David Grimal is a French violinist, conductor, and teacher born on
February 9, 1973. He is best known as
the Artistic Director (and Conductor) of the French group Les Dissonances. Ironically, Les Dissonances plays without a
conductor and performs challenging repertoire (such as the Rite of Spring)
which no other conductor-less orchestra would dare. Grimal leads from the first chair. Regarding Les Dissonances, Grimal has stated: “We work together in the sense of community of
mind, a gathering of very strong positive energy and joy.” Regarding the violin itself, he has said:
“What interests me is the invisible - that something which makes the dancer
take flight and causes his gesture to be eternal.” The
Dissonances musicians are from different parts of France and Europe – from various
other ensembles – almost none are permanent members. The orchestra plays in many different cities
and venues. Understandably, Grimal frequently
plays the violin concerto repertoire with this orchestra. When he does, he never actually conducts, as
all other conductor/violinists do - he just lets the orchestra play by itself
(and it is fully capable of doing so.) His
style of playing, although virtuosic and brilliant, is relaxed, unassuming, and
unpretentious. His repertoire includes
the Schumann concerto, which is now gaining in popularity. Grimal began lessons at age five but I do not
know the name of his first teacher.
First teachers are usually not famous pedagogues or even famous
violinists – sometimes they are immediate family members. At the Paris Conservatory Grimal won first
prizes in violin and chamber music at age 20 (1993.) He later studied with the enigmatic Philippe
Hirschhorn, most likely in the Netherlands, where Hirschhorn was then teaching. He also briefly studied with other violinists
after he graduated. In 1996, he received
the European Culture Prize. He was 23
years old. Needless to say, he has
played in most of the world’s great halls with high-profile conductors and
orchestras. However, other than live
recordings, his discography (on various labels) is not extensive. Nonetheless, the few studio (commercial) recordings
he has done have received national and international awards and
recognition. A great many composers have
written works for him. In 2004 Grimal
founded Les Dissonances. In 2008, he
became artist in residence at the Dijon Opera.
(Dijon is about 200 miles southeast of Paris and is the birthplace of
Rameau.) Grimal has taught at the
Advanced School of Music in Saarbrucken (Germany) for some time although I
don’t know how long he has been there.
(Saarbrucken is about 180 miles north of Dijon and 200 miles east of
Paris. It is very close to the French
border with Germany.) Additionally, he
plays at many music festivals around Europe and has frequently held
masterclasses wherever he performs. His
violin is the Roederer Stradivarius from 1710, previously owned by Turkish
violinist Ayla Erduran. He also plays a
modern violin made for him by French luthier Jacques Fustier. You can listen to the finale from Brahms’
Third Symphony here. Here is Grimal
playing Mozart’s fifth concerto – first movement.
Valery Klimov (Valeri Alexandrovich Klimov) is
a Russian violinist and teacher born (in Kiev) on October 16, 1931. He is known for having won the very first
International Tchaikovsky Violin Competition (in March, 1958), the best known violin
competition in the world. He was 26
years old. That was the same competition
at which Van Cliburn (the American piano player) won first prize in the piano
division, subsequently becoming popular and famous. That year, Russian composer Dmitri
Shostakovich was the chairman. Klimov’s
first teacher was his father. He later
studied at the Odessa Conservatory and later still at the Moscow Conservatory
with David Oistrakh. As far as I was
able to determine, Klimov did not perform outside Russia until 1967. Quite possibly his first concert outside the
Soviet Union was in London, England. Although
he has toured around the world, his career has mostly been spent in
Russia. He has been teaching at the
Moscow Conservatory for a long time and has received many official awards. Among his many pupils are Elena Denisova,
Hisaya Sato, Alice Waten, Fiona Ziegler, Evgeny Grach, Rachel Schmidt, and
Alena Tsoi. Here is a YouTube video with
Klimov playing the Khachaturian concerto.
Among other things, it gives you a chance to hear the excellent
acoustics of the Sydney Opera House.
Mayu Kishima is a Japanese violinist born (in Kobe,
Japan) on December 13, 1986. She is
known for having won one of the largest (if not the largest) monetary prizes in
a violin competition – the Isaac Stern Violin Competition in Shanghai awarded
her a first prize of $100,000 in 2016.
That was a competition that she almost decided not to enter until the
last minute. Kishima began her violin
studies in Tokyo at age 3 and has had quite a number of teachers during her
career, including Izumi Hayashi, Kazuyo Togami,
Toshiya Eto, Dorothy DeLay, Masao Kawasaki, Machi Oguri, Chihiro Kudo,
and Zakhar Bron (with whom she began studying at age 13.) She graduated from the Advanced School for
Music in Cologne in 2012. She was 26
years old. By then however, she had
already established herself as a concert artist, having begun her professional
career in the year 2000 at age 14. Kishima
made her first studio recording in 2003 with the NHK Symphony. Needless to say, she has played all over the
world with some of the finest orchestras and conductors. Among the violins she has played are a 1779
G.B. Guadagnini and a Stradivarius from 1700.
