Imri Talgam & Lilian Kars – Wat blijft is de muziek

• 2 May 2026
  • 20:00 – 22:00

A tragic story full of hope, featuring music long hidden. Pianist Imri Talgam performs previously unheard works by Menachem Asscher, a pianist and composer who was sent to Germany at the age of 22 and never returned. Lilian Kars uses excerpts from works like “Dancer Without Legs” by Menachem’s mother, Clara Asscher-Pinkhof, to tell Menachem’s story, which is further brought to life with music by composers including Beethoven and Bach. A truly moving “storytelling concert.”

In July 1942, 22-year-old Menachem Asscher received a summons to a labor camp in Germany. He went with high spirits, and on July 7, 1942, he was gassed almost immediately upon arrival in Auschwitz. There, as for many others, his story could have ended. But Menachem, son of writer Clara Asscher Pinkhof and Chief Rabbi of Groningen Abraham Asscher, was a gifted pianist and a young composer. He studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory, and thanks to his mother, much of his music was saved. These works sat for years, buried in the memory of surviving family members. That is, until Lilian Kars, who, along with her husband Paul Janssen, is working on a book about Menachem’s uncle Sallie Pinkhof and his family, unearthed the music thanks to the research of surviving family members in Israel. Now, this music is being performed publicly for the first time, by Israeli pianist Imri Talgam. Lilian Kars recounts Menachem’s life and development, using excerpts from works including Clara Asscher-Pinkhof’s autobiography, “Dancer Without Legs,” while the story and music are further fleshed out with works by Beethoven, Bach, and Menachem’s contemporary, Leo Smit. Combined with photographs of Menachem and his family, it vividly charts the horrors of war and, in passing, reveals the extent to which a wealth of cultural richness and development can be brutally cut off. A concert full of palpable drama, compelling music, and ultimately, above all, hope.