The 20th century brought musical innovation, but also war, oppression, and social strife. In The Last Century on Wednesday August 13 at 19;00 CET, 4 works will feature in which composers resist violence and injustice.
The programme starts with Coming Together by Frederic Rzewski, a poignant piece inspired by the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971. This will be followed by Arnold Schönberg’s poignant A Survivor from Warsaw, in which a survivor testifies to the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto.
Then there is music by Hans Werner Henze: four songs from his monumental Voices, based on texts by Ho Chi Minh and Bertolt Brecht, among others. The programme closes with excerpts from Kurt Weill’s Berliner Requiem, in which Brecht’s sharp poetry is combined with music that balances between lightness and bitterness.
Compiled by: Heleen de Groot
Click here for the playlist.
