Prone to Violins
About violinists, violins, and the violence that occurs between the two.
Sunday, December 6, 2020
Maria Dueñas
María Dueñas (Maria Dueñas Fernandez) is a Spanish violinist and composer, born
(in Granada) on December 4, 2002. She is very likely the best Spanish violinist
since Pablo Sarasate (1844-1908.) She is also known as a former child prodigy.
She has been winning violin competitions since she was 14 years old, including
the Zhuhai (China), the Vladimir Spivakov (Russia), the G.P Telemann (Poland),
the Yankelevitch (Russia), the Leonid Kogan (Belgium), and the Luigi Zanuccoli
(Italy) violin competitions. Since she is also a composer, she writes her own
cadenzas for each concerto she plays. As a member of the Hamamelis Quartet, she
also won first prize at the Fidelio Chamber Music Competition in Vienna in 2017.
She began her violin studies at age 5 in Spain. I do not know who her first
teacher was. At age 7, she entered the Granada Conservatory. She made her local
debut with the Granada Symphony at age 11, playing the first concerto of Mozart.
Andrea Marcon was on the podium. When she was 12 years old, her family moved to
Vienna so that she could study with Boris Kuschnir (well-known violin pedagogue)
at the University for Music and Art in Graz and at the Music and Arts University
in Vienna, Austria. (Graz is about a two-hour drive from Vienna, driving south.)
In this effort, she was assisted by Russian violinist, Vladimir Spivakov.
(Spivakov’s Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra has a very strong connection to
Spain.) In September of 2019, she was named Artist of the Month by Musical
America being only 16 years old. Dueñas has already concertized in many
countries around the world (including the U.S.) and has played in some of the
most prestigious concert halls but, since she is still a student at the
University, understandably spends most of her time in Europe. Here is one of her
many YouTube video performances. You can judge her virtuosity and style for
yourself. Dueñas speaks four languages fluently – German, English, French, and
Spanish. She is also currently studying the Russian language. Two of her violins
have been a Nicolo Gagliano (1764), on loan from the German Musical Life
Foundation and the Muntz Guarneri (1736) on loan from the Nippon Music
Foundation. I do not know if she is still using either one of those fine
violins. The photo is courtesy of David Ausserhoffer.
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Orlando Barera
Orlando Barera was an Italian (some would say
American) violinist and conductor born (in Bologna, Italy) on February 6,
1907. Two sources say he was born in
Ferrara, Italy in 1908. (Ferrara is
about 25 miles north of Bologna.) He
began his career as a concert violinist but is best known for being the
conductor of the El Paso (Texas) Symphony from the fall of 1951 to the spring
of 1970. Prior to that he was the
conductor of the Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Symphony for one year and just before
that, he was the concertmaster and Assistant Conductor (for one year also) of
the Houston Symphony. Before those two
posts, he had served as concertmaster of the Kansas City (Missouri) Symphony
and the Havana Symphony (prior to Fidel Castro’s political revolution.) Barera is one of many violinists who turned
from concertizing to conducting – Jaap Van Zweden, Eugene Ormandy, David
Zinman, Alan Gilbert, Neville Marriner, Pierre Monteux, Peter Oundjian, Jacques
Singer, Charles Munch, and Theodore Thomas are among them. He began his studies with his father, who was
a professor at the conservatory of music in Bologna. He graduated at age 15 with diplomas in
violin, composition, and piano. Immediately
thereafter, he added an additional two years of study before embarking on a
solo career. His concertizing began in
Italy but then later included France, Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Russia,
and the Netherlands. His first
appearance in the U.S. took place at Town Hall in New York on February 10, 1936. He was 29 years old. He later played at the Library of Congress in
Washington D.C. that same year but returned to play in Europe in the latter part of that year. On November 11, 1936, he played Lalo’s
Symphonie Espagnol with the Prague Radio Symphony. Karl Ancerl was on the podium. I do not know if the performance was
recorded. Upon his return to the U.S., he gave a second recital at Town Hall on December 27, 1936. He played
Mozart’s fourth concerto with the Boston Symphony on February 21, 1937. Serge Koussevitzky conducted. On December 3, 1938, he was guest artist with
the New York Philharmonic. This time, he
played the Mendelssohn concerto, the one in e minor. John Barbirolli conducted. When war broke out, he enlisted in the U.S.
