Huge praise for Toby Trackman’s The Last Musician of Auschwitz which airs tonight as part of the BBC’s Holocaust Memorial Day coverage
The Last Musician of Auschwitz, directed by Stern & Wild filmmaker Toby Trackman, has received universal praise from critics in the press in the run up to its premiere on BBC Two tonight. The 90-minute film, which explores the stories of musicians who created and performed music in Auschwitz and other concentration camps during the Holocaust, was selected as Pick of the Day and Pick of the Week in The Guardian, The i, The Times, The Telegraph, The Sun, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Mail and The Express.
The Guardian “outstanding”
The Times “a haunting, and at times unbearably harrowing, viewing experience”
Daily Mail “immensely powerful… propelled by recitations and musical interludes that act as heartbreaking testimony”
Daily Mirror “an extraordinary documentary”
Commissioned by the BBC to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it tells the story of cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (pictured), who at 99 is the only surviving member of the Auschwitz orchestras and brings to life the testimonies of four other musicians who composed and played music in the camps: Adam Kopyciński, Szymon Laks, Martin Rosebery D’Arguto and Ilse Weber.
Woven through the film are a series of new performances of musical works filmed in the shadow of Auschwitz today, including Träumerei from Robert Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood, which the notorious camp doctor Josef Mengele asked Anita to play for him – performed by Anita’s son and cellist, Raphael Wallfisch – and the UK broadcast premiere of Lullaby, which was composed at the camp by Adam Kopyciński.
An interview with Raphael appears in The Times today, while Toby discusses the making of the film in two recent articles in Televisual and The Hollywood Reporter.
The film was produced by Glasgow-based indie Two Rivers Media and co-funded by Access Entertainment, the company behind 2023’s Oscar and BAFTA-winning film The Zone of Interest. It was commissioned by the BBC’s Alistair Pegg and Suzy Klein and developed by Paddy Duffy at Two Rivers. Executive Producers are Alan Clements for Two Rivers and Danny Cohen and Emily Blavatnik for Access. Deborah Lee is Producer. It airs tonight on BBC Two at 9.00pm and is available to stream now on iPlayer.
Photo: BBC/Two Rivers Media/Toby Trackman/Duane McClunie