R11 / Vessels of Light – Czech premiere • Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

Alexander Liebreich's return to the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra will bring togethere the music of early Romanticism with contemporary music. Inspired by the heroism of Chiune Sugihara and the thousands of Jewish lives saved through his decisions and actions during WWII, Lera Auerbach created the music, libretto, and artistic concept for Symphony No. 6, "Vessels of Light," for Violoncello, Choir, and Orchestra. Auerbach weaves a multilayered tapestry of words and music with Yiddish poetry, the art of Japanese Kintsugi, the mystical Shevirat ha-kelim ("breaking of the vessels"), and the silent words of biblical Psalm 121 in a work she dedicates to Chiune Sugihara and all those who risk everything to save others. Symphony No. 6 "Vessels of Light," is a commission by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and The American Society for Yad Vashem. The commission was catalyzed by the world-premiere performer of the symphony, Japanese-American violoncellist Kristina Reiko Cooper, whose husband's father, Irving Rosen, was rescued thanks to the life-saving visas granted by Chiune Sugihara. Yad Vashem honored Sugihara as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for his actions during that dark chapter of our recent history. After the intermission, the most ambitious symphonic work by Franz Schubert, the author of immortal songs and co-moral music, the "Great Symphony" in C major, will be performed.