter-tone music at the Prague Conservatory. The Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia quickly ended Klein’s promising career. The Germans closed all Czech universities on November 17, 1939. With the imposition of racial laws, they forced Jewish students (including Klein) out of the conservatory in the spring of 1940. Klein received an invitation to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London begin- ning in September 1940, but by then travel outside his homeland became impossible. Performances by Jewish musicians in the Czech lands were outlawed. Klein risked his own safety by performing in public under the pseudonym “Karel Vránek” and by offering secret recitals in private homes. Along with thousands of Prague’s Jews, Klein was summoned to the Trade Fair Pal- ace on December 1, 1941. Three days later, the Nazis transported him to the concentra- tion camp at Terezín. Klein devoted himself to the betterment of the ghetto’s artistic and educational life, developing programs for children, presenting piano and chamber music recitals, conducting large-scale per- formances (including Verdi’s Requiem), and composing new music. His compositional output at Terezín—two madrigals for mixed choir (1942 and 1943), the male chorus První hřich (Original Sin; 1942), Fantasy and Fugue for string quartet (1942– 43), a piano sonata (1943), and the String Trio (1944)—reflected a musician of impressively high quality and creativity. For years, scholars knew little of Klein’s earlier compositions and judged his “sudden” creative flourishing as one of Terezín’s “hidden triumphs.” The 1990 rediscovery of a suitcase containing Klein’s pre-Terezín compositions, which he had en- trusted to a friend, significantly altered that perspective. Those manuscripts revealed his early mastery of compositional forms and openness to diverse style influences. Klein wrote the String Trio—his last com- position—in the autumn of 1944. Its three movements are dated September 5, Septem- ber 21, and October 7. Elements of traditional Moravian folk music appear in modern garb throughout this score. The Allegro captures the exhilaration and vigor of Moravian fid- dling. Klein next offers a set of variations on the Moravian folksong “Ta kněždubská veža” (The Kněžduby Tower), which he very like- ly heard growing up in Přerov. His modern stylization of folk music resumes in the Molto vivace , an exuberant recollection of a Moravia tragically changed forever. Fearful of his own future and that of his mu- sic, Klein arranged for another prisoner—his girlfriend Irma Semtzka—to smuggle the String Trio and other musical manuscripts out of Terezín and to deliver them to Klein’s sister Eliška, should she survive Auschwitz. Nine days after completing the String Trio (October 16), Gideon Klein was transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp then immediately to its subcamp at Fürstengrube. He died on January 27, 1945, as the Red Army advanced on Fürstengrube, either murdered by SS guards during the evacuation or on the march westward. PAUL HERMANN (1902–1944) Strijktrio The historic city of Buda—the medieval capi- tal of Hungary—was the birthplace of cellist and composer Paul (Pál) Hermann. The Jew- ish presence in Buda dated back to the late Roman era and experienced a resurgence in the 11th century. A Jewish quarter took hold in the 13th century, just southwest of Buda Castle Hill. Periods of persecution and toler- ance alternated over the following centuries as Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Haps- burg regimes claimed authority over city. In the early 20th century, Jews accounted for al- most a quarter of the combined population of Budapest, with a larger percentage living in Pest than in Buda, where Hermann spent his formative years. A clever child, Hermann extorted pennies from his parents for every piano etude he practiced. It is not known exactly when his interests turned to the cello, but, by the age of 13, he had enrolled at the Ferenc Liszt Acad- emy of Music as a student of Adolf Schiffer (cello) and Leo Weiner (composition). His gifted classmates included violinist Zoltán Székely and pianist/composer Géza Frid. At age 16, when Hermann was on the cusp of an international solo career, he found himself on a tram with Zoltán Kodály, one of the Liszt Academy’s most renowned faculty. Hermann carried the manuscript of Székely’s string trio with him, and, at one stop, whistled a melody within earshot of the celebrated musician. As he exited the tram, Hermann boldly thrust Paul Hermann the score into Kodály’s hands. Surprised per- haps but not offended, Kodály later invited Székely