Matching of Stern and Morawetz results in ideal concert at Massey
Match up Isaac Stern and our own Oskar Morawetz and the result is an ideal
concert. Such a perfect match took place during the first half of the recent
Toronto Symphony concert at Massey Hall, when Morawetz' dramatic symphonic poem,
The Railway Station, was followed by Stern's spectacular solo rendition of
Beethoven's epic Violin Concerto in D Major.
[...]
Stern's performance was preceded by the powerful symphonic poem, The Railway
Station, by Canada's leading living composer, Oskar Morawetz. Inspired by
Canadian poet Archibald Lampman's sonnet of the same title, with lines such as
"mournful eyes, passionate dreams, various agonies," Morawetz' music reflects
his own flight from Hitler, which the words of the sonnet symbolize.
The throbbing bass line which begins the piece suggests the disruptive
effects of the German invasion on the lives of the heretofore comfortable Jewish
refugees waiting at the railway station with destination unknown.
The middle slow passages, in which sentimental strings back up abstract solo
flute and clarinet lyrical laments, infer the illusions of pre-war Czech Jewry
cast into the abyss. Naturally, they want to cling to the safe past which is no
more. But inevitably, at the railway station, the terrible present descends with
a crashing climax.
