Music from the camp
The will to live should never be forsaken, just as it was not forsaken by
Viktor Ullmann despite his tragic situation. This is the message, the emotion
that Dessa wishes to convey. Her paintings that must transmit this emotion
are informal: music has no form, but vibrates in the air, penetrates into
the soul, making it possible to participate with what the artist feels.
The colours, bright or pastel, are always intense. The rythm of the brush
is gay, without hesitation. The white lines evoke the musical pentagram, the
origin of this work. Waves of light irrupt suggesting joy, and light-heartedness.
Waves break over rocks, quiet water of lagoons, lights form the clouds, warm
colours of autumn, winds that sweep the mist away - the forces of creation
- this is what is felt in this first movement of Dessa's paintings. But light-heartedness
can be the print of sadness: there are obscure dark tones, a drop of red,
the blood is the prophecy of what is to come…The artist is not discouraged,
the will to live is supreme and the movemant ends with an aerial painting
with light markings - the dark pigment suggests the relief, vividness.
Life is movement : Alla Marcia - the atmosphere has changed: the tones
are darker, the movemnet of the palette is stronger. Amongst the red spots
one sees a human face, sad, suffering, almost cadaveric. At the top someone
with open arms prehaps to embrace the world below, or an invocation towards
the Supreme Being. At his feet the forms suggest an obscur tunnel, but above
there is light, hope, the world. Tortured lines, slashed, bent upon themselves
mean fear - the self-resignation of men marching in silence, the weariness
of putting one foot in front of the other, knowing that this march will bring
about a change only for the worse…
On an obscure background vertical lines end in a bright white heap, circled
by winding plastic formations which seem to suggest a fugitif but beneficial
souvenir. This painting does not inspire sadness; the game of light and shadow,
the colour tonation, the form and lightness of the palette give the feeling
of calm, the memory of pleasant sensations. But this moment of abandon is
sharply interrupted by a succession of intenses colours, by circular formations,
sudden openings through spirals of light that are blocked by emerging violent
forms - as if one's contemplation lost in far horizons, is bruskly brought
back to one's sad reality.
Violent sensations surrender their place to that of the conscience, to the
wisdom of ancient knowledge: here is Adagio which begins with a soft
movement, soothing - it continues with fireworks, an explosion of confounded
feelings: sentiments that find an issue in a desperate outburst against brutality,
indifference - it seems to say, this outburst, that one must not forget, that
despite all, it could be transformed into a cry for hope. This same movement
ends with a quiet composition where the brush strokes trace a large and open
form, and the tone of colour induces a hint of sadness.
But why be so serious - wouldn't it be better to live day by day, taking what
life has to give? Life is only a game, destiny, a tragic " Scherzo".
And " Scherzo " is the second last movement, the paintings charged
with colour - an aerial composition with open strokes. The succession of forms
suggest an ever-changing soul, a mutation of sentiments, a mixture of situations
and events where the confusion hides the reality. The reality however, promptly
returns to the scene, but we are not speaking about reality at this moment,
but rather that which continues from the past and bringing forth the future.
And the " Finale ", inspired by a tradional Hebrew melody, speaks of
that past and that future.
The dynamic of the formations speak of the past with the crossing of the Red
Sea, with the backflow of the tumultuous currents upon the pursuers and their
hopelessness as they are swallowed by the waves. The Finale speaks of the
future of the Promised Land beyond the heavenly spheres, with cascades of
milk, green harvests, the red of sacrifices dedicated to Him that is all,
to Him that guides us towards a future of hope, beyond the tragic end, above
and beyond all.
So that we never forget.
Ferdinando Tiveron
 Dessa in front of her Tryptic inspired by the music of Hans Krasa, with Dr. Munk (left) Director of the Terezin Memorial and Translator |
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 Dessa´s brother Dr. John Abeles (left) with Marcus Gerhardts (right), Ghetto Museum Theresienstadt (Teresin) |
 Edgar Krasa, survivor of Theresienstadt-Concentration Camp, relative of the composer Hans Krasa |
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 The Hawthorne Quartet from Boston played music by Hans Krasa, Viktor Ullmann and David Post. Three paintings inspired by Hans Krasa's Quartet, commissioned by Mark Ludwig for this concert, were exhibited behind the musicians. There is one painting for each movement of the Quartet. |
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