David Post

Piano Quintet

The music left by the Czech composers imprisoned in Terezin and then murdered by the Nazis during World War II is one of the marvels of twentieth century art. Had they lived and continued to write, the work of Viktor Ullmann, Hans Krasa, Pavel Haas and especially Gideon Klein would surely have taken its place beside that of the masters of the period. Since my first visit to Prague many years ago, these unique voices have been a steady, haunting presence for me, and an important influence in my own work. I have wanted for some time to acknowledge them, not in the sense of constructing a 'memorial?ö but to show how their powerful musical ideas contain living seeds that can grow in new, transforming directions. The first movement of the Quintet - For Gideon Klein - develops from the opening motive of his Piano Sonata, and the entire movement grows out of those few notes. The second movement - For Pavel Haas - borrows an ostinato from the last movement of his Woodwind Quintet, op. 10. I have quoted the duet between Death and the Harlequin from Viktor Ullmann's remarkable opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis in the last movement, its poignant and ironic touch perfectly capturing the wistful nostalgia of an era receding rapidly into the past. Commissioned by John Boyce, the Piano Quintet was premiered by its dedicatees, Simone Dinnerstein and the Hawthorne String Quartet on March 15, 2008 at Bard College at Simon's Rock (USA). David L. Post