Michael Tilson Thomas' Emotional Tribute
Twenty eight years after it was first performed, Micheal Tilson Thomas' soul-stirring 'From The Diary Of Anne Frank' returns to the stage to mark the 70th anniversary of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Commissioned by UNICEF in 1993, Tilson Thomas' early work heralded great things, which the conductor and composer certainly attained throughout his trailblazing leadership of the San Francisco Symphony and artistic directorship of the New World Symphony.
Inspired by musical themes from the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, Tilson Thomas' versatile score marries the atonal with the serenely pastoral as it pays tender tribute to the victims of the Holocaust. It's narrated sequences chosen from Anne Frank's diary and Bernstein-esque passages will be followed by Beethoven's rousing Eroica Symphony, a sublime and triumphant musical journey that solidified the German composer's status as one of the most important musical icons of his time.
