Perhaps some year a gala honoring the artists and musicians who  suffered at the Terezin propaganda factory/camp/ghetto will not feel raw  and immediate. Sad to say, much of the world continues to  treat fellow beings as less than human. The Terezin Music Foundation’s  program “Liberation” at Symphony Hall kept alive the memory of the  artists who passed through this “model camp” and reminded us of what is  lost when lives are cut short. Sunday’s program also marked  the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of  the approximately 42,000 concentration camps throughout Europe and was  dedicated to the memory of one of TMF’s staunchest advocates, survivor  Anna Ornstein. TMF Director Mark Ludwig provided the essential narrative  descriptions of the works performed in her honor.

Linda Bussgang  and pianist Victor Cayres opened with three beautiful Yiddish protest  songs from World War II. Bussgang’s gorgeous voice was particularly  effective on the third song as she embodied a child singing about  fighting for freedom. Erwin Schullhoff, a Czech  composer of Jewish descent, was well known in his lifetime, but his  works have faded from prominence since his death in a German jail in  1942. His music had been labelled as degenerate, and he was forced until  the time of his arrest, to make a scant living as a radio pianist or  under an assumed name. His musical influences included the French  impressionists, ragtime, jazz, and Dadist absurdity. All of these were  on display in his Hot-Sonate: Jazz for Alto Saxophone and Piano  (1930). Movement 1 was a chatty cafe waltz, optimistic and busy in the  style of American in Paris. Movements 2 and 3 expressed some of the  sinuous blues influences reminiscent of Rhapsody in Blue. The  final movement had a relentless urgency, with harmonic minor,  Klezmer-influenced wild melodies, surrounding a more pastoral and  ruminative central section. Saxophonist Philipp Stäudlin and pianist  Yoko Hagino collaborated in a polished performance.

A Sonata for solo piano by Gideon Klein (Terezin, 1943) and Beeethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 31, Op. 110 in A-flat  Major (1797) closed the concert. Beth Levin is a pianist of rare gifts.  Her ability to tease melody from a thick fabric of sound is phenomenal;  we witnessed some of the finest imaginable voice leading and musical  dialogue among her ten fingers. Gideon Klein wrote his sonata while  imprisoned at Terezin. The letters he sent home to his family begged  them to remember him despite his probably certain knowledge of his  ultimate fate, perishing in Auschwitz’s work camp. This work alone would  make that plea a necessary imperative.

In Levin’s hands, the first movement’s atonal and angular melodic  lines seemed connected and tonal. She clarified how the “atonality” of  the Second Viennese school composers logically extended the late German  Romantic composers. The second movement was a misty and inward-looking  reverie, while the third was more of a Devil’s dance with relentless  trills. The final movement, filled with rage and a final clanging  tritone like an ambulance, stood out for its emotionally, conveying a  real reflection of what Klein must have felt and seen. Klein had  performed the Beethoven sonata before his internment, though, due to the  Nuremberg Racial Laws, he had to work under the name Karol Bronek. It  is always disturbing to think that the same culture that gave rise to  Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms, also brought forth the horrors of the  Holocaust. How our paths can lead to inhumanity should never be  forgotten.

Levin gave a very personal and eye-opening  interpretation. The first movement sounded gentle and sweet, with clear  voice leading. Rather than the bombastic robustness of some  performances, it rather conveyed a thoughtful intelligence that made  Beethoven’s stark contrasts all the grander. The smooth and melodic  second movement again came across with superb voice leading. The solemn  Adagio melted into the fugal passages like incense smoke rising to the  roof of a great cathedral, caught in color and light, building in  intensity. After the return of the Adagio, the energy and power of the  second fugue showed the logic in the quieter moments of the opening. The  sound of the piano filled Symphony Hall triumphantly.

Overall, a worthy evening celebrating an always-important cause.

Ed. Note: Indeed, the author erred in citing a Schubert sonata instead of the Beethoven op. 110. Now corrected.

Elisa  Birdseye, executive director of the Boston Chamber Ensemble, is an  active freelance violist and principal violist of the New Bedford  Symphony. Additionally, she has worked as the general manager of the New  England Philharmonic and Boston Musica Viva.