Sandra Kreisler (Rezitation) & Naoko Christ-Kato (Klavier) - Quellen des Lebens - Die Kraft jüdischer Frauen

A poetic and deeply evocative evening in which rediscovered piano works by the Dutch composer Rosy Wertheim are paired with selected poems by Jewish female poets such as Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger, Tamar Radzyner, and Emma Kann.

The Composer:
Rosy Wertheim (1888–1948) wrote music that was as lyrical as it was combative and multifaceted. She lived in Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna, and New York and was one of the first Dutch female composers to achieve international success. When the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, she hid not only herself but also others, and survived—barely.

The Poets:
Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger did not survive the Shoah; Tamar Radzyner was dragged through several concentration camps and survived. Emma Kann is a recent discovery; she was able to flee more or less in time and lived, nearly blind, in several countries.
Three very different authors: one rather romantic, the second full of melancholic clarity, and the third decidedly rebellious.
And three vastly different lives, yet all marked first by anti-Semitism, then by everyday patriarchy, which led to their works being forgotten more quickly than those of male poets.

The works of these three authors not only capture the featured music in emotional and apt words; they also build a bridge to the present—a present in which we all fear we may soon have to face equally volatile times.

Performer Sandra Kreisler and pianist Naoko Christ-Kato explore, on this evening, the poetic vitality that arises from a tender yet tenacious devotion to art as both a source and an outlet.
The evening is not merely a romanticized look back at forgotten female artists; the music and texts exemplify Jewish-female life worlds even in today’s context.

The renowned pianist Naoko Christ-Kato has also recorded Wertheim’s enchanting piano works on CD. (Available since November 2025 on the GENUIN label.) Many of these are world premiere recordings.

Sandra Kreisler, an acclaimed actress and performer who needs no further introduction, contributes to the rediscovery of the deeply moving Czech poet Tamar Radzyner (1927–1991), of whom only a slim volume, self-published and long out of print, existed in Austria.
Emma Kann was rediscovered just last year by a small publishing house in Baden-Württemberg. Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger—who died in a concentration camp at the age of just 18—is already somewhat better known.