The reasons why

‘Whatever the reasons’, incuriously writes the historian of anti-Semitism Léon Poliakov, ‘in the realms of the fine arts, it was primarily as musicians that the emancipated Jews excelled’.

But exactly why did Jews suddenly appear in the musical professions from the turn of the nineteenth century onwards? Why moreover did they meet, within the century, with such success as to hold notable positions in almost all branches of the profession – and in associated areas including management, publishing and patronage?