David Drury performs Walter Wurzburger's Another Uwe Radok Fugue on a Familiar Subject at Out of the Shadows, Sydney, 2017.

Date	8th August 2017
URL	https://vimeo.com/246409030#t=72m41s
Format	Video

The music of Siegfried Würzburger’s son Walter is represented across the Out of the Shadows Festival in Sydney. Walter was able to escape Germany in 1933. Trained in jazz by Mátyás Seiber at the Hoch Conservatory, Walter’s natural ability as a saxophone/clarinet player allowed him the mobility to tour Europe. He arrived in the Netherlands and heard of opportunities to work in Singapore. In April 1939, he began work in a new six-piece swing band at the GAP Road House, playing accordion. After the outbreak of war, all German nationals in Singapore (regardless of racial categorisation under the Nazis) were placed on parole or curfew by the British. In 1940, 272 men, women and children were deported on the Queen Mary, arriving in Sydney, from whence they were shipped by train to the town of Tatura in Victoria (near Shepparton) and placed in a detention camp. Families were allowed to stay together, and single men were housed in the same camp.

In Tatura, Walter shared a room with the photographer Helmut Neustädter, better known as Helmut Newton; he also became fast friends with Uwe Radok (later one of the foremost meteorologists and glacial experts in Australia). On release from detention, Walter enlisted in the army, joining the non-combatant 8th Australian Employment Company.  In 1944 (while still in the company), he wrote this beautiful melancholy setting, dedicated to his scientific friend. 

This performance lasts approximately 4 minutes 09 seconds.

© Dr Joseph Toltz