Concert review: Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, RIAS Chamber Choir/Vladimir Jurowski

The Violins of Hope have often been featured in The Strad’s pages: once owned by victims of the Holocaust, they were collected and lovingly restored by the late Israeli luthier Amnon Weinstein and his son Avshalom.

On this, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, they were played by members of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in a specially commissioned work by Berthold Tuercke, evocatively titled Aus Geigen Stimmen (roughly: ‘Voices from Violins’). In it 53 violins, a viola and a cello came successively to the fore, individually and in groups, while a chorus told their owners’ stories in English and Yiddish.

The musicians’ emotion at being able to play on these instruments was palpable: each of the short solos came from the heart. Poignantly illustrating each violin’s story, they were variously reminiscent of Klezmer or Romany bands, or of synagogal chant. Tuercke’s 50-minute piece was framed by choral passages, their unconventional intervals fearlessly intoned by the RIAS Chamber Choir.

The other two pieces on the programme were the Partita for Strings (originally a string trio) by Gideon Klein, who perished in Auschwitz on the very day of its liberation, and Mieczysław Weinberg’s Fifth String Quartet, in a sophisticated, idiomatic arrangement for string orchestra by Vladimir Jurowski and Steffen Georgi. Performed by a full complement of strings under Jurowski’s fiery leadership, both pieces packed a tremendous punch. This was not a concert to be reviewed in the conventional sense: I left the hall feeling thankful for having been a part of it.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE