World War II Classical

[Grazioso]

Do you know of any classical pieces closely associated with events of World War II, i.e., not necessarily written during that time frame, but somehow tied to occurrences, people, etc.?

A few I can think of:

Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony, finished within the besieged city and used for propaganda purposes there and in the West (and famously mocked in Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra). His 13th symphony laments the Babi Yar massacre.

Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps is probably the most famous piece composed in a POW or concentration camp during the war. It was premiered in Stalag VIII A.

On the 10th anniversary of Hitler's accession to power, Goering's radio address praising the encircled 6th Army at Stalingrad ended with Bruckner's 5th. The adagio of Bruckner's 7th was aired in preparation for the German radio announcement of Hitler's death.

Strauss's Metamorphosen was written partly in response the destruction of German cultural monuments.

Frankel's violin concerto was dedicated to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

The opening motif of Beethoven's 5th symphony was used in the "V for Victory" propaganda campaign in the West. (Its rhythm is Morse code for "V".)

[Opus106]

Much of Wagner's "music dramas" and Pendericki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960), although (as per the All-Knowing One) the piece was not written with the victims in mind.

[Bogey]

I started this one going a bit back, not sure if any of it connects with what you are seeking:

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,12872.msg315504.html#msg315504

[Szykneij]

I happened to be listening to Honegger's Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra this morning, which was written in Paris during the German occupation. Honegger was part of the French Resistance and his depression over the events of the war is reflected in the character of his music. Although his 2nd symphony was written for string orchestra, a trumpet suddenly appears in the final movement playing a Bach chorale -- perhaps an assertion of faith in the liberation to come?

[Drasko]

Lots of music was written in Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp by the composers who were imprisoned there, like Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Hans Krása ...
Better known pieces would be Ullmann's one act opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis or Krasa's children's opera Brundibar.
Who's interested can check out Decca's Entartete Musik series, KZ Musik's Encyclopedia of Music Composed in Concentration Camps in 5 volumes, few volumes of Theresienstadt music on Channel Classics, or Anne Sofie von Otter Terezin disc on DG.

[Luke]

Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps is probably the most famous piece composed in a POW or concentration camp during the war. It was premiered in Stalag VIII A.

...and of course there were others, written by composers who weren't so lucky. Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Krasa, Viktor Ullmann, Erwin Schulhoff... To me, the most poignant of the Terezin pieces, if there can be a single one, is Klein's String Trio, a work which just yearns to breathe the open air but which was finished just days before the composer's murder. Krasa's Brundibar and Ullmann's The Kaiser of Atlantis are two - what? operas? piece of music theatre? - which deal allegorically with the war and with Hitler himself, and which were written and even performed in the camp. Incredible.

The opening motif of Beethoven's 5th symphony was used in the "V for Victory" propaganda campaign in the West. (Its rhythm is Morse code for "V".)

...and quoted in that context in Martinu's Memorial to Lidice, a deeply moving piece dealing with the Nazi extermination of that village. A quotation of a quotation of a motive that perhaps represents yet something else...

Tippett's heartbreakingly beautiful and probing oratorio A Child of Our Time, written in wartime, dealing with the war and with 'war' in general, and drawing its source from the story of Herschel Grynszpan, the Jew who shot a Nazi official and provoked (or gave 'excuse' for) the furious backlash of Kristallnacht, is another work utterly tied up with WWII; Britten's War Requiem - and what a masterpiece that is! - uses the poetry of Wilfrid Owen, a WWI poet, but was written for the new cathedral at Coventry, rising from the ashes of the one destroyed by the Germans in WWII, and is really a requiem for all wars. Back to Tippett, though - his song cycle The Heart's Assurance uses poetry by WWII poets, who have otherwise been relatively ignored by composers.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

A couple of obscure usages that come to mind:

When the Anschluss (takeover of Austria) was announced, Austrian Radio put on Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony.

The climax of Liszt's Les Preludes was used by German radio to mark military victories. This piece is put to ironic use in Jiri Menzel's film Closely Watched Trains, where the hero's overcoming his sexual dysfunction (within the context of the anti-Nazi struggle) is signaled by the use of this piece.

