A Toronto ensemble tours Europe with a program called Music in Exile, featuring work the Nazis labelled 'degenerate'
The 75th anniversary of Hitler's rise to power doesn't, at first glance, look like an attractive subject for commemoration with a concert series. Yet Toronto's Artists of the Royal Conservatory ensemble has found a fitting way to observe the occasion, touring in Europe with a program called "Music in Exile."
The music they're playing was all written by composers who fled Germany following the establishment of the Nazi government there in 1933. Many were Jewish, - but not all, as the Nazis proceeded to ban anything they deemed "entartete Musik" (literally, "degenerate music").
"The émigrés went everywhere - not just New York and Hollywood," remarks Simon Wynberg, artistic director of the ARC ensemble, "but also to places like Peru, Shanghai and Australia. Their experiences were the experiences of many émigrés from Nazi Germany. They left families behind, and wondered if they'd ever see them again - and often didn't. And, generally, they fell into complete obscurity."
Read entire article at Globe and Mail (Canada)
The music they're playing was all written by composers who fled Germany following the establishment of the Nazi government there in 1933. Many were Jewish, - but not all, as the Nazis proceeded to ban anything they deemed "entartete Musik" (literally, "degenerate music").
"The émigrés went everywhere - not just New York and Hollywood," remarks Simon Wynberg, artistic director of the ARC ensemble, "but also to places like Peru, Shanghai and Australia. Their experiences were the experiences of many émigrés from Nazi Germany. They left families behind, and wondered if they'd ever see them again - and often didn't. And, generally, they fell into complete obscurity."