The Hidden Man

In Athens Skalkottas had to go back to being a working musician again, joining the orchestra of the Athens Conservatory. The former violin gold-medallist of the Conservatory took his place on the front desk of the first violins, but over the next few years, he found himself humiliatingly demoted, until he was relegated to the back desk, where he stayed for the rest of his life. He felt frustrated, depressed and isolated, and gradually withdrew into an inner exile, playing in the orchestra by day, and composing at night. During the Nazi occupation of Greece Skalkottas didn't engage with the war going on around him, but found himself suspected of being a member of the resistance and imprisoned in Haidari concentration camp by the SS. Donald Macleod explores this, the most difficult period of Skalkottas' life.