Anne Frank's Diary
Released to commemorate National Holocaust Day in January 2013, Naxos will release the first major choral setting of The Diary of Anne Frank. Annelies, performed by soprano Arianna Zukerman, Westminster Williamson Voices, The Lincoln Trio, clarinettist Bharat Chandra and conductor James Jordon, will be on Naxos 8.573070. Written by British composer James Whitbourn (born 1963), the libretto takes the teenager's remarkable and penetrating observations, written whilst hiding in an Amsterdam attic, as the basis of this extraordinary and moving work. Whitbourn's music for this work has been described as 'woundingly beautiful' (The Daily Telegraph). He reflects sounds of the Westerkerk bells and tunes heard on the radio in the Annexe, along with representations of Anne Frank's Jewish and German heritage, details that add to a score 'whose respectful understatement is its greatest strength' (The Times). The libretto is written by Melanie Challenger, and many of the texts are taken from Anne Frank's own diary together with German poetry, passages from the Psalms, and Lamentations. The Christian text Kyrie Eleison ('Lord have mercy') is used as a 'cry of penitence from the non-Jewish community' (James Whitbourn). The work was first premiered in 2005 and was also performed at the National Holocaust Memorial event in London the same year in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II.
Information: www.naxos.com
Posted: 7 November 2012
by Naxos
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