Kirill Gerstein leads a seminar on Jewish composers under Hitler – Slipped DiscSlipped Disc

Today at 5pm UK time, pianist Kirill Gerstein hosts a seminar by Entartete Musick specialist Michael Haas entitled “German and True” – Jewish composers banned by the Nazis.

Michael writes, “Why has much scholarly research and discussion focused on the restitution of Nazi-banned art, followed by complex debates over the merits, if not existence, of ‘exile literature’ by writers banned, while music was essentially ignored? The answer is a complex mix of the assimilation trajectory of Jewish musicians and composers when the NSDAP took power and post-war debates over the aesthetics and projection of the West’s “soft power.” democracy during the Cold War. To understand these questions, this lecture will return to the important constitutions of Germany and Austria-Hungary which “emancipated” the Jews in the last decades of the 19th century. It will then trace the rapid rise in the European musical life of Jewish composers and address the widespread belief that Jews represented the most alienating elements of the 20th century avant-garde. Finally, it provides the context for the Jewish contribution to pluralistic musical life in the first half of the 20th century.’

Info is here: https://mailchi.mp/kirillgerstein/haas