Gideon Klein

Gideon Klein (6 December 1919 – c. January 1945) was a Czech pianist and composer of classical music, organizer of cultural life in Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Life

Klein was born into a Moravian Jewish family in Přerov and, showing musical talent early, studied piano with Růžena Kurzová and Vilém Kurz, and composition with Alois Hába (in 1939–1940). He was forced to discontinue his studies in 1940 at the university when the Nazis closed all institutions of higher learning following their occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Since compositions and performances by Jewish musicians were banned, his own works could not be played, though he managed to perform as a concert pianist under several aliases for a time, a.o. under the name of Karel Vranek.[1] In 1940 he was offered a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London, but by that time anti-Jewish legislation prevented his emigration.[2]

In December 1941 he was deported by the Nazis to Terezín concentration camp, where along with Leoš Janáček's pupil Pavel Haas, Hans Krása, and Schoenberg's pupil Viktor Ullmann he became one of the major composers in that camp, one of the few in which artistic activity occurred on any scale. His works from these years include music for string quartet (similar in tone to Berg's opus 3 work), a string trio, and a piano sonata among others. Klein performed also as solo pianist at least on 15 recitals,[3] and he participated also in chamber music performances (member of piano trio, piano quartet).

He was deported to Auschwitz and then to Fürstengrube in October 1944, less than two weeks after completing his string trio. He died under unclear circumstances during liquidation of the Fürstengrube camp in January 1945.

His work was influenced by Alois Hába, Alban Berg, and particularly by Leoš Janáček. He used melody from Janáček's Zápisník zmizelého as a theme in his Divertimento (1940).

Recordings on Northeastern and on Koch International Classics, for example, have allowed modern listeners to evaluate the quality of his compositions of the 1940s.

Selected works

Notes

  1. ↑ Joseph Way (1997). "Fuguemasters.com". Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  2. ↑ David Bloch. "Music and the holocaust". Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  3. ↑ Kuna, p. 117

References

External links