38 April 11 • 2019
jn
continued from page 36
Students from MSU’
s University Chorale and State Singers will perform at the concert.
arts&life
during the time he lived, still could
see beyond his own ideas, and he
happened to like Jewish folk music,”
she says. “The melodies were so jolly
yet a story being told may not be
happy. He studied this, came across
the Babi Yar tragedy and worked
with the poet.”
Michael Serling explains there was
a great deal of censorship in the post-
war Soviet Union, so Shostakovich
had to show strength in completing
the symphony.
“He didn’
t want to compromise
it,” Serling says. “The way I under-
stand the piece, it’
s very defiant of
anti-Semitism in the world. He’
s
trying to make a statement about
how horrible anti-Semitism is,
and it’
s very timely. We’
ve not seen
anti-Semitism unfolding as it is in
a long time. We hope that the piece
will stand against bigotry, racism and
anti-Semitism.”
Simon will cover the history of the
massacres at Babi Yar in the broader
history of the Holocaust and also the
contextual history of “I Never Saw
Another Butterfly,” discussing why
the place and time of the children’
s
poems were so critical in the overall
history of the Holocaust.
“I’
d like people to come away
with not just the knowledge but the
feeling of the gravity and enormity
of what happened to Jews in the
moment and more widely during the
Holocaust and what was lost,” Simon
explains. “The second piece, about
Theresienstadt and young kids who
were writing poetry and were enor-
mously talented, [points out] what
was lost in terms of numbers and
individual potential.”
Bartig will give his perspective as
context for listening to the pieces.
“The Shostakovich work is com-
plex, and it has a very interesting
history — both in Soviet history
and Shostakovich’
s personal history,”
Bartig says. “We’
ll try to place this
program both in commemoration of
culture and Soviet history.
“I’
ll be placing the symphony in
Shostakovich’
s own career — how
he came to write it, how he came to
collaborate with Yevtushenko and the
circumstances of its premiere in 1962.
“I’
d like audiences to experience
what a powerful medium music can
be for commemoration. The whole
program is about different aspects of
commemoration.” ■
details
The first presentation of “Shostakovich Babi Yar: Remembering the Holocaust”
will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 27, at the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts
in East Lansing. $16-$18. 1-800 -WHARTON. whartoncenter.com. The second
will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 28, at Orchestra Hall in Detroit. $18.
(313) 576-5111. dso.org.
Guest baritone soloist Mark Rucker
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