Video of the world premiere of Katrina Kovacs' Dieses Land, a poem by Nelly Sachs. Performed by VOX.

Date	8th August 2017
URL	https://vimeo.com/246409030#t=21m23s
Format	Video

When commissioning Sydney Conservatorium of Music composers to write choral music for this concert, I chose the poetry of Nelly Sachs for a number of reasons. First, she was a superb poet, recognised in 1966 with the Nobel Prize for Literature. Second, she was a Jewish refugee from Hitler's Germany, fleeing into Sweden in 1940 with her elderly mother, remaining there for the rest of her life. Third, she had a working relationship with one of the other composers in the festival, Moses Pergament, and possibly knew his brother Simon Parmet, so there was a Scandinavian Jewish connection.  Finally, her poetry explores diaspora and Jewish identity as a woman, and I was conscious of the under-representation of female voices in the festival.  I am very grateful to Damien Ricketson for recruiting such talented composers to participate. I would like to thank Katrina Kovacs for her beautiful setting, and Dr Jennifer M Hoyer, whose work The Space of Words: Exile and Diaspora in the Works of Nelly Sachs (Boydell & Brewster, 2014) inspired the choice of poetry.  This performance lasts approximately 6 minutes.

Dr Joseph Toltz

Composers Note: Nelly Sach’s poem Dieses Land was the catalyst to my exploration of modal choral writing. Featuring the combination of four part writing as well as solo passages, Dieses Land explores the variation of texture and movement as it works in tandem with the rich text. As the debut of my first choral piece, I am proud to have composed a work which holds such profound historical significance. 

© Katrina Kovacs

Permission for the setting of this poem has been granted by the publishers Suhrkamp Verlag. Dieses Land is part of a collection of poetry entitled Flügel der Prophetie, and can be found in Nelly Sachs, Werke, Kommentierte Ausgabe in vier Bänden – Band I + II: Gedichte © Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin 2010.