Jewish musicians remembered in new exhibition
The Royal Academy of Music to tell the tragic story of Arnold and Alma Rosé
As the world marks this year the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitzbirkenau, the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) is staging an exhibition and series of concerts in memory of two leading Jewish violinists whose lives were devastated by the Nazis. Only the Violins Remain: Alma and Arnold Rosé will tell the story of a father and daughter who became separated for good when, in 1942, Alma was arrested in the Netherlands and sent to the concentration camp in Germanoccupied Poland.
While the exhibition will display artefacts relating to the two musicians, including Guadagnini and Stradivarius violins of the same era as those they played, the accompanying musical events will include Karin Hendrickson conducting a concert of works that were played by the Auschwitz Women’s
Orchestra, which Alma directed, plus Bach’s Double Concerto preceded by a recording of Arnold and Alma themselves playing the work. Anita Lasker-wallfisch, herself a cellist in the Auschwitz Women’s Orchestra, will also appear in conversation with her son, the cellist Raphael Wallfisch.
The story of Arnold and Alma Rosé is filled with tragic irony. Arnold, the brother-in-law of Gustav Mahler, was an important figure in Viennese musical life and the leader of the famous Rosé Quartet, while Alma was also a successful soloist. The pair escaped to England when Germany annexed Austria in 1938, but finances proved tight and Alma travelled to Nazioccupied Holland to resume her career.
‘The whole story is heart-wrenching,’ explains Gabrielle Gale, curator of the RAM Museum. ‘Arnold wanted to sell his violin at one point to raise funds, but Alma decided to take the certificate for his Stradivarius to the Netherlands to stop him doing so. She essentially sacrificed herself for the family because she knew she could get work in the Netherlands.’
At Auschwitz, however, it was her violin that e ectively kept Alma alive – as the director of an orchestra that was considered an important status symbol of the camp, she was given special privileges. In recruiting players and rehearsing them for many hours a day, meanwhile, she also saved the lives of many others.
She didn’t, however, get to see the outside world again. ‘Alma’s death in 1944 is shrouded in mystery,’ says Gale. ‘It was put down as “food poisoning”, but it could have been that someone else poisoned her through jealousy. Alternatively, she might have got so despondent that she killed herself, or it could have been just an accident. She wasn’t put to death.’
Only the Violins Remain runs until 30 May at the Royal Academy of Music, London
At Auschwitz, it was Alma Rosé’s violin that effectively kept her alive