Ravinia 2023 Issue 6

AYAKA SANO (BLACK OAK) continued to expand from Gustav Mahler to Igor Stravinsky to “Les Six.” Krása jour- neyed to France in 1923 for performances of his music. Three years later, Krása scored a major tri- umph with the performance of his Sympho- ny for Small Orchestra at the International Society for Contemporary Music festival in Zurich. Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra performed the Sym- phony for Small Orchestra in concert and during their weekly radio broadcast on No- vember 20, 1926. Accompanying Zemlin- sky to Berlin in 1927, Krása briefly studied orchestral composition at the conservatory before leaving school to study privately with French composer Albert Roussel. Krása completed no new compositions be- tween 1925 and 1931, but devoted time to conducting engagements and the creation of his first opera, Verlobung im Traum (Be- trothal in a Dream), based on Dostoevsky’s novel Dyadyushkin son (Uncle’s Dream). That work premiered in 1933 under con- ductor George Szell and earned Krása the Czechoslovak State Prize. Brundibár (The Bumble Bee), a children’s opera based on a libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister, followed in 1938. Krása entered Brundibár in a chil- dren’s opera composition competition, but the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia abrupt- ly ended that contest. Two performances of Brundibár took place in 1941, in defiance of a Nazi ban on Jewish music. On August 10, 1942, Krása was arrested and transported to the Nazi concentration camp at Theresienstadt (Terezín, in Czech). He immediately assumed a leading role in the camp’s artistic life as director of music for the Freizeitgestaltung (Department of Lei- sure Activities). Composition, concerts, po- etry, visual arts, and theatrical performances offered hope amid the suffering and constant fear of death at Terezín. Brundibár received 55 performances between September 1943 and October 1944. Krása also brought new works into being, including a series of string chamber compositions— Theme and Varia- tions for string quartet (reconstruction of a work written in 1935–36), T á nec for string trio (Dance; 1943–44), and Passacaglia and Fugue for string trio (1944)—and Three Songs after Rimbaud for baritone and cham- ber ensemble (1943). Violinist Karel Fröhlich, violist Romuald Süssman, and cellist Fred Mark premiered T á nec in Terezín. This episodic composi- tion emphasizes motion itself—locomotive trains, according to some descriptions— rather than specific dance types. A churning ostinato in the cello establishes a propulsive background for the vibrant, folk-inspired vi- olin melody. This rhythmic energy slackens somewhat for a more lyrical segment, only to gain momentum again in a final drive to the conclusion. The Nazis sent Krása to Auschwitz on Octo- ber 16, 1944, as part of the Künstlertransport (Artists Transport), which included com- posers Gideon Klein, Viktor Ullmann, and Pavel Haas, conductor Rafael Schaechter, and painter/writer Peter Kien. Krása per- ished two days later. GÉZA FRID (1904–1989) Trio à cordes , op. 1 Pianist and composer Géza Frid was born and raised in the Hungarian town of Mára- marosszige, now part of Romania, situated across the Tisa River from the Ukrainian town of Solotvyno. (Máramarosszige, known as Sighetu Marmației in Romanian, later was the hometown of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and the site of the Márama- rossziget Ghetto, whose entire Jewish popula- tion was deported to Auschwitz over May 17, 18, 19, and 21, 1944.) Frid displayed prodigious musical abilities, beginning piano lessons with his mother at age 4, playing music by ear, and making his recital debut at the age 7. The gifted boy entered the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest for special piano lessons two years later. Frid graduated at age 20 with degrees in piano and composition—his teachers included Béla Bartók and Zoltán Ko- dály—and immediately launched a career as concert pianist. He regularly accompanied violinist Zoltán Székely and performed for 15 years as Bartók’s piano-duo partner. Frid moved to the Netherlands in 1927 fol- lowing Székely, who had relocated a few years earlier. He soon met the singer and pianist Eijlarda (Ella) van Hall and became her accompanist. Their musical collabora- tions eventually blossomed into romance. The two married in Amsterdam in 1937 and welcomed a son, Arthur, two years later. On May 10, 1940, the German army invaded the Netherlands and occupied the country for five years. Performances soon ground to a halt: Frid gave his final public concert with Székely in early 1941. Owing to his Jewish Géza Frid heritage, Frid was required to wear a yellow Star of David throughout the war. Covert house concerts