2023 Warsaw The Nationa Theater, 19.04.2023 LIVE
On Wednesday, 19 April 2023, on the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a concert organised by the Warsaw Ghetto Museum was broadcast from the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw. Performers included the Polish-Israeli Youth Orchestra from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance under the baton of Anna Sulkowska-Migoń, the Polish National Youth Choir and tenor Pavlo Tolstoy.
In addition to sending a symbolic message and paying tribute to both Jewish and Polish victims of Nazi terror, the event highlighted the importance of Polish-Jewish relations based on mutual respect for shared centuries-old tradition and historical truth. The concert also became a unique meeting of young musicians aiming to create new relations between the next generation of Poles and Jews.
The concert programme included:
The premiere performance of the composition „Tenebrae” by Elżbieta Sikora
The composition „Tenebrae” was commissioned by the Warsaw Ghetto Museum from the world-renowned composer Elżbieta Sikora especially for the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It is dedicated to the heroes of the uprising. It was composed for orchestra, choir and two solo voices. It uses, among others, two texts by Paul Celan: 'Tenebrae’ and 'Stehen’. Texts by witnesses of the Majdanek death camp also appear. „Tenebrae” is a continuation of Elisabeth Sikora’s explorations related to the composition of the „Sixth Commandment”.
Symphony No. 8 op. 83 „Polish Flowers” by Mieczyslaw Weinberg
An internationally and nationally recognised work of music, an expression of longing for a lost homeland. Its creators are Polish artists of Jewish origin – the composer Mieczysław Weinberg, who used Julian Tuwim’s poem „Polish Flowers” as the text of the symphony. In Symphony No. 8 'Polish Flowers’, Weinberg alludes to the works of Fryderyk Chopin and to Tuwim’s poetry, paying tribute to the Jewish citizens of Poland who were exterminated during the Holocaust.
