Don’t Forget About Me: The Short Life of Gideon Klein, Composer and Pianist
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by David Fligg
Royal octavo
322pp
110 illustrations
‘Don’t Forget about Me’ chronicles the extraordinary and moving story about the young Czech pianist and composer Gideon Klein. Standing on the threshold of what was to be an auspicious career, Klein’s musical activities in Prague were ruptured, as he, his family and friends were deported, interned in the Terezín (Theresienstadt) prison camp and ghetto. There his life took an even more unexpected turn, as he galvanised prisoners into an astonishing array of musical activities, and he composed his finest and most compelling music.
Until recently, Klein’s music has largely been performed within the context of Holocaust memorialisation. But events commemorating the Klein centenary in 2019 offered audiences and musicians the opportunity to re-assess and reposition Klein’s place in the history of twentieth-century music and European modernism. David Fligg’s monograph on Klein, the first in a quarter of a century, continues this process.
Drawing on hitherto unpublished archival sources, interviews with Holocaust survivors who were imprisoned with him, many rare photographs and detailed musical analysis, ‘Don’t forget about me’ recounts Klein’s life from his Moravian childhood (he was born in Přerov in 1919), charting the development of his musical talent. It presents the first detailed examination of how the teenage Klein engaged with the numerous artistes who were at the centre of the vibrant cultural environment of pre-war Prague. Klein was finally transported to an isolated and bleak Auschwitz sub-camp, in the freezing closing weeks of 1944, where he was killed in a massacre by the retreating prison guards.
His story, along with the compositions which remarkably survived Terezín, is one of the most fascinating of Czech Jews during the Holocaust, and documents how one young man continued to make music in the face of evil.
William Weiss :
I am a lover of chamber baroque and classical music! Gideons Trumpet as it is in my craft of listening to the sullen art blows deeply w/in me in the compositions of Gideon Klein: We will not forget you! Love Billy Weiss.
MusicWeb International :
‘This new biography by David Fligg is a powerful study of a clearly remarkable young man whose fate embodies the appalling legacy of the Nazi regime. […][Fligg] writes with scholarly insight leavened by passion and dedication. […]
Fligg is very good at detailing the range and variety of Klein’s activities in the camp. Compositions are discussed in some detail but not in a manner that requires the reader to have great technical musical knowledge. Interestingly for several of the works pages of Klein’s original manuscripts are reproduced. […]
This is not the first biography about Gideon Klein, but it is the first in many years and obviously makes use of the most recent and detailed information that has come to light. Nearly every page has copious footnotes and alongside the main text there are valuable appendices of a list of works and a timeline. Fligg describes the book as “an odyssey to discover Gideon Klein”. But it is more than that, it is a memorial to all those whose lives were swept away by the mindless ideology and inhuman cruelty of the Nazi regime. Klein might represent one of those whose creative light burnt brightest but the personal tragedy of every individual murdered and those left behind to mourn is represented here too.
A powerful and compelling study of an artist who will not be forgotten.’
—Nick Barnard, MusicWeb International
Forbidden Music :
‘For all readers interested in Klein, Fligg offers the advantage of time and distance allowing him to write objectively and less emotionally. He has avoided the obvious danger of writing a hagiographic account, an easy option when writing about someone supremely gifted and murdered so young. […]
Fligg’s Klein biography offers a strong balance between historic timeline, contextualisation and an un-tarnished appraisal of Klein’s output. […]
This is wonderful biography […].’
