So my third Holocaust Remembrance concert was Singing Through the Darkness which played at the Jane Mallett Theatre on Wednesday night.  Unlike the previous two concerts which focussed largely on music in the classical tradition with a bit of folk thrown in this time it was more jazz/musical theatre.

The programme was a very varied mix of music and poetry composed in camps and ghettoes, folk songs remembered from a fractured past, partisan songs and even a bit of Kurt Weill.;  The arrangements were for various combinations of Aviva Chernick, Lenka Lichtenberg, Theresa Tova and Fern Lindzon on vocals with Fern on the piano (and melodica) and, on occasion, Lenka on guitar.  There was even a cameo by Judith Lander.  Ori Dagan mceed.

All these musicians are well known and each has a distinctive style and on Wednesday we got what you’ld expect and some of it suits my taste more than other bits.  I could listen to Aviuva Chernik’s rather ethereal voice for ever but heavily emphatic music theatre style just isn’t my thing, though I know it’s very much the vogue.

Bottom line, the concert got the job done.  Musicians, some with very direct connections to the Shoah presented a fairly short programme of music that touched on many things that need to be remembered and performed exactly as their many fans would expect.

Photos courtesy of Ori Dagan