For the first time, as part of the annual “Holocaust Remembrance Week” in the White Hall of the Pushkin Museum will host a musical evening of the program “MEMENTO!” – the first joint initiative of the Russian Jewish Congress and the Pushkin Museum.

The basis of the program is music created both on the basis of traditional Jewish motifs and under the influence of the tragedy of the Holocaust. “MEMENTO!” – this call to “remember” in Latin is understandable to everyone, just as the language of music does not require translation.

The concert evening on January 25 will bring together composers Maurice Ravel, Leo Smit, Henriette Bosmans, Julius Hijman and outstanding contemporary performers: Maria Fedotova (flute), Zoya Tsererina (soprano), Roman Martynov (piano), Alisa Ten (vocals) and Yulia Broido (piano and program curator).

They will perform works written during the Holocaust, most of which have only recently been revealed to the general public. Sheet music provided by Donemus as part of the Forbidden Music Regained project.

The Sonata for Flute and Piano was the last work that Dutch composer Leo Smit completed before he was deported to the Westerbork transit camp. That same year, Smit died in Sobibor along with his wife. The deep, aching slow middle movement of the sonata is like a memento mori in memory of all the victims of the Holocaust. Today this composition is included in the repertoire of the most outstanding performers.

Smit’s compatriot Henriette Bosmans survived the occupation while hiding in a shelter, and became one of the main musical discoveries of recent years: her music is increasingly heard and published. Julius Hijman chose a different fate: in 1939 he and his family managed to emigrate to New York. He is the author of more than a hundred works that are being rediscovered today. The program will open with two Jewish melodies by Maurice Ravel, written back in 1914. Ravel did not live to see the Holocaust, but his work was still banned in the Third Reich. His Kaddish is one of the most poignant Jewish works written by a non-Jew.