Saved from being forgotten

Outstanding works by Karol Rathaus from the composer’s manuscripts.

About project

The main idea of this outstanding project is saving – saving the emotions of forgotten, distant and past times, saving the works… saving a man, a composer, from oblivion.

How to save from oblivion?

By performing the works of Karol Rathaus, presenting them to the audience, talking about them, telling the story of the composition, talking about the emotions experienced by the composer while writing his works. More about Karol Rathaus.

The idea behind “saved from being forgotten” is to popularize and promote the magnificiant works of the forgotten Polish-Jewish composer Karol Rathaus through concerts.

The audience will be able to experience the remarkable music of Karol Rathaus, which is a mine of emotions and contexts, a synthesis of styles and currents of the late 19th century. They will have a great opportunity to see how amazingly Karol Rathaus combined the achievements of late romanticism, expressionism, and based his creation on the 20th century compositional techniques. He referred to classical forms, but mostly to elements of jazz music.

The project presents two concerts. At each of the concerts, the performance is planned of invited special guests and the presentation of works of exceptional importance for musical art.

For the first concert, Aleksandra Hałat has invited a special guest – the mezzo-soprano Roksana Wardenga, who performs two cycles of Karol Rathaus’ songs to the words of English and American poets such as: Elizabeth J. Coatsworth, Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Parker, Edward Estoni Cummings, Thomas Stearns Eliot.

Apart from this, the pianist will perform two relevant piano trios with members of Karol Rathaus Ensemble.

The project assumes the performance of two concerts

I. Performing a concert in two variants, consisting of piano trios:

Trio Serenade Op. 69 (1953) for violin, cello and piano
Trios Op. 1953 (1944) for clarinet, violin, and piano written in the United States

and songs:

Three English Songs for voice and piano, Op. 48 (1941-43)
Five Moods After American Poets for voice and piano (1946)

Artists:

Karol Rathaus Ensemble:
Piotr Lato – clarinet,
Marcin Hałat – violin,
Marcin Mączyński – cello,
Aleksandra Hałat – piano,
Roksana Wardenga – mezzo-soprano.

II. The performance of a concert of wind instruments and piano as well as violin and piano duo consisting of the following pieces

Dedication & Allegro: Hommage à Chopin Op.64 (1949) for violin and piano
Song of the Autumn (1941) for clarinet and piano
Polka (1941) for trumpet and piano
Mazurka (1941) for clarinet and piano
Pastorale and Danse for violin and piano, Op.39 (1937)
Confused Intermezzo / Pole in Spain (1939) for clarinet, bassoon and piano
Kleine Serenade for clarinet, bassoon, French horn, trumpet and piano, Op.23 (1927)

A unique item in the concert program is a piece from 1927 which was never played on the American continent during the composer’s lifetime. Owing to this piece, the audience will be able to experience its modern sound, typical of the artists from the Neue Musik circle, which has been achieved due to the brass line-up. What is also heard here are the fashionable in Europe in the 1920s elements of jazz. The line-up is exceptionally original: clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, French horn and piano.

Artists:

Marcin Hałat – violin,
Piotr Lato – clarinet,
Paweł Cal – horn,
Piotr Nowak – trumpet,
Aleksandra Hałat – piano.

Listen

Karol Rathaus

Karol Rathaus, along with a large surge of Jewish refugees, left Germany in search for a place to work, stopping in Paris (1932–33) and London (1934–38), before finally settling in the United States (1938–1954). On the other side of the ocean, he made his name primarily in the American academic world, as a professor of composition at the Faculty of Music at Queens College in New York (now City University of New York) – hence his creative work is sometimes divided into the European period and American one, in which he devoted himself primarily to didactic work and found his second homeland in the USA.

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