Egon Ledeč

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_Ledeč

Egon Ledeč (Kostelec nad Orlicí 16 March 1889 - Auschwitz, October 1944) was a Czech violinist and composer of Jewish origin. Ledeč was one of the artists sent to Theresienstadt and is shown as concertmaster in Karel Ančerl’s orchestra in the Nazi propaganda movie Theresienstadt: A Documentary Film from the Jewish Settlement Area. He was transported to Auschwitz on 16 October 1944 together with Gideon Klein, Viktor Ullmann, Rafael Schächter, and Franz Eugen Klein, all five musicians were murdered immediately on arrival.

Egon Ledeč (b. 1889) was an outstanding performer and one of the most successful pupils of professors Otakar Ševčík , Jaroslav Kocian and Karel Hoffmann at the Senior School of the Prague Conservatory. His professional ambition was fulfilled in 1926, when he was accepted as a member of the renowned Czech Philharmonic under the legendary Václav Talich. Ledeč was also active as a composer, mainly of occasional and light works. An exceptional work is Dawn, a musical monologue set to the words of Frán Šrámek s poem “Eternal Soldier”; this represents the composer’s personal declaration of faith and hope, but is also a presage of his tragic end and of his unrealised plans. The years spent in the Terezín ghetto were also closely connected with Ledeč’s mission in life – music. His life ended at Auschwitz in 1944.

Birth: Mar. 16, 1889 Death: Oct. 18, 1944

Violinist, Composer. Born in Kostelec nad Orlici, Eastern Bohemia, he graduated from the Prague Conservatory in 1906 and was active as both soloist and an ensemble player. He performed in London several times with the Prague National Theatre Orchestra and garnered attention as a composer of light music. The World War I years saw him serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army. In 1926 Ledec was appointed Associate Concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic under conductor Vaclav Talich. Europe's deteriorating political situation motivated him to compose the ambitious "Dawn" (1938), a monologue for vocalist and orchestra set to Fran Sramek's "The Eternal Soldier", which offered a chilling premonition of his own end. The following year the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia and he was expelled from the Philharmonic as a Jew. In the autumn of 1941 he was sent to the Theresienstadt (Terezin) concentration camp. Ledec immediately formed the camp's first music ensemble, the "Doctor's Quartet", so named because two its players were physicians; they gave clandestine weekly performances of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in an abandoned barracks, an activity that could have gotten them all shot. Instead it became an influential step in the establishment of the camp's Freizeitgestaltung ("Administration of Free Time Activities"), in which the inmates were allowed to develop a vigorous cultural scene despite hunger, disease, and the constant presence of death. The violinist was an eager and much loved participant in this movement, as leader of the Ledec Quartet, in solo recitals and as a member of any classical orchestra that could be cobbled together. He also managed to write music and his charming "Gavotte" for string quartet (1942) is still performed today. On October 16, 1944, Ledec and virtually everyone involved in the Freizeitgestaltung were put on a transport to Auschwitz. During the journey he tossed a hastily-scribbled postcard out of the cattle car with the hope that someone would mail it, and someone did. It was addressed to his sister and expressed concern only for her welfare and that of their mother. He concluded, "Be well. Let the dear God protect you. Love and Kisses". By the time the message reached its destination Ledec was dead, having been sent to the gas chamber soon after his arrival at Auschwitz. (bio by: Robert Edwards)

Egon Ledeč was born in Kostelec nad Orlicí (Bohemia) on 16 March 1889. In 1900 he began his studies in violin at the Prague Conservatory. At the age of nineteen he performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic and joined the orchestra later that year. In addition to playing in the Czech Philharmonic, he also performed in chamber ensembles and studied at the Master School of the Prague Conservatory with professors Otakar Sevčík and Karel Hoffmann. After a stint in the Czech army during World War I Ledeč rejoined the Czech Philharmonic and in 1927 he was appointed second concertmaster. He participated in many concert tours including tours to London, Paris, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Italy, Ireland and Belgium.

In addition to playing in the Czech Philharmonic, Ledeč performed as a soloist and chamber musician. He also composed semi-classical pieces, waltzes, marches and small compositions for violin and piano. The works for violin and piano are written in the salon style, reminiscent of Fritz Kreisler. Among these works are Tatínkova melodie, Kytička, Serenade and Uklobevka. His musical monologue, Svítaní (Dawn), for symphony orchestra was composed after 1935. It is set to the words of Frána Šrámek’s Eternal Soldier.

With the Nazi invasion on 15 March 1939 and subsequent decree that Jews be removed from their jobs, Ledeč lost his position as second concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic. While on tour with the Czech Philharmonic just prior to this, he wrote to the wife of the head of a grammar school in Hradec Králové:

I wanted to warn you ahead of time. I will be sitting in the last row/seat {counter} of the first violins* (*so that you would not be taken by surprise), but I believe that this is only a temporary situation and it will be resolved soon, for I have already done something to change this, I will explain more at a later time.

On 27 October 1941, less than two months before Ledeč’s transport to Terezín, he wrote to his sister Olga about his upcoming marriage to Anna Friedmannová, with anxiety about the future:

Of course, since February much has happened and neither you nor I have the time to put it all down in a letter. We’re getting married on Saturday, but you of course know that from my letters. Hopefully we won’t be registered [called to a transport] by then and we will be able to go ahead with the ceremony.

