Tuesday 5 November 2013

Edith Kraus z"l


News has reached us of the death of the pianist Edith Kraus last September at the age of 100. A survivor of Terezin, we note that she premiered Viktor Ullmann's Piano Sonata Number 6 in the camp. Her obituary in the Daily Telegraph states:

"Edith Kraus performed more than 300 concerts over three years at Terezin, often of music by Brahms, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. 'Naturally this helped me to get through that time,' she later recalled.

When asked a few years ago to describe the quality of the music making at the camp, Edith Kraus berated her interviewer, explaining that tone, intonation and timing had been irrelevant: 'You'll never understand, or get close to, what music truly meant to each of us as a sustaining power and as a way of using our skills to inspire - beyond criticism - beyond any superficial evaluation. We were music.'"

The rest of the obituary may be found here.
Watch her speak here.