Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, 2022 Dec. 10th
Conductor: Ionut Pascu
Interesting facts about Mihail Jora (1891-1971):
- student of Max Reger and Stephan Krell, in Leipzig (1912-1913)
- student of Florent Schmitt, in Paris (1919-1920)
- during WWI he voluntarily enlists as a second lieutenant in an infantry unit
- in the midst of the bombings, he steps on a camouflaged mine, the deflagration of which hits the sole of his foot. He is found unconscious, after a few hours, among the corpses, by the soldiers who load him into a cart and then take him to the medical train at the nearest station. After he is given first aid, he is transported to the Saint Spiridon Hospital in Iasi, with general septicemia
- after one of the operations endured without anesthesia, maestro George Enescu, present among the sick to soothe their suffering, took his violin and began to play the wounded pieces requested by some of them. After pieces by Kreisler and Bach, he played Mihail Jora's piece, Summer Night. The patient burst into tears. It was the benevolent reaction of the tormented psyche to hearing the divine melodies given to the unfortunate martyrs by the great artist:
"For two hours while the concert lasted, my tears were dripping from the edges of my scalpel-carved being, directly from the womb of the soul. With the body hit but with a whole heart, uplifted. I was in that world where he carried me with his delicacy and his winning understanding, and he was the first to give me the composer's brace by performing a piece of mine. Yes, then I really felt like a musician myself, recognized as such."
21 сен 2024
