Baruch Berliner’s Sonata-Fantasia No. 2, “Abraham,” To Be Performed in Germany
On May 10, two works by composer Baruch Berliner will be performed in Germany: Sonata-Fantasia No. 2, “Abraham,” for cello and piano and the composition “El Maleh Rachamim” will be presented in the town of Bayreuth.
Sonata-fantasia No. 2, “Abraham,” draws upon Dr. Berliner’s oratorio of the same name, itself inspired by the biblical story of Abraham—the patriarch of the Jewish people (Israel), the eldest of the Israelite forefathers, and the founder of monotheistic religion.
The composition “El Maleh Rachamim” (“Merciful God”) is the soundtrack to the film The Address on the Wall, a cinematic reflection on the WWII tragedy of Babi Yar. The work is also part of the Holocaust remembrance project of the same name (www.elmalehrachamim.com), launched within Baruch Berliner’s Genesis International Project. The initiative brings together musicians from around the world, each recording a personal interpretation of the composition in tribute to the victims of the brutal policies of Nazism.
Dr. Berliner’s works will be performed by internationally renowned musicians— cellist Dmitry Yablonsky, to whom Berliner dedicated the sonata-fantasia, and pianist Oxana Yablonskaya.
A Israeli-American conductor and cellist and an Honored Artist of Azerbaijan, Mr. Yablonsky has received a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra. As a cellist, he has recorded a range of albums, including a double disk featuring David Popper’s High School of Cello Playing, cello concertos by Aram Khachaturian and Nino Rota, and sonatas by Dmitri Shostakovich and Mieczysław Weinberg. As a conductor, he has led ensembles including the Belgian National Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others, and has recorded more than seventy albums.
Oxana M. Yablonskaya is a Soviet, American, and Israeli pianist and a professor at the Juilliard School, one of the United States’ foremost institutions of higher education in the arts and music.
Produced by Nachum Slutzker, General Manager of Baruch Berliner’s Genesis International Project