Interbellum. On the 80th anniversary of the end of the war

Beauty that didn’t save the world 

Interbellum — in this name, which denotes a specific historical period between the two wars, different roots can be heard: bella — beauty, bell — bell (“Ask not for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for thee”), bellum — the war itself, inter — between, international…

Beauties of the interwar period, the beauty that did not save the world – this is what the Interbellum project is about. And it is dedicated to the heroines of their time, the stars of Paris and Moscow, Leningrad and Berlin, Prague and Amsterdam.

Rosy Wertheim (1888–1949) was one of the first female composers in the Netherlands to receive a professional musical education and achieve international recognition. In addition to music, she was actively involved in social activities. She lived for quite a long time in Paris, and for some time in Vienna and New York; her home was an important meeting place for artists and musicians. Her works were performed both in the Netherlands and abroad, and Rosy herself worked as a correspondent for several newspapers and magazines. The Second World War found her in Holland – she spent the entire war in a shelter, just like her famous compatriot Anne Frank, and died of cancer shortly after the Liberation. She left behind a rich musical legacy – about eighty compositions.

Another part of the program will be works by our contemporaries – the recently deceased Sofia Gubaidulina and Kaija Saariaho and the currently living Calliope Tsoupaki, a Dutch composer of Greek origin.

Before the start – a screening of a short documentary by Patricia Werner Leanse about Rosy Wertheim (12 minutes, BubbleEyes).

Program:

Rosy Wertheim – Trio for flute, clarinet and bassoon

Calliope Tsoupaki – Thin Air

Kaija Saariaho – Duft

Sofia Gubaidulina. “The Garden of Joy and Sorrow” for flute, viola and harp

INTERBELLUM

Interbellum is part of the Forbidden Music Regained project, events within the framework of which have already taken place at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, the Nizhny Novgorod Arsenal, the Memorial Synagogue and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.