The Defiant Requiem Foundation is honored to host the world premiere of they burn, the fires of the night: lamentations from the ashes, from the book Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen by Menachem Z. Rosensaft, and set to music by composer Gerald Cohen. Mr. Rosensaft’s deeply moving and emotionally powerful collection of original poems reflect the generational trauma he experiences as the son of Auschwitz survivors and the brother of a murdered younger brother. Born in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp after the war, Mr. Rosensaft searches for meaning in his poems and asks “Whom should I forgive? Why should I forgive? How can I forgive?” The plight of children during the Holocaust is a particular focus of Menachem’s poems. The song cycle will include: “Mommy are we going to live or die?”; Psalm 23 at Auschwitz; A Refusal to Forgive the Death, by Gas, of a Child in Birkenau; Knit Doll at Bergen-Belsen; Ne’ilah; The Second Generation; blessed Is the soul; and they burn, the fires of the night.
Following the performance, there will be a discussion with the poet and composer, moderated by Murry Sidlin, President and Artistic Director of The Defiant Requiem Foundation. There is no fee to attend but reservations are required. The performance will also be live-streamed, with reservation at the same link.
Learn more here.
Reserve your free ticket here.
Post-performance discussion with composer Gerald Cohen and poet Menachem Rosensaft led by Murry Sidlin, President and Artistic Director of The Defiant Requiem Foundation
PROGRAM
World premiere:
Gerald Cohen: they burn, the fires of the night:
lamentations from the ashes
Viktor Ullmann: Variations and Fugue on a Hebrew Folksong
from Piano Sonata No. 7
James Simon: Arioso for Unaccompanied Cello
Robert Dauber: Serenade for Violin and Piano
Olivier Messiaen: The Abyss of the Bird
Praise to The Eternity of Jesus
from Quartet for the End of Time
PERFORMERS
Herbert Greenberg, Violin
Jon Manasse, Clarinet
Julian Schwarz, Cello
Marika Bournaki, Piano
Leah Wool, Mezzo Soprano
David Kravitz, Baritone