War Poets

Celan & Yevtushenko

Two events from the Holocaust—both extraordinary and difficult to grasp—inspired a pair of poems, read by millions. Those poems in turn inspired great paintings by a German artist, and a magnificent musical piece by a Russian composer. This presentation considers Paul Celan’s poem “Death Fugue” alongside the paintings of Anselm Kiefer, and Yevtushenko’s poem “Babi Yar,” set in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, in tandem with Shostakovich’s 13^th Symphony. 

With Joan Peterson