Berlin – He was skeptical, says Jascha Nemtsov, even when he arrived at the archive of the Academy of Arts. An elderly gentleman whom he barely knew had dragged him here because he really wanted to show him his uncle’s music. Jascha Nemtsov is a musicologist who specializes in re-recording persecuted and forgotten composers of the 20th century. That’s why he is now often approached by people who believe they have an undiscovered star in the family.
Maybe it was again, “some uncle who wrote salon waltzes”, he even thought briefly at first. A lovable semi-layman. In the archive there was a pile of handwritten manuscripts and a cassette recording. The elderly gentleman immersed himself in letters from his uncle, which were also in the collection. Nemtsov picked up the score that matched the recording, he wanted to read the music while it was playing.