Aging New York Piano Virtuoso Looks Back

The peaceful atmosphere in the Upper West Side apartment where 92-year-old Walter Hautzig plays his piano amid family photographs and framed honors is many worlds away from the pre-war Vienna where he grew up.  In 1938, when Hautzig was a 16-year-old prodigy, the Nazis took power in Austria. Hautzig says Jews were routinely beaten in the streets. Their businesses were closed. “That was the Austria I grew up in. You can’t imagine,” he said with a grimace. Music was the boy’s...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - mardi 22 juillet 2014