Brücken gegen das Vergessen - Konzert mit Sinfonietta VivazzA

In the organizer's words:

Under the title "Bridges to Terezín - Memory in Music", the chamber music ensemble VivazzA presents a special program focusing on works by composers whose lives and work were shaped by persecution, exile or resistance. The selected pieces build bridges between past and present, between North Rhine-Westphalia and Theresienstadt/Terezín, as well as between the voices of imprisoned composers and today's listeners.

The program includes Rudolf Karel's Nonet, composed in prison in 1945, Jan van Gilse's Nonet from 1916, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Hebrides Overture and excerpts from Verdi's Messa da Requiem, which was performed sixteen times in the Terezín ghetto as an act of resistance. Rafael Schächter, who conducted the Requiem performances, once said: "We will sing to the Nazis what we cannot tell them."

The concert sees itself as a living form of remembrance. It allows music that was created or performed under conditions of persecution and violence to be heard again - freely, audibly and in awareness of its historical significance. VivazzA thus sets a musical example of remembrance, responsibility and the power of art to connect past and present.

One week earlier, the ensemble will perform this program at the National Commemoration Ceremony in Terezín - in the presence of the President of the Czech Republic and representatives from Germany.

A cooperation between the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Haus Foundation, Ensemble VivazzA e.V. and the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Düsseldorf.