Ronald Corp: Letters from Lony
Letters from Lony tells the story of Leonie (‘Lony’) Rabl in her own words. A German-Jewish exile from Nazism, she ran the Café de Paris in Amsterdam, writing when she could to her daughter and family, safe in England; two further letters survive from after her deportation, on the journey that took her via Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. Ronald Corp sets Lony’s letters as accompanied arioso, all the more moving for its understatement.
Sarah Pring, mezzo-soprano
Chilingirian Quartet
Levon Chilingirian, violin
Ronald Birks, violin
Susie Mészáros, viola
Stephen Orton, cello
Andrew Brownell, piano
Listen To This Recording:
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Letters from Lony (2017)
- No. 1, Letter 1 13 September 1939
- No. 1a, Lullaby
- No. 2, Letter 2 28 September 1939
- No. 3, Letter 3 16 November 1939
- No. 4, Letter 4 3 December 1939
- No. 5, Letter 5 18 December 1939
- No. 5a, Interlude
- No. 6, Letter 6 13 February 1940
- No. 7, Letter 7 5 May 1940
- No. 7a, Interlude
- No. 8, Letter 8 26 September 1940
- No. 9, Letter 9 undated, 1940
- No. 10, Letter 10 undated, probably c. 9 November
- No. 11, Letter 11 undated, probably later in November
- No. 11a, Interlude
- No. 12, Letter 12 11 February 1941
- No. 13, Letter 13 unknown date, perhaps late September/early October 1941
- No. 14, Letter 14 1 October 1941
- No. 15, Letter 15 6 January 1942
- No. 15a, Interlude
- No. 16, Letter 16 30 December 1943, from Westerbork Camp
- No. 17, Letter 17 23 February 1944, from Westerbork Camp
FIRST RECORDING
Fanfare Magazine :
“Elegantly scored for mezzo, piano, and string quartet, Corp’s vocal writing is sensible… the playing of the Chilingirian Quartet and pianist Andrew Brownell is subtle and beyond reproach. Sarah Pring communicates the text very well from near-whisper to full-throated operatic anguish… Sound is all you could wish for, as are the booklet notes, which contain full texts as well as artist bios and an excellent overview of Rabl’s story, as well as historical context and photos. … The subject matter is undeniably moving” —Barnaby Rayfield
British Music Society :
‘Ronald Corp’s song-cycle Letters From Lony is in many ways unique. … In his own introduction to the piece, Ronald Corp tells us that one of his most challenging tasks in bringing the piece to life was in editing the texts taken from the letters down to a size that would work when set to music. In that, he has been remarkably successful. […] we get to know [Lony] intimately. […] The words of the letters sung by Sarah Pring with subtle and delicate accompaniments by the Chilingirian String Quartet and pianist Andrew Brownell capture Lony’s often sunshiny and always optimistic sense of relationship with her family. In the end this gives her character a kind of universality. It is only at the very end before being sent to Theresienstadt that the instrumental accompaniments turn dark and threatening. Finally, Sarah Pring sings unaccompanied the words of an earlier lullaby composed by Corp while leaving the stage, sounding more and more distant on the CD. We realise that Lony has died, but also that she has in a sense, through this music, achieved a kind of immortality.”
—Alan Cooper, British Music Society