Ecumenical Rome

On 14 October 2001, the vast Roman Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri was home to a 'Concert for Peace and for Inter-faith Dialogue', which was attended by many Cardinals and Bishops, Jewish dignitaries, members of the Italian Parliament, and Ambassadors. The featured work was the Holocaust Requiem of the Anglo-American composer Ronald Senator. This oratorio was premièred in 1986 in Canterbury Cathedral, England, under the auspices of the United Nations, the German Government, the International Council of Christians and Jews, and the B'nai Brith, and has since been performed worldwide. It was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize after its Manhattan première in 1990, recorded live by Delos at its Moscow performance in 1992, and opened the 3-day Terezin Commemoration of the liberation of the Nazi camps in 1995.

The oratorio commemorates the million and a half children who died under the Nazis. It uses liturgical texts which are common to both Christian and Jewish worship: and these frame children's poems and diaries which survived the Nazi camp Terezin. The latter are sung by children. There are also settings of poems by Paui Celan for the adult chorus, and by Nelly Sachs for the soprano solo. The many threads of this large-scale work are held together by a Narrator, and by a baritone solo who acts as a Jewish Cantor with music in that typical melismatic style, concluding with the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead, the Kaddish.

Reviewing the Delos recording, the American Record Review described this oratorio as 'superb music ... warrants comparison with Shostakovich ... just as compelling'.

Information: www.classicalmusicdaily.com/articles/s/r/ronald-senator.htm

Posted: 2 November 2001

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