On 23 November 1941 he wrote to Olga:

Thank you for your kind words in regard to my violin, I just hope I’ll be able to take it with me. We have been called to appear at city hall tomorrow and so we’ll most likely have to get ready for a swift departure. Possibly to Terezín! Either there or to Poland, though no one talks about Poland these days. I hope to find friends from Prague there. Friends who might have left already. My father used to say “Geld verloren, nichts verloren; Kopf verloren, alles verloren.” [to lose money is to lose nothing, to lose your head is to lose everything] …Yours devoted and loving you- your brother Egon.

Ledeč was on transport L-178 from Prague to Terezín on 10 December 1941. Upon his arrival in Terezín he joined the early, clandestine musical activities, and “By Christmas of the same year (1941), Egon Ledeč was able to comfort his brothers’ misery with the soothing sounds of his violin.” According to Joža Karas, Ledeč was the first musician invited by the Council of Elders to their living quarters to perform in musical soirées. Ledeč, Dr. Ilona Král, violist Viktor Kohn and Dr. Klapp formed the first string quartet at Terezín, the “Doctors’ Quartet.” These musicians had already played together in Prague where they would often sight-read music for invited guests. At Terezín, the quartet met weekly to play Haydn, Beethoven and Dvořak quartets.

Ledeč soon formed the Ledeč Quartet with himself as first violinist, an amateur named Schneider as second violinist, Viktor Kohn as violist, and his brother Paul Kohn as the cellist. Once Julius Stwertka of the Rosé Quartet arrived from Vienna he replaced Schneider in the quartet. The Ledeč Quartet performed at the Magdeburg Barrack. With the establishment of the Freizeitgestaltung (Leisure Time Committee) during the autumn of 1942 and the sanctioning of musical activities by the Nazis, the quartet began to perform for different audiences.

In the summer of 1944 Ledeč created a new quartet with Adolf Kraus as the second violinist, Viktor Kohn as the violist and Robert Dauber as the cellist. At their first concert they played a string quartet by Haydn, Siegmund Schul’s Divertimento Ebraico, and Borodin’s Quartet in D Minor. Viktor Ullmann wrote about this performance:

Finally let us have a thought for the new Ledeč quartet who gave us a fine Haydn that was entrancing, beautiful, and excellently played, which was followed by Zikmund Schul's interesting and well-crafted Divertimento Ebraico (already known to us). And finally they gave us Borodin's energetic, but not always of full value, quartet, which sometimes reminds us more of the boulevard than of the steppe. The new quartet plays in a cultivated and precise manner with beautiful tone. Our chamber music has gained unconditionally.

In addition to chamber music, Ledeč frequently performed as a soloist. Several of these occasions were in the courtyard with accordion accompaniment. Paul Kling, a violinist at Terezín, remembers these well. He said of Ledeč:

…I used to go when he and an accordion player would play in the courtyards, or whatever you would call the common area in the barracks . . . with Lederer. He would play in the courtyards. And I would go and listen to him.

It was a tragic situation. The man who had stood in the spotlight for decades now went into the back courtyards in order to give little concerts with the accordionist Wolfi Lederer. A grandseigneur from Prague was playing popular music!

On 5 July 1943 Alice Hertz Sommer arrived in Terezín on the last transport from Prague. At Terezín, she played Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas with Ledeč. These performances were described by Ullmann:

Ledeč and Alice Herz-Sommer played three of the most beautiful Beethoven violin sonatas . . . Egon Ledeč is more than an excellent "Bohemian musician" who is completely grown together with his instrument. He is an artist who fashions consciously and with excellent feeling for style, who also knows about the secrets of the violin, about phrasing, about strokes and bowing, playing on the fingerboard, etc. His beautiful tone is now purified of all dross, his intense performance style and his musician's instinct is praiseworthy.

In the Nazi propaganda movie, Theresienstadt: A Documentary from the Jewish Settlement, Ledeč is filmed as concertmaster in Karel Ančerl’s orchestra.

Egon Ledeč was transported to Auschwitz on 16 October 1944. His name is on the same transport list as Gideon Klein, Viktor Ullmann, Rafael Schächter, and Franz Eugen Klein. Upon arrival in Auschwitz, Ledeč, Klein, Ullmann and Schächter were immediately sent to the gas chamber.

Sources Joža Karas, Music in Terezín 1941-1945 (New York: Beaufort Book Publishers, in association with Pendragon Press, 1985).

Paul Kling, interview by author, 2 September 2002, Vancouver, Canada.

Paul Kling, interview by David Bloch, 12 October 1989, Victoria, British Columbia.

Egon Ledeč, to Jitka Beranová, 19 May 1938, transcript at the Jewish Museum, Holocaust Archive, Prague, transl. Victoria Monjo and Kateřina Knappová.

Egon Ledeč, to Olga (Olinka) Šarfeubergerová, 27 October 1941, transcript at the Jewish Museum, Holocaust Archive, Prague, transl. Victoria Monjo.

Egon Ledeč, to Olga Šarfeubergerová, 23 November 1941, transcript at the Jewish Museum, Holocaust Archive, Prague, transl. Victoria Monjo.

Egon Ledeč, “Curriculum Vitae, 1942, transcript at the Jewish Museum, Holocaust Archive, Prague, transl. Victoria Monjo.

Jan Ledeč, “Egon Ledeč,” transl. Mr. Hattersley, from Silenced Tones: The Life and Work of the Czech Jewish Composers Gideon Klein and Egon Ledeč Exhibition (Prague: Jewish Museum, 2003).

Viktor Ullmann, 26 Kritiken Über Musikalische Veranstaltungen In Theresienstadt. Edited by Ingo Schultz. Hamburg: von Bockel, 1993. Transl. Timothy McFarland.

http://www.holocaust.cz/en/database-of-victims/victim/104685-egon-l...