Raphael Wallfisch: Composers in Exile

The British cellist Raphael Wallfisch, son of Holocaust survivor and cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, performs with pianist Simon Callaghan in major works by composers of diverse musical backgrounds and approaches who were caught up in the suffering and upheaval of the Second World War.

This performance marks one year since the release of documentary The Last Musician of Auschwitz, which centres on Lasker-Wallfisch’s story.

Bartók’s Rhapsody No.1, written before he emigrated to the United States, reflects the fiery, soulful folk music of his native Hungary.

Mieczysław Weinberg escaped the Holocaust in Poland, and travelled to Moscow, where he wrote prolific quantities of deeply personal music.

The Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans, whose powerful language brims with vitality, experienced internal exile in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

Influenced by jazz and Maurice Ravel, Szymon Laks wrote his Cello Sonata in 1932; later, he was incarcerated in Auschwitz and tasked with conducting the concentration camp orchestra.

Finally, Bohuslav Martinů’s Cello Sonata No.2 reveals the magic of the Czech composer’s style even as he struggled with homesickness as an immigrant to the United States.