Army and served a tour of duty until the war’s end. His career - which he took up again when he
was appointed concertmaster in Kansas City – was thus interrupted. An interesting detail in his career is that between
July 11 and November 10, 1950, he participated (as assistant principal second
violinist) in 14 recording sessions which Leopold Stokowski conducted in New
York. At many of these recording
sessions, Victor Aitay, the soon-to-be concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony,
was Barera’s stand partner – Aitay was, at that time, a section violinist in
the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Being
the well-known figure he was on the east coast and beyond, Barera was able to
introduce many world class string players to El Paso audiences. Among them were Ruggiero Ricci, Zvi Zeitlin,
Isaac Stern, Berl Senofsky, Zino Francescatti, Pierre Fournier, Mischa Elman,
Michael Rabin, Zara Nelsova, Arturo Delmoni, Salvatore Accardo, and Tossy
Spivakovsky. Of his association with
Barera, Michael Rabin once said “Barera is very good and a hell of a nice
guy. Believe me, I wish every conductor
would be as easy to work with as he is.
He takes away all the tightness and strain and just lets me enjoy
myself.” Barera owned and played a
Gagliano violin from a year and specific maker unknown to me – the Gagliano
violin-making family produced several good makers. Barera died on March 26, 1971, at age
64.
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Ilya Gringolts
Ilya Gringolts is a Russian violinist,
teacher, conductor, and composer born (in Leningrad) on July 2, 1982. He is known for being immersed in
period-instrument performance as well as contemporary playing styles. Ever since he won the 1998 Paganini
Competition at age 16, his virtuosity has become well-known. (The following year, Sayaka Shoji won the
competition – she also was 16 years old.)
As is customary with almost all contemporary violinists, Gringolts
participates in many music festivals around the world. (The production of music festivals seems to
have exploded after 1950 and festivals of one kind or another can now be found
in every corner of the planet.) Gringolts
began studying the violin at age five. I
do not know who his first teacher was. At
age 8, he began studying violin and composition in the St Petersburg (formerly
known as Leningrad) Special Music School with Tatiana Liberova and Jeanna
Metallidi, two teachers of whom I had never heard. In 1994, he made his debut with the Moscow
Symphony Orchestra. He was 12 years
old. I don’t know which piece he played
at that concert. In 1995, he made his
European orchestral debut in Finland, playing Bruch’s first concerto. After winning the Paganini competition, he
relocated to New York (in 1999) and studied at Juilliard with Dorothy Delay and Itzhak Perlman
for three years. During the latter part
of those same three years, he was spending a lot of time in London, studying
and giving concerts. Gringolts made his
Canadian debut (in Ottawa) in 1999 (one source says 2002) – Pinchas Zukerman
was on the podium. He was 17 years
old. He has been very busy ever since,
playing all over the world with every important conductor and in every prestigious
venue. In 2013, he recorded the 24
Paganini Caprices. A usually-reliable
source states that Gringolts now teaches at the Advanced School for the Arts (aka
Zurich Academy of the Arts) in Zurich, Switzerland. Another source says he teaches (or has
taught) at the Basel Hochschule. When I
checked, neither school would confirm his position as violin professor. Regarding his teaching, he has stated –
contrary to universally-accepted dogma - that being a motivator is not part of
his job. In his own words: “I think that
everyone is his or her own motivator.
You should know why you do something, otherwise you shouldn’t do
it.” In 2008, he founded the Gringolts
Quartet. He maintains a busy schedule
with the quartet. It also allows him to
spend more time with his wife, who is the quartet’s second violinist. His discography is not extensive by any
measure but the recordings he has under his belt have been highly praised and
have received awards. Among those
recordings are the Arensky and the Taneyev concertos, two works which are very
(very) seldom heard. You might want to
obtain his recording of the first Paganini concerto since it is pretty
outstanding – it was released in March of 1999.
It is not yet available on YouTube.
A current project in progress is his recording of all of Igor
Stravinsky’s works for violin. Among the
violins he has played are the Kiesewetter Stradivarius (1723), the Provigny
Stradivarius (1716), and a Guarneri Del Gesu dated 1742. Here is one of Gringolts’ YouTube videos – a
concerto by the mysterious and enigmatic violinist Pietro Antonio
Locatelli.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Rodney Friend
Rodney Friend is an English violinist,
teacher, and author born (in Bradford, England) in 1939. He is best known for being the concertmaster
of three of the world’s best orchestras – the New York Philharmonic, the London
Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony. He
began his violin studies at age seven. I do not know who his first teacher was. At 12, he received a scholarship to
study at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
His main teacher was Frederick Grinke, a Canadian violinist who played
for Churchill, Truman, and Stalin at the famous Potsdam Conference in the
summer of 1945. Friend later studied
with Endre Wolf, Yehudi Menuhin, and Henryk Szeryng. One usually-reliable source says he also
later studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music. In September, 1964, Friend became the concertmaster of
the London Philharmonic. He was 24 years
old. He played the Britten concerto in
his first solo appearance with this orchestra.
