Overview

Brent explores the fate of Lev Aronson, first cellist for the Latvian orchestra, and the prized instruments that passed through his hands as a way of understanding what was lost and preserved during the Holocaust. Aronson's life leads him through the Russian revolution, pogroms and Cold War Berlin to the United States, and he is forced to reshape his identity in each chapter of his life in order to survive. A moving portrait of being Jewish in Russia, the brutalities of the camps and the status of refugees in Berlin and America.

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9781934633113

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A moving coda to a period that continues to astonish us, The Lost Cellos of Lev Aronson must be read by anyone who cares about history and loves music. -- Kati Marton, author of <em>The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World</em>

Starred Review. Poet and translator Brent (The Beautiful Lesson of the I) gives readers a beautifully meditative account of a Holocaust survivor and cellist, Lev Aronson, and the musical instruments that were like soul mates to him especially his prized Amati cello, which was taken from him during the war. Aronson was confined to the Riga ghetto and later the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland, but this is not an account of his experiences. Instead, it is Brent's meditation on the fate of music, musicians, and their instruments during dark times. It is also, in a way, a mystery, as Brent investigates what may have happened to the confiscated cello.--Paul Kaplan

By following the interconnected fates of an eminent musician and his cherished cello during the Holocaust, Frances Brent gives us new insight into both the human horror and the material plunder at the heart of the Nazi project. A graceful book about a dark history, The Lost Cellos of Lev Aronson illuminates the deep bonds between artists and their instruments, the rich musical life of interwar Central Europe, and the power of music to sustain the spirit in the face of extremity. --Eva Hoffmann, author of Appassionata

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