UMaine’s Thwarted Voices Concert Premiers “Forgotten” Music
Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3756
ORONO — UMaine Music Prof. Phillip Silver’s annual Thwarted Voices concert Oct. 24, featuring music of Holocaust era composers, offers a diverse blend of compositions ranging from sensuously melodic to bold and powerful.
Now in its fifth season, Silver’s Thwarted Voices concert series is deeply personal for him and an opportunity to perform what is called “forgotten music” composed by Jewish musicians victimized by the Nationalist Socialist racist policies of the Holocaust in Europe. Some composers perished in Nazi concentration camps and others escaped by fleeing, in some cases to America. But much of their music has remained unperformed over the years.
The concert is at 2 p.m. at Minsky Recital Hall in the Class of 1944 Hall. Admission is $6. Traditionally, the concert has been in the winter, but Silver rescheduled it to fall because weather conditions are more accommodating.
For this year’s concert, Silver has selected music composed both before and during the Nazi period. Contrary to some perceptions, the music is varied and much of it bright and spirited, unlike the dark and melancholy images of the Holocaust, says Silver, an internationally recognized piano soloist and collaborator who continues to research the music and musicians caught up in the Holocaust.
He is motivated, he says, by the tragedy of Holocaust and the loss for half a century in some cases of “extraordinary” music that has been suppressed by history.
“I’m overwhelmed by the high quality of the music,” he says. “There really is a vast, vast amount of music that was lost for generations that is now slowly working its way back” for public enjoyment.
Silver will be joined on stage by cellist Noreen Silver, a UMaine School of Performing Arts music instructor, and Deborah Cook, an acclaimed international soprano and instructor of voice.
Aside from its historic significance, the music is generally appealing, Silver says.
“I think it’s a very varied program, but it’s also accessible,” he adds. “The music will place demands on the listener but it’s not going to turn anybody away.”
This year’s Thwarted Voices concert includes the American premiere of a suite for piano by Erich Zeisl, a powerful neo-romantic sonata for cello and piano by Karl Weigl, two Walt Whitman settings by Franz Schreker and the world premiere performance of a work by Paul Ben-Haim composed prior to his flight from Nazi Germany.
The music varies from “sensual, lush and French-oriented with a lot of impressionistic elements” (Ben-Haim) to “profound and morose” (Schreker).
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