Update 17 October 2023: The concert is postponed to 2024.
The Israel Contemporary Players host Klangforum Wien for a programme commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. A Song for Rachela by Bernhard Lang incorporates texts from the Ringelblum Archive, which documents the situation in the Warsaw Ghetto between 1940-1943. It was premiered last April in our cycle concert at the Wiener Konzerthaus and it returned most recently (19 Sept.) to its place of origin as part of the Warsaw Autumn Festival. Featured on the programme alongside Lang's composition – like in Warsaw – is Chaya Czernowin's Rare Earth: alchimia communicationis. With its continually and swiftly changing form, grounded by a double bass solo, the piece explores the many (tragic) dimensions that go hand in hand with the exploitation of rare earths – those precious minerals which are put to ubiquitous use in today’s communication technologies.
