Orchestra launches spine-tingling ‘Requiem’

Vector Wellington Orchestra launches spine-tingling ‘Requiem’

Vector Wellington Orchestra’s 70th anniversary commemoration of Kristallnacht was one of the most unforgettable concerts of 2008.

Almost exactly two years later Atoll Records is releasing its CD of the event with the orchestra’s live performance of the concert.

Called ‘Requiem,’ it features Boris Pigovat’s Holocaust Requiem for solo viola and orchestra, as well as some of his chamber music for viola and for string quartet.

The CD will be launched together with the orchestra’s 2011 season in the Wellington Town Hall, on November 13 at the VWO’s “Organ Symphony” concert.

“It was an honour for the Vector Wellington Orchestra to present this concert in commemoration of Kristallnacht,” Music Director Marc Taddei says.

New Zealand violist Donald Maurice is the soloist on the disc.

Performing the virtuosic solo part for the Holocaust Requiem was an amazing experience, Maurice says.

“We didn’t know how it would be received by the audience, but when it came to the performance, there was an atmosphere in the hall that night that I have never experienced in a concert before,” he says.

“Getting nervous was the last thing on my mind. The audience was responding to everything, and that fed back into the performance in a way that we could never capture in a studio recording.”

Maurice thanked Radio New Zealand for releasing the rights to their live recording.

Israeli composer Boris Pigovat, who was present for the performance, was ecstatic with the performance, Maurice says. “He’s also very pleased that we’re able to use the live recording, because of that incredible feeling the performance got from the audience.”

The story behind the Holocaust Requiem

Pigovat wrote the Holocaust Requiem in response to the 1941 massacre of Jews in Babiy Yar, in which his grandparents and aunt died. After emigrating from Russia to Israel, Pigovat started to work on some ideas he had for a requiem. At the same time, the principal viola of the Israel Philharmonic, Yuri Gandelsman, asked him for a work to perform with orchestra. Pigovat realised that he wanted to write a Requiem without solo voices, using instead the rich, heavy timbre of the viola instead.

Fate intervened and Gandelsman was unable to perform the Requiem as planned. However, the resulting work garnered a winning prize for Pigovat from the Israeli Composer’s league. Instead, the world premiere was given by Rainer Moog in Kiev, for the 60th anniversary of the massacre where Pigovat’s family lost their lives.

Boris Pigovat (b.1953, Odessa, USSR) studied at the Gnessin Music Institute (Academia of Music) in Moscow. Between 1978 and 1990 he lived in Tadjikistan. In 1988 he won the special distinction diploma at the International Composers Competition in Budapest for his composition Musica dolorosa No. 2 for Trombone quartet. He emigrated to Israel in 1990, and in 1995 he was awarded the Prize of ACUM (Israeli ASCAP) for his composition the Holocaust Requiem. In 2000 he was awarded the prize of the Prime Minister of State of Israel. In 2002 he received his PhD from Bar-Ilan University (Israel). Many of his works have been performed throughout the world. His composition Massada was premiered at ISCM "World music days 2000" festival in Luxembourg and at WASBE 2003 CONFERENCE in Jönköping (Sweden). The symphonic picture Wind of Yemen was performed at the Asian Music Festival 2003 in Tokyo. Two of his pieces were performed in New York’s Carnegie Hall: Prayer and Song of the Sea (world premiere, 2005). In 2005 he was awarded the ACUM Prize for Song of the Sea. A comprehensive listing of his compositions and recordings is available at http://www.pigovat.com/

Donald Maurice studied viola with Nannie Jamieson, Max Rostal, William Primrose and Donald McInnes. He is Professor at the New Zealand School of Music, performs regularly as viola soloist, chamber musician and conductor and has premiered many New Zealand works. He has given recitals and presentations at over a dozen International Viola Congresses and in 2009 he gave the William Primrose Memorial Concert in Utah. He was been awarded the 2001 Silver Alto Clef by the International Viola Society and honorary life membership by the American Viola Society. For Naxos he has recorded with the New Zealand Piano Quartet and has an ongoing project with the Dominion String Quartet to record Alfred Hill’s complete string quartets on six CDs. For Kiwi Pacific he has recorded Anthony Ritchie’s Viola Sonata. His publications include Bartók's Viola Concerto (OUP), The Leipzig Diary - Alfred Hill (Wirripang) and viola transcriptions of Enescu’s Violin Sonata No 3 (Enoch & Cie), Porumbescu’s Balada (Comus) and Lilburn’s Salutes to Seven Poets (Waiteata).

About the CD

Holocaust Requiem for solo viola and orchestra

1. Requiem Aeternam

2. Dies Irae

3. Lacrimosa

4. Lux Eterna

Conductor - Marc Taddei

Viola - Donald Maurice

Vector Wellington Orchestra

Live recording by Radio New Zealand on November 8, 2009

Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, New Zealand

5. Prayer for viola and piano

Viola - Donald Maurice

Piano - Richard Mapp

Recorded by Wayne Laird on October 8, 2010

Expressions Theatre, Upper Hutt, New Zealand

6. Silent Music for viola and harp

Viola - Donald Maurice

Harp - Carolyn Mills

Recorded by Wayne Laird on October 9, 2010

Park Road Post, Wellington, New Zealand

7. Nigun for string quartet

Dominion String Quartet

Recorded by Wayne Laird on October 8, 2010

Expressions Theatre, Upper Hutt, New Zealand

/ENDS

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