The Ullman Fragments - 'Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke'
This is a fragment of a piece of music written by the Czech composer Viktor Ullman in Theresienstadt concentration camp in June 1944, called Die Weise Von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke, or in English - The Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke.
Prior to his transfer to Auschwitz, Ullman had written the piece for piano and had completed one and a half movements for orchestra when the music stops suddenly. Ullman was going to take the music with him to Auschwitz but was convinced by friends to leave it behind in Terezin. His friend was also deported but before he was he hid the score under some floorboards at a house in the camp. After the war Ullman’s papers were collected and brought to Britain.
You can listen here to the one and a half movements, which come straight from the composer’s hands and are performed here by the ±«Óătv Philharmonic for the first time. The conductor is Andrew Gourlay.
