A companion volume to his Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (pbk £25), tracing Bach's evolution as a composer and looking deeply into his creative process.
Explores the interaction of mass-market diamonds and German colonialism in Africa. Or how the new American fashion for diamond engagement rings funded Germany in two world wars.
The democratic experiment of 1918-1933, from defeat in WW1 to the rise of the Nazis. Jähner's description of living through this chaotic period is almost as thrilling as Hitchcock.
The upheavals of 1930s' Germany created a cultural diaspora as composers and musicians fled abroad: Kurt Weill, Korngold and many lesser-known artists too.
Seeing the writing on the wall, some Nazi profiteers set about removing their loot from Germany in the early months of 1945: to Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal and South America. Locher... read more