and counterfeit documents became his forms of resistance. To safeguard their half-Jewish son, Géza and Ella placed Arthur in the care of a non-Jewish family. In the face of persecution, Frid remained de- fiant, as he expressed in a 1943 poem includ- ed in his autobiography, In Tachtig Jaar de Wereld Rond (Around the World in Eighty Years; translated by Karen Luttik): Perhaps I shall survive, perhaps not, If I do, without scars? If I don’t, which dark Painful death awaits me? Eternal fear, yearning for freedom And especially for revenge, and increasingly Stronger, slowly growing Unbearable desire for vengeance: Frid did survive the war, unlike so many Jews in the Netherlands, and resumed his performing career with tours to Indonesia, Italy, Thailand, Egypt, Israel, North and South America, Turkey, Surinam and the Dutch Antilles, and Hungary. He received Dutch citizenship in 1948, contributed wide-ranging articles as music editor for the national newspaper Het Vrije Volk (The Free People; 1954–70), and taught chamber mu- sic at the Utrecht Conservatory (1964–70). Frid earned the Amsterdam Prize twice (1949 and 1954), founded the Bartók Soci- ety in 1955 and served as its first chairman, was knighted in 1974 at a 70th birthday con- cert at the Concertgebouw, and received the Béla Bartók Prize posthumously in 1990 as an “internationally renowned musician of Hungarian origin.” His compositional output was varied and prolific, both before and after the war, to- taling approximately 116 scores. Frid created the Trio à cordes —his first mature compo- sition—in 1927, the year he moved to the Netherlands. The influence of his mentors Bartók and Kodály is detectible in the folk- tinged themes, “nature” effects, and extend- ed string techniques. Later in his career, Frid was widely regarded as a leading figure of Dutch contemporary music, alongside Hen- drik Andriessen and Henk Badings. Géza Frid died tragically in 1989, in a burn clinic in Beverwijk, after negligent nursing home staff members placed him in scalding bathwater. –Program notes © 2023 Todd E. Sullivan Ravinia is proud to collaborate on this concert with JCC Chicago and Violins of Hope, a collection of violins, violas, and cellos that belonged to Jewish musicians before and during the Holocaust, painstakingly restored for cultural exhibitions, performances, and community education with a message of hope, resistance, resilience, and unity. BLACK OAK ENSEMBLE Named for the stately tree native to its home state of Illinois, the Black Oak Ensemble comprises musicians from two Grammy nominated chamber groups: the Lincoln Trio (Swiss-American violinist Desirée Ruhstrat and British-born cellist David Cunliffe) and the Spektral Quartet (French-born violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli). Rapidly establish- ing itself as a leading string trio, Black Oak Ensemble performs regularly in recital and as part of festivals around the world, recent- ly touring Europe for concerts in Amster- dam, Athens, Grenoble, Lyon, Paris, Prague, Rennes, and Yverdon. Highlights also include appearances at the Chicago Cultural Cen- ter, Art Institute of Chicago, Latino Music Festival, Mayne Stage, WFMT radio, Grand Rapids Museum of Art, Communauté Juive de Nancy, Le Festival du film Juif de Paris, Everlasting Hope festival in Theresienstadt, and L’Alhambra in Vittel, as well as a spe- cial performance in Geneva on behalf of the Mission of Hungary to the UN. Black Oak has collaborated with a variety of renowned artists, including guitarists Mak Grgić, Goran Ivanovic, Denis Azabagić, and José Ferreira, harpsichordist Jory Vinikour, members of Eighth Blackbird, and flutist Eugenia Molin- er. As passionate advocates of new work, the ensemble has commissioned and premiered string trios from renowned composers such as Michael Nyman, David Ludwig, Mischa Zupko, and Conrad Tao, and has also dis- covered and performed works by Dick Kat- tenburg, Géza Frid, Gustave Samazeuilh, Henri Tomasi, and Robert Casadesus. Black Oak has recorded two albums for Cedille Records featuring rarely heard string trios by 20th-century composers: Silenced Voices (2019) focuses on Jewish composers, most of whom lost their lives during the Holocaust, and Avant l’orage (2022) comprises French works composed between the World Wars. The trio has held residencies at Eau Claire University, Arizona State University, and Chi- cago’s New Music School, as well as Colom- bia’s “In Crescendo,” Evanston Young Artists, Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative, and Sistema Ravinia. The Black Oak Ensemble is giving its first public Ravinia Festival con- cert, having been featured in several special presentations with Reach Teach Play, among other engagements. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 43