Leonie ('Lony') Fraenkel was a German-Jewish exile from Nazi Berlin who set up the CafÃ© de Paris on Beethovenstraat in Amsterdam in 1939. In late 1939 she sent a card to greet Peter, her first grandson, newly born in safety in England, and over the next three years she sent a series of letters to Peter and his mother, Lony's daughter. In 1943 she was deported first to the Westerbork transit camp, and then to Theresienstadt and, finally, in October 1944 to Auschwitz, where she was gassed two days after her arrival. Many years later, that grandson, Peter, now a grandfather himself, discovered Lony's letters, translated them and brought them to the attention of the composer Ronald Corp. Ronald Corp has set Lony's letters in a series of lyrical arioso recitatives for mezzo-soprano, string quartet, and piano, lasting just over an hour. The cycle was first heard at the Proms in St. Jude's in Hampstead Garden Suburb, North London, in 2017, and now Toccata Classics is releasing it's first recording.

Tracklist:

Letters From Lony: No. 1, 13 September 1939
Letters From Lony: No. 1a, Lullaby
Letters From Lony: No. 2, 28 September 1939
Letters From Lony: No. 3, 16 November 1939
Letters From Lony: No. 4, 3 December 1939
Letters From Lony: No. 5, 18 December 1939
Letters From Lony: No. 5a, Interlude
Letters From Lony: No. 6, 11 February 1940
Letters From Lony: No. 7, 5 May 1940 To Annemarie
Letters From Lony: No. 7a, Interlude. 10 May 1940
Letters From Lony: No. 8, 26 September 1940 To The Family
Letters From Lony: No. 9, Undated, 1940 To The Family
Letters From Lony: No. 10, Undated, Probably About 9 November 1940 To Annemarie
Letters From Lony: No. 11, Undated, Probably Later In November 1940 To The Family
Letters From Lony: No. 11a, Interlude
Letters From Lony: No. 12, 11 February 1941 To Peter
Letters From Lony: No. 13, Unknown Date, Believed To Be 7 December 1940 To Annemarie
Letters From Lony: No. 14, 1 October 1941 To Bachmann
Letters From Lony: No. 15, 6 January 1942 Card Addressed To Hans From Bachmann In Lony’s Name
Letters From Lony: No. 15a, Interlude
Letters From Lony: No. 16, 30 December 1943, From Westerbork Camp To Josef Blum
Letters From Lony: No. 17, 23 February 1944, From Westerbork Camp To Josef Blum

UPC: 5060113445070
Label: Toccata
Release Date: 1.4.19
Format: CD

Corp / Pring / Brownell - Letters from Lony (CD)