A Musical Recovery

This work discusses the antisemitism that accompanied Nazism and Stalinism, its impact on music, and the enduring reverberations of exile. At the heart of the narrative are accounts of how a cohort of early twentieth-century composers – all graduates of Europe’s most exacting musical institutions – was forced to flee their homelands. A musician, as well as a musical detective, Simon Wynberg explores composers’ professional options, their responses to alien social, cultural, and physical environments – ranging from depression and alienation to enthusiasm and loyalty – as well as the ways in which exile impacted the nature and style of their work.

Wynberg describes the fascinating process whereby composers such as Szymon Laks, Jerzy Fitelberg, Walter Kaufmann, Frederick Block, Alberto Hemsi, and many more, were identified and their forgotten works located, assessed, and recovered. The individual biographies and sociohistorical records of each "lost” composer are revelatory and enlightening, their music wonderfully colourful and accessible. A Musical Recovery offers invaluable insights into the lives and legacies that were banished during modern history’s bleakest period, and discusses issues surrounding artistic responsibility and the challenges that accompany the Holocaust’s memorialization.