Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) was born in a part of Silesia that now is part of the Czech Republic, growing up and taking his education in Vienna. There he participated in Schoenberg’s advanced courses in 1918-19, and at Schoenberg’s recommendation, became one of Alexander Zemlinsky’s conducting assistants at the New German Theatre in Prague in the 1920s. How highly Zemlinsky regarded him is seen in his having entrusted Ullmann with the preparation of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, as well as operas by Mozart, Strauss, Wagner, Berg and others, which he also conducted on occasion in place of Zemlinsky. In the 1930s Ullmann composed, taught and wrote articles for German musical publications in Prague.

Ullmann, was raised a Catholic and later converted to Protestantism before returning to Catholicism. His Jewish parentage, however, consigned him under Nazi racial laws to a fate that sent him from Prague first to Terezín and then to his death at Auschwitz.

When Czechoslovakia came under Nazi control, the performance of Ullmann’s works was banned, and a public musical life became impossible for him. He tried unsuccessfully to emigrate to London or South Africa but finally found himself trapped in Prague. He was able to arrange places for two of his children on a Kindertransport to Sweden and then England. Ullmann was deported to Terezín on September 8, 1942.

During his two years of incarceration there, he was at the center of the camp’s intellectual and artistic life. There he composed over twenty musical works, and perhaps others that have been lost. This extraordinary output includes a string quartet, piano sonatas, song cycles, choral works, incidental music for a play, and an opera libretto. Rediscovering his family origins, he composed a number of works based on traditional Jewish themes, including a set of haunting Yiddish and Hebrew songs.

Instead of being given a customary work assignment, Ullmann was asked by the Freizeitgestaltung (Leisure time authority) to occupy himself with music, serving as critic and concert organizer (including the Studio for New Music, which he founded, and the Collegium Musicum) as well as assisting on other performances.

Ullmann’s seven Piano Sonatas were written between 1936 and 1944, the first four while he free-lanced in Prague, the last three while incarcerated at Terezín. In totality one sonata leads inexorably to the next, and one can trace the arch of his momentous life through these pieces. He starts with a young man’s homage to Mahler, and ends with a sonata motivated by his imprisonment – masterful and deeply expressive.

“In my work at Theresienstadt, I have bloomed in musical growth and not felt myself at all inhibited: by no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon, and our endeavor with respect to Arts was commensurate with our will to live. And I am convinced that all who have worked in life and art to wrestle content into its unyielding form will say that I was right.” – Viktor Ullmann

Sonata No.7 (1944), dedicated to three of his children Max, Jean and Felice (Pavel, born in 1940 had already died in the camp) was the last of Ullmann’s works written before he was transported to Auschwitz. It is almost akin to a musical autobiography in which through the five movements he quotes his obvious loves in the shape of quotations and allusions to such composers as Bach, Mahler, Schoenberg and Wagner. Into this mix he adds echoes of Slovak hymns, Lutheran chorales and even a Hebrew folksong in the final movement. The opening Allegro movement which we will hear, reflecting the late German Romantic style, is exhilarating and life-affirming. The orchestration is by Ronen Nissan.

Ullmann was deported to Auschwitz on 16 October 1944, in one of the last transports, where he died in the gas chamber.