Viktor Ullmann

Composer of the Week marks 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz with a series commemorating some of the musical voices that were silenced by the atrocities of the Second World War. Across the week, Donald Macleod focuses on the penultimate destination of these musicians, the concentration camp at Terezin, and the incredible story of creative resistance in the face of unthinkable adversity and persecution which unfolded there.

Today, we meet Viktor Ullmann, who grew up in the Viennese milieu of Mahler and Schoenberg, and was said to have been “walking in their tracks”. Alongside an acclaimed composing career, he worked for spells as a bookshop owner and music critic. Once at Terezin, he ran the New Music Society and – although he didn’t know it at the time – he risked his life for one of the most powerful and overt musical allegories to come out of the camp – his opera The Emperor of Atlantis.

Sha shtil
Counterpoint
Robert de Cormier, conductor

Piano Sonata No 7 (i. Allegro)
Jeanne Golan, piano

6 Lieder, Op 17 (1. Am Himmelfahrt; 5. Wie ist die Nacht)
Christine Schafer, soprano
Axel Bauni, piano

Piano Concerto, Op 25 (i. Allegro con fuoco; ii. Andante tranquillo)
Annika Treutler, piano
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Stephan Frucht, conductor

String Quartet No 3, Op 46
Dover Quartet

Der Kaiser von Atlantis (final movements
Adrian Eröd, baritone
Juliana Zara, soprano
Christel Loetzsch, mezzo-soprano
Johannes Chum, tenor
Lars Woldt, bass
Munich Radio Orchestra
Patrick Hahn, conductor

Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio Wales and West