Simon Laks

Portrait de l'oiseau-qui-n'existe-pas

Simon Laks have been known to historians and musicologists for a long time, mainly as author of his report on the survival as a musician in the extermination camp of Birkenau (Musik in Auschwitz/Music of another world). As a composer, he has been experiencing a comeback for several years which is also due to the increased international interest in the music of the repertoire suppressed and destroyed by Nazi Germany. One of the highlights of his creative oeuvre is a large collection of vocal compositions which are made accessible as part of the Boosey & Hawkes edition for the first time or anew after a long time, the first works being Trois poèmes chantés based on poems by Wanda Maya Berezowska (1960) and Portrait de L'oiseau qui n'existe pas (Portrait of the Bird That Doesn't Exist, 1964). Claude Aveline's poem, which has been translated into many languages, initiated a series of artistic realizations by a large number of painters from different stylistic movements until in the 1970s (today to be seen as collection in the Paris Centre Pompidou). In his brilliant musical setting, Laks evoked the humorous, surrealistic world of his opera L'Hirondelle inattendue (The Unexpected Swallow) which was based on a radio play by Aveline.