A Survivor from Warsaw

From a dramaturgical perspective, A Survivor from Warsaw is among the great works for the concert hall, and is performed regularly as a companion piece to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and the Requiems of Mozart and Brahms. It holds its own against these larger-scale compositions through its expressive and focused statement: the narrator, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, describes unimaginable horrors as passed down from eyewitness reports. Arnold Schoenberg’s musical memorial concludes with the Jewish prayer Sch’ma Jisrael sung in unison by a male choir – a consoling affirmation in the face of despair.