Salzburger FestspielePHACE | Nacho de Paz
The City Without Jews
Hanns Eisler
Fourteen Ways of Describing the Rain — Variations for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano
Hans Karl Breslauer
The City Without Jews
Silent film, Austria, 1924 — Reconstruction and restored version (black and white, 82 min, ©Filmarchiv Austria 2018)
Olga Neuwirth
Die Stadt ohne Juden (The City Without Jews)
Music for a silent film by Hans Karl Breslauer, for amplified ensemble and playback
H.K. Breslauer’s silent film The City Without Jews (1924), based on Hugo Bettauer’s novel, is one of the most important cinematic documents produced in Austria during the interwar period. Seen through a contemporary lens, it stands as a sinister premonition of the Holocaust to come. At some screenings of the film, there were disruptions by National Socialists. However, in 1940 Breslauer joined the NSDAP. After World War II, he lived as a writer in Loibichl am Mondsee and died in 1965 in Salzburg.
In 2017 the composer Olga Neuwirth wrote a new score for the restored complete version of the film. Composed for a live ensemble and tape, her music plays with the conventions of the genre and emphasizes the hard-hitting impact of the imagery and narrative.
PHACE, ensemble for contemporary music
Nacho de Paz, conductor
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Samuel Toro Perez, electric guitar
Felix Pöchhacker, electric guitar
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Mathilde Hoursiangou, keyboard
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Berndt Thurner, percussion
Alfred Reiter, sound