There have been many CD collections of composers who were trapped in the human debacle that was the Holocaust, and this Phoenix release, Music from the Holocaust, featuring pianist Paul Orgel, contains works of composer-prisoners Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, and Karel Berman. Usually we marvel at the relative skill and originality of such composers and, sometimes, expend a deep sign that such talent was discarded in the Holocaust; after all, these figures didn't plan their unfortunate outcomes, and their prewar work generally isn't premonitory. But one doesn't often hear music from Holocaust survivors that makes a direct comment on the experience itself, and the Karel Berman suite 1938-1945 Reminiscences is exactly that, a piece of which certain movements were written in April 1944 while Berman was interned at Terezin; the others, reflecting on life before the war and just after his liberation, were added in 1957. 1938-1945 Reminiscences is an important and effective piece; interestingly, it follows a similar structural path to Viktor Vlasov's 1993 accordion suite Gulag, though it is not as thorny as the Vlasov it is nearly as harrowing a listening experience. Pavel Haas' Suite for Piano, Op. 13, dates from 1935, but the Klein and Ullmann works were written while both composers were detained in Terezin so this disc actually is three-quarters what it says it is in a historic sense. Moreover, the Haas suite fits so neatly into the mood of the overall package that it doesn't seem out of place.
The Phoenix USA label is mainly associated with reissues, so this is a relatively rare first release project. It is helmed by legendary producer John McClure, whose name appears on many of the great CBS Masterworks albums of the 1960s; the sound mix is a bit conservative by the standards of the 2000s, but it suits the playing of Paul Orgel well, as he maintains a very cool, reserved, and even-handed touch throughout.