Opções; o mundo gira por elas, ou pela sua falta. A geração de meus avós sonhou alto, viu suas maiores ideologias se transformarem em ismos, cristalizações totalitárias gerando milhões de mortos. A experiência de perder tudo menos a esperança, a necessidade de lutar pela vida, defender a mulher e os filhos, a opção essencial, princípio máximo de realidade – o mínimo de recursos, concentração total, cada instante é vital. O tempo de resposta é quase nulo, o pensar se dá em reflexos, qualquer erro custa a continuidade, a própria vida. E diante de todas as ameaças, da força bruta, das maiores privações e opressões, da falta de sentido, apenas uma direção salvou a possibilidade de seguir sobrevivendo e sonhando – a integridade. A opção de seguir junto a si, da sua essência, voz própria inaudível aos demais. Confiança, lealdade, cumplicidade, termos familiares, pacto de sangue pela superação.
Ao final, o recomeçar. Nova realidade, mesmo princípio. A reconstrução de possibilidades, de melhores opções, as futuras gerações. Do insuportável e impossível passado leva a memória a força de superação. Intangível, a matéria dos sonhos e da memória só poderia ser concretizada em sons – Sinfonia ISMUS, composta em cinco capítulos: Pátria, Destino da guerra, Anseio (Saudade?), Esperança, Liberdade.
Ditada pelo coração, escrita por outra mão, dá conta de fazer sem ter os meios, força vital como leitmotiv.
Do neto, a eterna gratidão. Ouvir a sua voz hoje, após 59 anos de sua única audição, é mais que uma realização. Honrar a fonte, renovar a sua mensagem e a riqueza de seus sons e harmônicos – a reedição desta partitura recompõe um todo maior, à opção de ser tocado.
Marcelo Rogozinski
12/03/07
1905
Benjamin Boleslaw Rogozinski nasce em Wloclawek na Polônia, caçula de cinco filhos homens.
1931
Representante comercial de sucesso, casa com Herta Heilborn
1933
Nasce Rudolf Tadeusz, primeiro filho do casal, em Katowice, Polônia.
1938
Nasce Robert Michael, segundo filho do casal, em Katowice, Polônia.
1939
A invasão alemã obriga a família a se refugiar na fronteira com a Rússia.
1939
A família é deportada num trem de carga para um campo de concentração russo na Sibéria.
1943
Benjamin é recrutado para lutar na divisão polonesa do exército soviético.
1943
Herta e os filhos são enviados para o Casaquistão.
1943 a 1945
Benjamin luta na divisão Kosciusko do exército polonês, em campanha de Smolensk a Berlim. É condecorado sete vezes.
1945
A família se reencontra na Polônia.
1946
Viajam para Munique. Benjamin procura por trabalho e idealiza a sinfonia Ismus.
1948
A sinfonia Ismus estreia executada pela Orquestra da Rádio da Baviera, com transmissão ao vivo pela rádio de Munique.
1949
A família consegue um visto de entrada no Brasil. Se estabelecem no Rio de Janeiro.
1981
Benjamin falece no Rio de Janeiro.
2006
A partitura da sinfonia Ismus é resgatada pelo neto, digitalizada, e cópias enviadas a várias orquestras de diferentes países.
2008
A OSPA – Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre, sob direção artística do Maestro Isaac Karabtchevsky e regência do Maestro Osman Gioia, estreia a Sinfonia Ismus no Brasil.
2008
A Orquestra Sinfônica de Recife, sob regência do Maestro Osman Gioia, executa a Sinfonia Ismus no Teatro de Santa Isabel.
Gostaríamos de agradecer as pessoas que tem apoiado o projeto de resgate da música de B.B. Rogozinski, especialmente:
Isaac Karabtchevsky
Osman Gioia
Elisa Moori
Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre
Orquestra Sinfônica de Recife
União Israelita do Rio Grande do Sul
Ruben Najmanovich
Augusto Fragelli
Marcelo Bratke
Charles Gavin
Flavio Chamis
Daniel Grossmann
Friedrich Röhrer-Ertl
Options; the world turns for them or for the lack of them. My grandparents’ generation had wonderful dreams but was witness to changes that transformed their greatest ideologies into isms, totalitarian crystallizations resulting in millions of dead. The experience of losing everything but hope, the need to fight for life, the protection of wife and children always the first option in a way of living that faced the hardest of circumstances – a minimum of resources, a need for total concentration, each moment being essential to life. Time for response is almost nought, thinking is a reflex action, mistakes can cost a life. And despite threats, brutal forces, deprivation , oppression and the loss of meaning, only one course rescued the will to go on living and dreaming – the course of integrity. The choice of staying true to oneself, to your essence, a voice of your own, unheard by others. Trust, loyalty, partnership, familiar terms, a blood pact to overcome obstacles. In the end, a new beginning. New realities, same principles. The reconstruction of possibilities, of better options, future generations. Memories carry the power to overcome the unbearable and impossible past. Intangible, this material made up of dreams and memories could only be concreted in the form of sounds – ISMUS SYMPHONY, consisting of five chapters: Homeland, War Destiny, Longing, Hope, Liberty.
