Le Violon de Rothschild / Rothschild’s Violin

Le Violon de Rothschild (1996) is a beautiful film. It is about Shostakovich’s student and composer Veniamin Fleishman (1913-1941), whose opera was orchestrated by Shostakovich after Fleishman was killed in World War II. In the middle of the film (31:23-1:12:24 in the linked video) we get a full performance of the opera Le Violon de Rothschild. After that we see Shostakovich’s love for Jewish music along with the suppression of this work as part of Stalin’s antisemitic campaign against ‘rootless cosmopolitans’. There is also a condemnation of Western liberal and radical intellectuals for covering up the truth about the Stalin regime. This includes film footage of Paul Robeson in the USSR along with a report of his lying about Stalin’s campaign against Jews and the execution of Robeson’s friend Itzak Feffer.

The film ends with a quote similar or identical to that in Shostakovich’s alleged memoir Testimony:

“Too many of our fellow citizens have been killed and no one knows where they are buried. Who can erect a monument to their memory? Music alone can do it.”

      —Dmitri Shostakovich

The Rothschild Violin  (1:37:21)

The video of the film on YouTube has a messed-up version of the English subtitles.

Le Violon de Rothschild (IMDB)

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Rothschild’s Violin (opera)

Veniamin Fleishman (1913-1941)

Testimony (Volkov book)

Edgardo Cozarinsky

(First written about 3 September 2006; film viewed again, text expanded 7 April 2026)