Dedicated to Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s (1905-1963) artistic friendship with the Jewish painter and stage designer Maria Luiko (1904-1941), the event concept consisting of concert, lecture, round table and exhibition on April 27, 2016 not only presents a cross-section of Maria Luiko’s artistic work (on loan from the Jewish Museum Munich), which was brutally ended by her deportation and execution in 1941. It also allows the audience to relive a special moment in Hartmann’s life and œuvre: his encounter with Jewish music. This programme – exemplary through-composed and thus emphatically exposing Hartmann’s intentions – includes works for solo violin by Erwin Schulhoff, Berthold Goldschmidt, Paul Ben-Haim and Karl Amadeus Hartmann. In his isolation as an inner emigrant in National Socialist Germany, Hartmann sought international solidarity with allies in spirit in each of his works, whether through the use of forbidden texts and melodies or with the help of Jewish songs. Especially the use of the Jewish song “Elijahu hanavi” in all compositions written during the years 1933 to 1945 became Hartmann’s lament for the extermination of the Jewish people, but was also representative of the persecution of all opponents of the regime. The first traces of Jewish melismas can already be found in his early work in 1927, the year in which three of the evening’s compositions were written.
The exhibition is supplemented by a selection of Maria Luiko’s letters with the Jewish-Christian bridge builder Schalom Ben-Chorin, who was born in Munich in 1913 and belonged to Maria Luiko’s circle of friends until his emigration to Jerusalem (1935). The selection gives visitors a vivid insight into the everyday life of the Jewish artist in National Socialist Munich (on loan from the Munich City Archive). A short introductory lecture by art historian Diana Oesterle and an in-depth discussion between violinist Ingolf Turban and Andreas Hérm Baumgartner (artistic director hartmann21, conductor) will round off the concert on the opening evening.

An event of the © Karl Amadeus Hartmann-Gesellschaft e.V.