Here is one of many YouTube videos posted of her performances. Here is another.
Marianna Vasileva (Marianna Vasilyeva, Marianna
Wasiljewa) Is a Russian violinist and teacher born (in St Petersburg) on
November 25, 1986. In addition to a
fantastic technique and a very expressive style of playing, she is known for
performing all 24 Caprices by Paganini in a single recital – currently,
probably the only female violinist to do so.
As far as I know, she has not recorded the famous Caprices but probably
will in the near future. (The first
female to record all 24 Caprices is Bulgarian violinist Vanya Milanova, back in
1985.) Vasileva began her violin studies
at age five with her father, a professional violinist. She has stated that even at that tender age
she practiced several hours a day. Her
first accompanist was her mother, a professional pianist, with whom she has
performed in recital many times. At age
7, she began her studies at the St Petersburg Conservatory’s School for Gifted
Children with an obscure teacher named Vladimir Ovcharek. At age 11, she began studying with Dora
Schwarzberg at the Advanced School for Music in Vienna. At age 17 she began studying with Zakhar Bron
at the Advanced School for Music and Dance in Cologne. During all those years, she was also
(simultaneously) studying at the St Petersburg Conservatory. (The St Petersburg Conservatory is where the
famous Leopold Auer taught for many years.)
Her performing career actually began at age 8, when she played in public
for the first time. At age 10, she made
her formal debut in Russia and Germany playing the first concerto (the one in g
minor) by Max Bruch. In that year, she
also won her first violin competition in Russia. In 2001, she actually won a violin in the
International Spohr Violin Competition – I don’t know what violin it was but
I’m certain it was a high quality instrument.
She was 15 years old. In 2009,
she won first prize in the International Competition for Young Violinists in
honor of Karol Lipinski and Henryk Wieniawski in Lublin, Poland (not to be
confused with the well-known Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition held in
Poznan, Poland, every five years.) She
was 23 years old. In 2010 she won first
prize in the Prague Spring International Music Competition. She currently teaches at the Music Academy in
Madrid, in addition to teaching masterclasses around the world, as so many
other soloists do. Her
concert tours span the entire world and she has played in almost all of the
important musical venues and concert halls. Her repertoire is very extensive although her discography is still quite small. I
know Vasileva has played a Guarneri Del Gesu violin from 1724 and a 1752 Carlo
Antonio Testore violin on many concerts but I don’t know if those are her
current instruments – I will try to find out and post it as a comment below. Vasileva is fluent in four languages;
Russian, English, German, and Hebrew. Here
is a YouTube video where she plays a well-known piece by Tchaikovsky. Here is a sound file where she plays the
seldom-heard Ysaye sonata for two violins – the other violinist is Dmitri
Kogan, grandson of the great Leonid Kogan.
Antal Zalai (Antal Szalai) is a Hungarian
violinist, composer, and teacher born (in Budapest) on January 31, 1981. He is known for what has been described as a
perfect technique and refined artistry.
He is a former child prodigy who was offered his first recording contract
while still a teenager and his musical education is very broad. Zalai began his violin studies with his
father and mother at age 5. From age 7
to age 14 he studied, in Budapest, with Laszlo Denes. His other teachers in Budapest were Josef
Kopelman and Peter Komlos. In fact, it
has been said that he acquired his 1733 Stradivarius violin from Professor
Komlos. That violin had been owned by
another Hungarian violinist, Gyorgy Garay, who is now almost completely
forgotten. Zalai graduated from the
Royal Conservatory in Brussels in 2009.
He was 28 years old. However,
Zalai had been concertizing since age 12.
Along the way, he had participated in masterclasses given by Erick
Friedman, Pinchas Zukerman, Tibor Varga, Lewis Kaplan, Isaac Stern, Gyorgy Pauk,
and an assortment of other concert violinists.
He made his British debut in Liverpool in 2008. That same year he made his debut in
Berlin. The venues he has played in
include Carnegie Hall (New York), the Musikverein (Vienna), the Philharmonie
(Berlin), and the Moscow Conservatory.
Zalai has toured almost the entire globe and played with some of the
most famous names in the conducting world.
He also frequently conducts masterclasses wherever he performs. As are so many violinists, he is a chess
player. The cadenzas he plays are very
frequently his own. Here is a YouTube
video where he teams up with Russian violinist Marianna Vasileva to play the
violin duos by Shostakovich – Zalai plays the second violin part. These duos are written in a style which we
do not associate with the famous Russian composer. The (intense and emotional) performance is
easily the best on YouTube. This othervideo is also quite unique and interesting.
Kristof Barati is a Hungarian violinist and
teacher born (in Budapest) on May 17, 1979.