Spoken from the heart, written by another hand, doing without having the means to, vital force as leitmotiv.
From your grandson, everlasting thanks. To hear your voice today, 59 years after its only audition is more than a fullfilment. To honour the source, to renew your message and the richness of your sounds and harmonic tones - the reedition of this score recomposes a larger whole, offering the option to be played.
Marcelo Rogozinski
12/03/07
Benjamin Boleslaw Rogozinski was a Polish Jew who fled his country with his wife and two small children when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. Arriving at the border, he found that the Russians were compelling refugees to accept Russian citizenship. He refused to do so and the family was sent to Siberia as enemies of the regime.
On the trip to Siberia on a cargo train, Benjamin’s younger son fell ill; yet there were no provisions at all on the train, even for healthy people. The child grew weaker and weaker and finally, at a train stop, Benjamin jumped to the platform with the child in his arms. He landed in front of a wall of Russian soldiers pointing their guns at him, ordering him to return to the train. Benjamin replied that they could kill him if necessary, but they must find food and medicine for his sick child. His brazen act of defiance worked and this attitude became a hallmark of his entire life.
The family stayed in a camp in Siberia for two years (being sent to Kazakstan afterwards). During this time, the Russians organized the Polish troops to fight the Nazis alongside the Soviet Army. In 1942, Benjamin was drafted by the Stalin regime and enlisted in the “Kosciusko” division of this Polish army. He fought all the way from Smolensk to Berlin and was awarded 13 medals for bravery.
On the way to re-conquering Poland, Officer Rogozinski asked for a leave of absence and went to Lublin (the temporary capital of Poland). There, he located the office of the Ministry of Foreign Relations and — wearing his campaign uniform — went straight in to see the Minister, ignoring all the secretaries who tried to stop him. He saluted the Minister, put his gun on the table, and stated that he would only go on fighting and winning the war if the Minister promised that his family should be the first to return from exile in Kazakstan. The promise was made and the family was reunited in Moscow in May of 1945, in time to see the fireworks in Red Square on V-Day.
The Rogozinski’s spent a short time in Poland, but the climate seemed too hostile to them and they moved to Munich. There, Benjamin composed the symphony he called Ismus, which literally translates as “-isms,” referring to all of the belief systems that had buffeted and shaped their lives, including Judaism, Nazism, Communism, anti-Semitism, Fascism, patriotism and Zionism. Ismus was inspired by the saga Benjamin had just lived and by the imminent creation of the state of Israel.
In his inimitable style, Benjamin did not know how to write music, but he played all the parts of his symphony on the piano and hired a professor from the local conservatory to write the score. The movements are as follows:
The symphony was performed and broadcast live in 1948 by the state radio orchestra (Radio Munich), then under American control. The broadcast honored the Jewish holiday of Passover, which celebrates the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt into freedom, centuries earlier. As far as Benjamin’s descendants can determine, this broadcast was the only time that Ismus was ever performed. The family has archival paper documentation of this Passover broadcast (newspaper reviews, etc.), but no audio recording exists.
In 1949, Benjamin moved his family to Brazil, where he had other relatives, to create a new life. He died there in 1981. His wife still survives at age 102 and has five great grand-children. Their two sons live in Rio: Rudolf Tadeusz , born in 1933, is an accomplished sales representative who speaks five languages. Robert Michal, born in 1938, is an architect and so is his only son.
In 2006, Rudolf Rogozinski’s three children — two musicians and one film maker — started the arduous process of rescuing their family legacy, Ismus. They dream of having the symphony performed again in 2008, on the 60th anniversary of the first broadcast. The original, hand-written manuscript has been scanned and transcribed into contemporary musical notation. A MIDI version of the symphony (computer-generated music) has also been created (click here for download options). Benjamin’s grandchildren hope to find an orchestra in Brazil, Europe, Israel or the United States that wants to participate in this historic act of commemoration.
Contact:
Marcelo Rogozinski
info@rogozinski.com.br