[Luke]

Meant to include Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw in that last post. An obvious one - the obvious one, perhaps,  if there had to be only one! An extremely important piece in this context, clearly.

[Lethevich]

Vaughan Williams' A Song of Thanksgiving was commissioned  by the BBC to be 'performed once Hitler's Germany was defeated'. It's not a masterpiece, nor is it jingoistic, relying on biblical passages for the most part. It's an exemplar of VW at his more eclectic, with shades of the Fantasia on the Old 104th Psalm Tune.

Edit: Bax also completed a piece in 1945 entitled Victory March. Wonder what that could be about? It's not recorded in Chandos' orchestal works series as far as I can recall, so probably has no recording, presumably undeserving of one.

[MDL]

I immediately thought of Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw and Penderecki's Auschwitz oratorio, Dies Irae. But they're both specifically about the Holocaust rather than the Second World War. Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima shouldn't be included since it was originally written as a Xenakis-style study of sonority. Depending on whose story you believe, either Penderecki decided to rename it after hearing the power of the work during rehearsals or his publisher suggested that he could make a lot more dosh if he gave the piece a "sexy" title. Whatever the truth may be, it's as insincere a gesture as Elton John's decision to rewrite  Candle in the Wind as a tribute to Diana. A bit like recycling "deepest sympathy" cards by rubbing out the deceased's name.

[mc ukrneal]

Meant to include Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw in that last post. An obvious one - the obvious one, perhaps,  if there had to be only one! An extremely important piece in this context, clearly.

That and Shostakovich are the two that come to mind immediately. The third is Springtime for Hitler (from the Producers), but I don't think that is exactly what the OP has in mind.

There is also the Hiroshima Symphony.

[Luke]

There's Steve Reich's Different Trains, too. Even John Adams' Doctor Atomic.

And of course the Gorecki Third.

[Klaze]

Marius Flothuis, Dutch composer and then assistant artistic director of the Concertgebouw, wrote a Flute Concerto while being held in a concentration camp in the Netherlands. He tried to send the manuscript to his family, but the package was intercepted. In the end, he managed to rewrite the score after having been transferred to another camp where he was ordered to write music for the camp-band. Perhaps surprisingly, this Concerto is quite light and contains some nice dance tunes, not heavyweight or angry at all. Liner notes quote the composer saying he wrote this concerto so as to "compensate for all the ugliness around".

[bwv 1080]

Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements

[mahler10th]

Prokofiev

The year 1941

and a lot more War type stuff from Prok.

[MishaK]

I'm not that well versed with his biography, but I seem to recall that there ought to be some works by Karl Amadeus Hartmann that would fit the bill, including some that bear an anti-Nazi dedication or some such thing?

I would add Luigi Dallapiccola's Il Prigoniero and Canti di Prigonia, which are both works of direct protest against Mussolini specifically and dictatorship in general.

The obvious Russians, Martinu, Messiaën and Schoenberg have been mentioned.

[Szykneij]

Interesting article to resurrect this thread:

Violins Of Hope: Exhibit Of 18 Violins Tells Story Of The Holocaust

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/13/violins-of-hope-holocaust_n_1424547.html

[val]

Schönberg's Piano Concerto (1942) was composed having in mind the events in Germany, this according to the composer himself and the subtitles he gave to each movement.

I would like to mention two other masterpieces: the Deutsche Sinfonie of Hans Eisler (1935/1947) and Figure Humaine of Poulenc (1943, on poems of Paul Éluard).

[vandermolen]

Martinu ; Lidice Memorial

Sauguet: Symphonie Expiatoire

Shostakovich 8th Symphony, 13th Symphony 'Babi Yar'

Vainberg: Symphony 6

Barber's 'Commando March'

Schuman; 'Prayer in Time of War'

[offbeat]

Prokofiev 5th always seems to me to be a celebration of the end of ww2.
In contrast Shostakovich 9th which was supposed to be a tribute to the russian victory over the nazis  always seemed to be a cynical joke and a deliberately satire on the soviet regime...........