Lahav Shani & Friends

Frauenkirche Dresden

For his second Festival concert, Lahav Shani moves from the conductor’s podium to the piano. Together with members of the Munich Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, he presents a unique evening of intimate chamber music. The program is dedicated to artists who were persecuted and found a refuge in music, or whose works were banned for ideological reasons – and where could this find a more appropriate place than the crypt of the Frauenkirche, itself a symbol of peace and tolerance! The pianist and composer Ilse Fromm-Michaels was silenced due to her husband’s Jewish family background. In her »Musica larga« of 1944, her voice is heard in a moving Adagio. At the Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto, the Austrian composer Viktor Ullmann composed his String Quartet No. 3, shot through with sad beauty. And Dmitri Shostakovich’s only Piano Quintet tells of the inner struggle between persecution and conformism, written four years after the devastating article in »Pravda« which would change the composer’s life forever.

 Lahav Shani & Friends

Hope and resistance in the midst of darkness. With this joint concert, members of the Munich Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra commemorate all artists who found refuge in their art in the threatening presence of oppression and persecution or who were not allowed to perform for ideological reasons. For example, the renowned pianist Ilse Fromm-Michaels, who performed with conductors such as Otto Klemperer, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arthur Nikisch, was banned from performing because her husband was of Jewish descent. The National Socialists took a similar approach with the works of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, which were removed from all concert programs. The Austrian composer Viktor Ullmann was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942. There he wrote his one-movement third string quartet, a work that is deeply moving in its desperate beauty. The G minor piano quintet by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in 1940 and reflects the oppressive atmosphere of that time. It is a broken music full of suppressed emotions that leads through the depths of human nature. An intense and captivating listening experience.

Ilse Fromm-Michaels

Events

Past events

9 - 10 May, 2025

Lahav Shani & Friends · Munich Philharmonic

May 9, 2025

Lahav Shani & Friends · Dresdner Musikfestspiele

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