Vienna's Violinist
In March 1938 Germany annexes Austria, at the Heldenplatz Hitler gives a speech to over 200,000 rapturous Viennese, a pogrom ensues ... and Jews are expelled from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Klaus Lehner plays first violin for the Orchestra and covets the newly vacant concertmaster position. He is bitterly disappointed when passed over. Eva, his lover, tasks him with mastering difficult pieces by Bach and Paganini. Can he rival her virtuosity? Can they leave Vienna and pursue careers as soloists?
Helga, his wife, gives birth to Ilse, who is to become an adoring daughter.
When Eva's Nazi husband finds out about the affair he is sent to a Mauthausen forced-labor subcamp. He survives the camp, translating his nightmares into a tone poem.
On his return to a war-ravaged he is rebuked by the leader of the Orchestra, appointed in 1938, for having hidden his Jewish ancestry. Klaus makes a living busking on the streets of Vienna while seeking to reconfigure a family that has suffered greatly.
Klaus auditions for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, playing the pieces prescribed by Eva. She is present at the audition and realizes that soloist options are real. The Orchestra offers him a position and the prospect of becoming the concertmaster.
Music and love are like waves on an incoming tide and Klaus is being washed ashore.
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