Norbert Glanzberg (1910-2001)
"In Memoriam"
I. Der Ofen von Lublin
II. Abschied
III. Im Gefangnis
IV. Versprich mir eins
V. Die letzte Epiphane
VI. Greta
VII. Für Ule
VIII. Nachtgedanken
IX. An die Volker der Erde
X. Alter Baum
XI. Lied zur guten Nacht

This song cycle was written in 1998 for Voice, Violin, Oboe or Clarinet, and Piano. It is based on three poems by the late Israeli Poet Ya’ir Hurwitz. I used only three of the 18 short poems, all relating to death. This was his last book and he wrote these songs on his death bed. The entrapped bird is a metaphor of his soul being imprisoned in his sick body, waiting, in a sense, to be freed. I’ve tried to portray this dark and very painful atmosphere in my music using a chromatic and expressive musical language.

The Double Concerto for Viola and Cello commissioned by the Deutsche Bremen Kammerphilharmonie and The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra for the German Violist Tabea Zimmermann and the Israeli Cellist Hill Zori was written in Memoriam Maestro David Shallon . The work stresses the expressive and warm sound so typical of these two low string instruments- which have a strong affinity to the human voice. The concise piece is based on three melodies. The first two are based on a Gregorian chant and a Jewish prayer (taken from the beginning of Amida prayer) for the High Holidays- which are melodically quite close to each other in a fascinating way. The third melody is a secular Israeli "folk song" written in the forties in an attempt to create genuine folk music for the Jews coming back to their home land. The two religious melodies which are quite intense and rhetoric set the mood for most of the piece. This emotionally charged atmosphere is changed later into the more relaxing and pastoral mood of the Israeli song which takes the piece to its end. The music develops in an uninterrupted flow moving directly from the first movement to the second one by means of a joint cadenza written for the two soloists.

Mimi Ratz Wiesenberg-Choreography Menachem Wiesenberg-Music (Monodialogue) Tabea Zimmermann - Viola Avital Manu-Dancer

For solo voice.
Text: Song of Songs.