ǿ޴ý

© 2025 ǿ޴ý
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Classical 101

Pianist Revives The Music of Holocaust Survivor Karol Rathaus In New Recording Series

ccolor photo of Daniel Wnukowski playing the piano
wnukowski.com
Pianist Daniel Vnukowski

“It was dark, unsettling. And it, in a way, kind of reflected my own family’s dark history.”

That’s how the music of Austrian-born Holocaust survivor Karol Rathaus first struck Canadian pianist Daniel Vnukowski when he heard it for the first time several years ago.

“This man was completely obscure to me, but the music resonated so strongly,” Vnukowski said in a recent phone interview.

Rathaus’ story also resonated with Vnukowski, whose own grandparents survived the Holocaust. This man was once the star pupil of one of Europe’s most important composers, once a major success in Weimar Republic Germany, once a path-breaking composer of serious music for films and once a member of the faculty of Queen’s College in New York City.

“Just upon listening to a couple seconds (of Rathaus’ music), one is immediately transported to the alienation of a Jew in the Weimar Republic era, the impending doom, the hyperinflation,” said Vnukowski. “In an instant one experiences a certain flashback. And I was hooked. It bit me like a bug.”

And yet, Rathaus and his music had fallen completely into oblivion.

In an effort to bring Rathaus’ music back to awareness and back into the concert hall, Vnukowski has released the fi