She also composes music for orchestra, choirs, quintets, suites, film music and music for children.
For one of her last pieces, she was looking for a suitable motif that dealt with the Holocaust.
The Israeli musician wanted to create something that was significant from an artistic point of view and that told of this tragedy.
The last piece of the puzzle was found through a friend’s reference to the work “Todesfuge” by Paul Celan.
It is above all the tragic depth of the text that touches Anna Segal; Celan succeeds in writing both as an observer and as a victim of the tragedy of the Jewish people.
Right at the beginning, he uses the image of black milk that has turned color and symbolically describes the pain and horror of the world at that time.
There is no happy ending in Todesfuge – nor can there be.
However, in order to create a positive, hopeful ending, Anna Segal drew on another of Celan’s works , “Tenebrae”.
In its last lines, it says that the Jewish people ascend to heaven and are at the side of their Lord.
A beautiful symbol of hope and forgiveness.
When the finished piece was played to Segal’s grandmother Frida, a Holocaust survivor, she could not listen to the end.
Tears ran down her face.
The Israeli composer will dedicate the premiere of her composition at the festival to her grandmother Frida.
The musical interpretation of Paul Celan’s work takes the listener on a journey that vividly tells the story of the Jewish people and breathes new life into the powerful words of the poem.
The Israeli conductor Mark Wolloch heard the Death Fugue in the version for piano and baritone in Jerusalem and was immediately inspired by this music.
Mark Wolloch will conduct the premiere at the festival.
Mark Wolloch and Paul Celan were both born in Chernovitz.
What a coincidence and how symbolic.