Although born in Hungary, he and his family spent a few years in
Venezuela (for reasons unknown) and he even began violin lessons there with his
mother at age 5. By age 8 he was giving
concerts with orchestras in Venezuela. I
don’t know at what point the family moved from Venezuela to Europe but several
sources state he performed in France at age 11.
Sometime after or before this, he relocated to Hungary to study at the
well-known Franz Liszt Academy. Exactly
what year that was is unknown to me. His
teachers at the academy were Miklos Szenthelyi and Vilmos Tatrai. By 1995, at age 16, he began entering violin
competitions at which he was very successful, placing either first, second, or
third at all of them. In 1996, he began
studying privately with a little-known professor of violin, Eduard Wulfson, in
Paris. Music critics frequently praise
his musicianship (artistry) in addition to his phenomenal technical
prowess. In addition to his world-wide
concertizing, he also takes part in important music festivals in Italy, France,
Switzerland, and elsewhere as a chamber music player. Barati’s discography is not yet extensive,
but his recordings of the first and second Paganini concertos are among the
best. His recording of the Mozart
concertos (all five) has also been very highly praised. Although he has played other very fine and
valuable violins, for about 14 years (from 2003), he played (and recorded with)
the Lady Harmsworth Stradivarius violin constructed in 1703. I don’t know if he is currently using that
instrument. He is known for being a very
strong chess player and avid photographer.
Barati has taught at the Sorbonne in Paris and at other venues as a
masterclass professor. Although he has
not (as far as I know) performed all 24 Paganini Caprices at a single recital,
he has performed all six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by Bach in one
(very lengthy) recital (in France, then again in Russia.) Here is a link to the entire recording of the
Mozart concertos, courtesy of Brilliant Classics recordings. Here is a YouTube video of a movement from
the Bach Sonata number 1.
Alexander Markov is a Russian (some would say
American) violinist, composer, and teacher born (in Moscow) on January 24,
1963. Although his repertoire is very
extensive, he is best known for his performances (in concert, on CD, and DVD)
of the 24 Paganini Caprices. One YouTube
video of his performance of the last Caprice has over 6 million views. In fact, Markov’s playing of the pizzicato
section of this Caprice sometimes leaves the audience so spellbound they
interrupt the performance with rapturous, spontaneous applause – as the New
York Times music critic recently explained it: “…the dazzling
left-hand pizzicato variation drew a vigorous ovation midway through the work.” Markov also plays a six-string electric
violin in a rock band which he co-founded.
He co-wrote a unique rock concerto for his own use which he has had
great success with. I don’t think a
commercial recording of this concerto is yet available. Markov’s violin studies began at age 5. His father (concert violinist Albert Markov)
was his first (and most influential) teacher. However, Markov was also enrolled at the famous Central Music School for gifted children, which is part of the Moscow (Tchaikovsky) Conservatory. There, he studied with the well-known violin pedagogue Felix Andrievsky. (Andrievsky is now teaching at the Royal College of Music in London.) By age 8 he had already appeared in public. His family emigrated to the U. S. when he was
12. They arrived in Vienna on September 11, 1975 and spent three months there before heading for the United States. He continued studying with his
father for many years. At age 16, he
made his Carnegie Hall debut in New York.
(Two sources state that he made his Carnegie Hall debut on October 9,
1983, at age 20. He himself has said he
made his debut at age 16. The first was his debut with orchestra; the second was as soloist, in recital.) At
age 18, he began studying with Juilliard teacher Ivan Galamian. Galamian died a few months afterward. (Emanuel Vardi used to tell a joke that he
killed Leopold Auer because Auer died a few months after Vardi began taking
lessons with him.) At age 19 (1982)
Markov won second prize (most sources say the Gold Medal) at the famous
Paganini Competition (Genoa, Italy) and five years later he received the Avery
Fisher Career Grant. As a result of his Paganini
Competition award, he was granted the use of Paganini’s own 1743 Cannone
Guarnerius for a recital performance. (Other
violinists who have played this famous violin are Leonid Kogan, Schlomo Mintz,
Eugene Fodor, Salvatore Accardo, Maxim Vengerov, Gerard Poulet, Regina Carter, Dmitri
Berlinsky, and Ruggiero Ricci.) Markov’s
concertizing has taken him to all corners of the world and to most of the
world’s great concert halls and orchestras with top conductors on the podium. As do most concert violinists, he also
participates in music festivals far and wide.
He also frequently gives masterclasses all around the world. He has recorded for the Erato and Warner
Classics labels. His recordings are easy
to find on the internet. Although he
used to play a Guarnerius Del Gesu violin, Markov has been playing a 1970
Sergio Peresson violin for some time. He
recorded the 24 caprices on that violin.
I have heard it up close - it is indistinguishable from any Strad or
Guarneri violin. Here is a YouTube video
of the Paganini Caprice number 5 with Markov using the original bowings. The photo is courtesy of the Alexander Markov website.