and Hermann to his house, becoming their mentor and friend. The political environment for Hungarian Jews declined precipitously between the world wars, compelling Hermann to escape to Ber- lin, where he studied with cellist/composer Hugo Becker at the Staatliche Akademische Hochschule für Musik, taught private lessons, and continued to perform and tour widely with Székely and Frid. During stops in Lon- don, Hermann and his musical collaborators developed a close relationship with Jaap De Graaff and Louise Bachiene, a wealthy Dutch couple who patronized the arts. Following a concert at the De Graaff–Bachiene residence in 1928, Hermann reportedly began dancing vigorously with his cello, fell, and smashed the instrument into pieces. Ever the generous host, De Graaff purchased new instruments for both Székely and Hermann: a 1718 Strad- ivari violin and a Gagliano cello bearing the inscription “Ego sum anima musica” (I Am the Soul of Music). Bachiene encouraged her Dutch niece, Ada Weevers, to attend a performance by the young Hungarian musicians. An opportu- nity finally presented itself in October 1929, during Hermann and Frid’s tour of the Neth- erlands. Ada and Paul were instantly smitten with each other. The couple married in her hometown of Amersfoort on September 29, 1931, and moved to Berlin immediately after. Their daughter Cornelia (known today as the Dutch physician and politician Corrie Her- mann) was born the following August 4. The rise of national socialism in Germany forced the couple to Ada’s home in the Netherlands. In October 1933, tragedy struck during a vacation at the family’s summer house in Ouddorp, a village on the North Sea. While swimming in the ocean, Ada became trapped in a rocky channel, subsequently developed pneumonia, and died at the age of 25. The dis- traught musician left his daughter Cornelia in the care of his sister-in-law in Amersfoort. Hermann resumed his performing career, changing location frequently and some- times adopting pseudonyms amid the rising threat of Nazism: Brussels (1934–37), Paris (1937–39), and southwest France (1939–44). He wrote Cornelia and visited Amersfoort as often as possible, especially during the hol- iday season. A foreign resident of France, Hermann volunteered for service following the outbreak of war in 1939 and was tempo- rarily assigned to a military marching band. The Nazi invasion of France forced the cellist (under the assumed name “De Cotigny”) into hiding in rural southwestern France. Anxious to perform and teach again, he took an apart- ment in Toulouse and resumed his profes- sional routine. Hermann was arrested during a street raid in April 1944 and deported to the Drancy transit camp outside Paris. His name appeared on a May 15, 1944, transport list originally destined for Auschwitz. The train carrying 878 male Jewish workers—identified as Transport #73—was inexplicably rerouted to the occupied Baltic States. All but 34 pas- sengers disappeared. The survivors were relo- cated to the Stutthof concentration camp on September 1. Only 22 men returned to France the following year. Paul Hermann vanished somewhere along the way. Hermann’s small compositional catalog con- tains works for strings, piano, voice, and a recently reconstructed cello concerto. The Strijktrio dates from 1921, during his student years at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, and presumably reflects the guidance of Leo Weiner. Its music combines a highly chro- matic tonal language, equality of part-writing for the three instruments, and a traditional rondo-like structure. HANS KRÁSA (1899–1944) Tánec (Dance) Hans Krása grew up in a well-to-do family in Prague, the son of a Czech lawyer and his German Jewish wife. The Krásas fostered Hans’s musical interests, and enrolled the 6-year-old in piano lessons with Therese Wallerstein. His father purchased an Amati violin as a 10th birthday present, and Hans added violin lessons with the concertmaster of the Neues deutsches Theater. During the family’s summer vacations, Papa Krása funded performances of teenage Hans’s compositions by professional musicians from the spa orchestras. Krása eventually enrolled at the Deutsche Akademie für Musik to study composition with Alexander Zemlinsky. His Four Orches- tral Songs, op. 1—premiered under Zemlin- sky’s direction in May 1921—served as his graduation project and marked his debut as a mature composer. Following graduation, Krása became a choral rehearsal assistant to Zemlinsky at the Neues deutsches Theater. The stylistic influences on his compositions Hans Krása RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 28 – SEPTEMBER 10, 2023 42