At the end of the Second World War, the Italian conductor Bernardino Molinari moved to Palestine. He worked with the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, precursor of the Israel Philharmonic, and also orchestrated “Hatikva”, soon to become the national anthem of the new state of Israel.
According to a 2010 article in the Jerusalem Post, based on an interview with the pianist and musicologist Astrith Baltsan, Molinari conducted a performance of “Hatikva” when the head of the Jewish Agency, David Ben-Gurion, declared independence in 1948. Soon after, Molinari disappeared – back to Italy, where Baltsan believes he was put on trial. She told the Jerusalem Post that he was “found guilty, became depressed and died isolated in a monastery” on Christmas Day, 1952.
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