ARTIST(S)	Judith Sheridan (sop) Craig Combs (pno)
COMPOSER(S)	Various
TITLE	Forbidden Voices Songs by Jewish Composers, banned by the Nazis
CATALOGUE NUMBER	DDA25044
RELEASE DATE	12th February 2007
PRICE POINT	Full Price Single CD
AVAILABLE FROM	www.divine-art.com

 

 

 

Track Listing:

 

Franz Schreker: Acht Lieder; Berthold Goldschmidt: Three Songs; Viktor Ullmann: Fünf Liebeslieder nach texten von Ricarda Hugh op.26; Erwin Schulhoff: Fünf Gesänge; Erich Korngold: Unvergänglichkeit; Pavel Haas: Seven Songs in Folk Style

 

Repertoire/Product Information:

 

The repertoire in this recording features composers whose work was banned under the Nazi regime – some were committed to their Jewish roots, others completely unaware of their Jewish antecedents. In consequence, the songs on the CD are not particularly Jewish in style or content, but are rather more reflective of the nature of Germanic classical song in this period.

 

Judith Sheridan has a personal connection to the period. Her father was one of the last Jewish students to study at Hamburg University before the Nazi occupation forced him to flee. There are no biographies of these composers because they were banned and their music was withdrawn, and a lot of music was burned. "Because of the war, people had other concerns in rebuilding their lives and rebuilding Europe. They just literally sank from people's consciousness," says Judith Sheridan. In the early 1980's, while studying at the Opera Studio in Hamburg, Germany, she stumbled upon the music of composers such as Franz Schreker, Berthold Goldschmidt, Erwin Schulhoff and Pavel Haas.
Sheridan has since devoted years to researching the work of a generation of Jewish composers who were banned from Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and intends to revive their music and tell their stories in a series of international performances.

 

 The booklet contains an essay by Judith Sheridan entitled “Music in captivity: Race, Identity and Culture in the Third Reich” which gives a fascinating insight into the period. Also contained in the booklet are biographical details of the featured composers, together with the song texts with English translation.