BADENHEIM

Second Stride’s Badenheim was based Aharon Appelfeld’s novel Badenheim 1939, in which a group of Jewish holidaymakers assemble for their holidays in a spa town in the hills. Summer in Badenheim revolves around the festival, organized by Dr. Pappenheim. There is huge expectation attached to the festival, partly because there’s almost nothing else to do. A febrile atmosphere, ricocheting between excitement and boredom. Meanwhile, the council is carrying out mysterious works. The town is being remodelled. Parts of it become out of bounds. The people are anxious, but try to ignore the intrusion on their summer enjoyment. Gradually, unnoticeably, the town becomes more isolated. There’s less and less to eat, and a mild anarchy breaks out. The hotel stores are raided. Dr. Pappenheim is reassuring. The festival is going well. As summer ends, people prepare to leave. But it doesn’t seem to be possible. The anarchy worsens. The pharmacy is raided. Dr. Pappenheim puts his affairs in order. Elsewhere in the town, there is chaos. A train appears. ‘Because the carriages are so dirty,’ says Dr. Pappenheim, ‘it must mean we haven't far to go.’

The book is written in a detached style, rather W. G. Sebald-like, as if Appelfeld were a scientist. Curiously this makes the characters more sympathetic, and the tragedy more terrible. It’s easy to be critical of the people’s myopia, but difficult to believe one would have acted differently oneself.

We converted this troubling book into a piece of dance-theatre. Originally Arnold Wesker was going to write a script, but he disliked my music so much that he decided not to. I still have the rather alarming postcard which he wrote to me. Sian Evans stepped in, and created, in a much more collaborative way, a beautiful script, allowing for complex movement and dance sequences. The piece was performed by the dancers Lucy Burge, Betsy Gregory, Catherine Malone and Philippe Giradeau, the actors Linda Dobell and Damien Dibben, the singers Richard Chew and Beverley Klein, and a marvellous all-female band: Abigail Brown (violin), Sarah Homer (clarinets, double bass), Dini Pressman (trombone, double bass), Clare Salaman (accordion, hurdy-gurdy).

Researching for the project, I started to introduce myself to klezmer music (obviously) – not entirely easy to find at the time, as it had gone underground in WW2, and hadn’t fully re-emerged. I listened to the splendidly rough-and-ready New York band The Klezmorin, and the more sophisticated Klezmatics. I was bowled over.  Like the best folk music, it was somehow simultaneously life-affirming yet tragic. It had a profound influence on my music, not only for Badenheim but several subsequent projects, including an elaborate piece Birds On Fire I wrote for the viol consort Fretwork.