Morawetz composition 'a most moving work'
At the Toronto Symphony concert, between the great Leonora Overture No.3 by Beethoven and the First Symphony by Mahler, we were treated to a small gem -
From the Diary of Anne Frank, a composition for soprano and orchestra
by Oscar Morawetz. Lois Marshall was the guest soloist, as she was at the premiere of the work two years ago.
The composer has taken as his text the passage in the diary in which Anne recounts a vision of her old school friend, Lies, who had already been taken by the Nazis. She prays for her safety and is weighed
down
by the guilt of apparently being chosen to live while her friend would probably die: "0, God, why should I have all that I could wish for and why should she be seized by such terrible fate? I am not more virtuous than she. . . why should I be chosen to live and she probably to
die?" The dramatic irony is
heartbreaking, for Lies survived and now lives in Jerusalem.
It is a most moving work and a difficult one at first hearing; not difficult in the sense of being hard to listen to, as some contemporary music
is, but rather difficult to comprehend in one performance. The work demands the listener's whole
attention to all the facets of solo and orchestration, but the strong vocal line is so
compelling and absorbing that I found myself listening to the voice and not really
hearing the totality of the solo and the powerful, often dissonant, orchestral
score.
There are no frills in this music. The text is stark and tragic and the music evokes that mood from the beginning. There are some fine climactic moments and the music is tense and dramatic; yet the work ends on a quiet, peaceful note as the soloist repeats the closing line,
"And when I pray for her, I pray for all the Jews and all those in need." Miss Marshall was in magnificent voice and practically every word came clearly through the orchestral accompaniment. She was obviously caught up
in the emotion of the text and gave a most moving performance of a very demanding part.
We are told that the composer had the diary on his shelf for 10 years before he could bring himself
to read it. If the quality and sensitivity of the piece owe
anything to that delay, I, for
one, am grateful to him for waiting.
