First Violin

The year is 1938 and Austria has been annexed by Nazi Germany.

Klaus Lehner plays first violin for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and when the concertmaster is amongst other Jews expelled from Philharmonic, he sees the opportunity for a position he covets He is bitterly disappointed when he is passed over.

In the wake of his disappointment, Klaus’s lover Eva, a virtuoso cellist, urges him to become a soloist. To determine whether he is merely brilliant or can truly move an audience she tasks him with mastering difficult pieces by Bach and Paganini, and with fathering her baby – both of which he does.

Meanwhile, at home, Klaus’s wife Helga gives birth to their firstborn.

When Eva’s Nazi husband finds out about the love affair, he has Klaus arrested and sent to a Mauthausen subcamp to supervise Ukrainian laborers. Amidst the suffering, Klaus composes a tone poem, Silence Interrupted, translating his nightmares into sound.

After the camp is liberated, Klaus returns to a war-torn Vienna devastated by American bombers and occupied by the Soviet army. He makes a living busking in front of the Soviet Vienna City Kommandatura. Klaus faces a choice between the two women he left behind.