Al Naharot Bavel (By the Rivers of Babylon) in Dresden, Germany

…The Synagogue was packed, every seat taken. Works by Jewish composers were resurrected, reminding the audience of the systematic persecution of the Jews three quarters of a century ago.

The Neue Jüdische Kammerphilharmonie Dresden invited the audience to take part in an evening of extremely thoughtful contemplation, including works by Franz Schreker, Alexander Zemlinsky, Marc Lavry and Franz Waxman…

Particularly moving was Lavry’s tone poem “Al Naharot Bavel“, a work that palpably expresses confusion, mourning and rage, in which the listener feels himself as if seized by hands shaking with anger, as if every bar of music wanted to cry out: ‘Why?’ The conductor Michael Hurshell and his Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra succeeded in building up, with this composition, a terrific, atmospheric tension in the Synagogue, that nearly reaches the breaking point.

— Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten, Nov. 19, 2013 — by Nicole Czerwinka