Marion von Tilzer: Into Eternity
TRPTK
At a time when the last witnesses to the atrocities of WWII are dying and Holocaust denial continues to rear its poisonous head, an album such as Marion von Tilzer's Into Eternity is all the more necessary. The primary impetus for the project was a letter the Austrian-born pianist and composer discovered and that immediately engendered a musical response. The letter in question is one of almost unbearable sadness Vilma Grunwald wrote on July 11, 1944 to her husband moments before she and her son John died in the Auschwitz gas chamber. Her expressions of love and the courage and dignity she showed in her final moments resonate profoundly decades after the words were written. Reading her signoff, “Into Eternity, Yours, Vilma,” can't help but break your heart.
To honour Vilma, von Tilzer composed a musical triptych that follows an instrumental opening, “Out of the Dark,” with two text-based movements sung by contralto Bella Adamova, one the letter itself set to music and the other von Tilzer's arrangement of the traditional Czech lullaby “Hajej, muj andílku.” It is, as it should be, material of great solemnity; fittingly, though, it isn't depressing but instead inspiring and uplifting, and as such is true to the spirit of the letter. Having completed the triptych, she created five more pieces that would complement it by extending its musical tone into other areas.
To bring the project to fruition, the composer gathered musicians of immense talent and possessing the requisite sensitivity to meet the demands of the material. In addition to Adamova and von Tilzer on piano, the album features cellist Maya Fridman (the two having earlier collaborated on the 2021 TRPTK release Ten Songs of Change), clarinetist Michael Hesselink, percussionist Jacobus Thiele, and the Belinfante Quartet.
In the opening minutes of “Out of the Dark,” the playing of the string quartet might be quiet, but the music shrieks with despair nonetheless. At eleven minutes, the piece is considerably more than a prelude to the other parts. With violinist Olivia Scheepers leading the charge, the performance grows in urgency as the composer adds her piano to the strings. The ensemble expands again with Fridman's yearning cello and later wordless vocalizing by Adamova, her ethereal presence like a sound from beyond the grave. An introduction of intense drama, “Out of the Dark” provides a substantial lead-in to “The Letter of Vilma Grunwald,” a haunting elegy delivered with profound feeling and delicacy by Adamova, the string players, and pianist. The singer is as commanding in the plaintive folk setting “Hajej, muj andílku,” a magnificent Fridman her sole accompanist.
A supplicating, hymn-like expression realized by the clarinetist, cellist, singer, and string quartet, I Heard This in My Dream achieves the kind of otherworldly grace one often encounters in Arvo Pärt's music. A hint of Glass-styled writing emerges in the lilting flow of Song for Mira (created by von Tilzer for her daughter), but the piece is more memorable for terrific clarinet contributions from Hesselink. Inspired by a story from Shaun Tan's illustrated book The Red Tree, Girl Finds A Bright Spot in a Dark World illuminates the recording with music of radiance and optimism. In ending the fifty-two-minute release with Into Eternity, a memorable showcase for the pianist and Thiele, von Tilzer unifies the album by titling it with the closing words in Grunwald's letter. To say that von Tilzer has created a recording of poetic depth and musical beauty only begins to capture it. As grounded in her compositions as it is, however, Into Eternity derives a huge measure of its impact from the exceptional playing by her partners, Fridman first and foremost.July 2023