Simon Laks' piano works do not form a monolithic block, as the five string quartets might have represented had the first two not been lost. There is no corpus of piano sonatas, for example, and no extensive collections of préludes or concert études. The pieces for keyboard instruments date from different phases of his life in the most diverse contexts; most of them remained unpublished or even unperformed during his lifetime and may in some cases be classified as occasional works. One of the strengths of the present collection lies precisely in the heterogeneity of these works, as we find all facets of his musical output represented here: Parisian styles of the 1920s (Sonatine), neo-classical and neo-baroque elements (Sonate brève, Suite dans le goût ancien), echoes of impressionism (Prélude), inspiration taken from light music (Blues, Polka), as well as a perfect sensitivity to the sound world of Chopin (Ballade), to the 18th century (Trois Polonaises) and to Yiddish folklore (Les filles du forgeron). Simon Laks was born in Warsaw in 1901, studied mathematics in Vilnius and music in his hometown and in Paris, where he lived permanently from 1926 and Frenchified his first name from Szymon to Simon. 1941 proved to be the decisive year in his life. In May, due to his Jewish origins, he was interned in the Beaune-la-Rolande concentration camp (between Paris and Orléans), from where he was deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in July 1942. He finally spent the last months of the war from October 1944 until the American liberation in Sachsenhausen and Dachau. He was only able to survive the time in Auschwitz because his musical skills enabled him to conduct the camp orchestra. The attention that the composer receives as part of the culture of remembering the Holocaust nonetheless harbours a trap: feeling satisfied with performances of his works on the usual memorial days or during relevant symposia – a renewed ghettoisation– becomes all too easy while thereby forgetting that music of this quality ought to find its place in normal concert seasons.
