memories

violoncello Solo
Dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust

The year 1990. Jerusalem. The Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem. Deep darkness reigns in the main hall and only a single candle is reflected in a multitude of mirrors by millions of small lights, symbolising the lives that were lost.

Chamber music of unbelievable beauty resounds softly, a male and a female voice call out the names of the Holocaust victims, whose complete naming will take several years. But I learned that later, and then I stood in the middle of the dark hall, deeply shaken.

This image has been burned into my memory for a long time and when the Israeli cellist Carmen Schiff asked me to compose a piece on the Holocaust, it reappeared in my mind and was the impetus for composing the piece, the leitmotif of which is the pounding of murdered hearts.

Slawa Ulanowski

"memories" Prof. Mirel Iancovici

"memories" Carmen Shiff

PRESS CLIPPINGS

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Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ)

20.09.2004

 

Heartbeats of the Holocaust Children

...The fact that a composer sings about the Holocaust on cello strings and incorporates "Memories" of the beating hearts of the children among the victims is thanks to Slawa Ulanowski. The tone creator (...) finds a glowing melancholic solo tone in the pain for the Holocaust dead, which is just as touching as it creates a poetic bridge between yesterday and today.

Hans Jörg Loskill

 

Edition HANS SIKORSKI: Memories