—Michael Haas, Forbidden Music
Context :
‘Presenting the life and works of a Holocaust composer is no straightforward task; navigating the minefield of Holocaust narration, platitudes of remembrances past, while keeping the subject in full light are just some of the challenges David Fligg has overcome in Don’t Forget About Me: The Short Life of Gideon Klein, Composer and Pianist. […] Fligg succeeds in engrossing the reader in stories of Klein and those around him, but also, by interrogating a source or offering a simple ‘perhaps’, he acknowledges that there are alternate perspectives on—as well as inevitably some lingering doubt about—Klein’s life story. […]
By revisiting Klein’s personality, actions, and oeuvre, Fligg presents an updated and more comprehensive biography. He guides the reader chronologically through Klein’s performances, compositions and life moments, and contextualises this narrative with the political and social upheaval of mid-twentieth-century Europe and the chaos and violence of World War II—all without giving the Holocaust a totalising presence. It is a difficult balance to strike. […]
While Fligg’s book is primarily a biography, it takes the time to analyse and contextualise each of Klein’s extant compositions, positing how they may have been influenced by concert halls, informal interactions with the Prague avant-garde and, later, the circumstances and personalities of Theresienstadt. Through alternate focuses on biography and musical works, Fligg’s study of Klein’s corpus integrates a number of analytical approaches, creating an accessible platform for new investigations.
In Fligg’s own words, he sets out to ‘present the first comprehensive evaluation of Gideon’s childhood in Prague, Přerov, and his engagement with the artistic milieu of Prague’ before ‘[unravelling] the complex circumstances surrounding his murder’ (pp. 14–15). He achieves exactly this. Fligg shepherds the reader through Klein’s works and performances in a way that will no doubt reshape his posthumous identity. Toccata Press must also be commended on the immaculate hardbound and colour illustrated presentation of Fligg’s work, as well as their publishing on, and purveyance of, recordings from other Theresienstadt internees. Fligg’s new biography is teeming with detail on Klein previously unavailable in the English language. Don’t Forget About Me: The Short Life of Gideon Klein, Composer and Pianist is, for newcomers and seasoned researchers alike, a foundational text on a musical man murdered in the Holocaust.’
—Josh Healey, Context
MusicWeb International :
‘From the moment you take the book in your hands you realise the paper and hardcover are of great quality and that a lot of care went into producing an attractive book to look at and hold. […]
As one would expect from someone with such an illustrious curriculum as David Fligg, the book is brilliantly written and also contains insightful analyses into Klein’s music. The narrative is eloquent but accessible, objective and factual but at times also emotional with some descriptions that are almost lyrical. Unusual but aesthetical, rather satisfying and pleasurable to read in a book that is essentially a biography. The language is beautifully varied, which grabs you, and Gideon Klein’s story is as extraordinary as it is tragic. As a biography Don’t Forget About Me is a page-turner and I couldn’t put it down. […]
The story of Gideon Klein is exceptionally well organised in logical, chronological order. It is enhanced by Fligg’s impeccable research, the many interviews and contemporary testimonies he gathered from people who knew Gideon, especially his sister, Lisa, who dedicated her life to propagate the work of her talented brother. […]
I enjoyed reading Don’t Forget About Me – The Short Life of Gideon Klein, Composer and Pianist immensely, as well as learning about his life and work. It is a gripping, if tragic story of a composer and pianist who died too young, at the “nearly” tender age of twenty-five. […] Whether you are interested in history or in Gideon Klein’s life and artistry, this book is a splendid read. I can only recommend it to the public in general that enjoy a good, informative, well-written book and in particular to any bookworm who, like me, will devour any quality fiction or non-fiction that comes its way.’
—Margarida Mota-Bull, MusicWeb International
MusicWeb International :
‘Dr. David Fligg has produced a fascinating and first class study of the life of Gideon Klein and, I have to say, this is one of the finest composer biographies I’ve ever read. It’s immediately approachable, insightful, non-technical and beautifully balanced. Fligg approaches his task with enthusiasm and clearly has a great love for his subject.
There are footnotes at the bottom of each page rather than them being numbered and then listed at the end of the book, which is another plus. There are useful appendices. The first is a list of the composer’s works, and the second is a chronology of “Significant events and dates connected to the life of Gideon Klein”. I found the extensive bibliography especially useful. The book is packed with photographs and facsimiles of scores and documents. All told, this is a highly recommended publication, a real page turner and certainly well-worth tracking down.’
—Stephen Greenbank, MusicWeb International
Die Tonkunst :
‘The first comprehensive biography of Klein, lavishly illustrated.’
―Die Tonkunst