However, by then, he had made his London debut playing the Sibelius
concerto with the Halle Orchestra (in 1961) at the Festival Hall with John Barbirolli on the podium. Friend played with the London Philharmonic for 12 years. In 1975, he was invited to be the New York
Philharmonic’s concertmaster. He was 35
years old. He had already made his
American debut with this orchestra playing the Britten concerto. He probably began his tenure as concertmaster
in New York in the fall of 1976. On
March 10, 1977, in his new role as concertmaster, he soloed with the orchestra,
this time playing Karol Szymanowski’s first concerto. Erich Leinsdorf was on the podium. In 1981, Friend returned to England and became
the concertmaster of the BBC Symphony. In
that year also, he became professor of violin at the Royal College of
Music. He was 42 years old. Since 1990, he has devoted his time to
teaching, writing, judging international competitions, and playing and/or
directing chamber music concerts. He
formed the Solomon Trio in 1991. In
2006, Friend’s two-volume work entitled The Orchestral Violinist (a study guide
for orchestral players) appeared. It has
been acclaimed by many critics. In 2010,
he founded the Cambridge International String Academy at Trinity College. In 2015, he joined the Royal Academy of Music
faculty. In 2019, his pedagogic work
entitled The Violin in Fifths was published.
Many sources say it is a unique study guide. It is easily found on the internet. Among other violins, Friend has played (and
might still be playing) a Giuseppe (Battista) Guarneri violin dated 1696 (not a
Del Gesu.) (According to a usually-reliable source, for a time, he also played a Guarneri Del Gesu dated 1731.) Needless to say, he has
recorded (as an orchestral violinist) practically the entire orchestral repertoire. He has also appeared in every important
concert hall in the world and worked alongside the most eminent conductors and
soloists of the twentieth century. Here
is a very charming YouTube audio file of one of his commercial recordings as
soloist.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Amihai Grosz
Amihai Grosz is an Israeli violist and teacher
born (in Jerusalem) in 1979. He is well-known
as the Principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic. Nevertheless, he is also in great demand as a
soloist. He began, as most violists do,
as a violin student at age 5. He began
to play and study the viola at age 11. Most
of his studies took place in Israel and in Germany. In 1995, he founded the Jerusalem Quartet
with three other student-colleagues from the Jerusalem Music Center. He was 16 years old. The quartet (which comprised the majority of
his professional activity between 1995 and 2009) subsequently won several
distinguished awards and prizes from various organizations. As a viola soloist, Grosz has also won top
prizes in several competitions. In 2010,
Grosz was appointed Principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic. Although orchestral players are for the most
part anonymous to the general public, principal players enjoy slightly higher
profiles. Grosz continues to perform as
a soloist and as a member of various chamber groups involved with music
festivals all over the world. His
instrument is one by Gaspar Da Salo, constructed in 1570.
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Arkadi Futer
Arkadi Futer (Arkadi Naumovitch Futer) was a
Russian violinist and teacher born (in Moscow) on September 6, 1932. He is known for his impressive recording of
Wieniawski’s first violin concerto in F sharp minor, but he is also known for
having spent a large part of his career in Spain. For some time, he was concertmaster of
Vladimir Spivakov’s Moscow Virtuosi, which was founded in 1979. I do not know if he was the initial
concertmaster – he probably was. The
Moscow Virtuosi later resided in Spain for nine years (1990-1999.) When the Moscow Virtuosi left Spain, Futer
stayed behind. He then became
concertmaster of the Oviedo Symphony Orchestra.
He was 67 years old. (Oviedo is
the small capital city of the principality of Asturias, located in northern Spain,
next to the Bay of Biscay.) Prior to his
association with the Moscow Virtuosi, Futer was concertmaster of the Moscow Philharmonic,
the Moscow Radio Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Film Industry of the
USSR. He was also a member of at least
two string quartets. Futer began his
studies at age 7 in Kiev, in the years of 1939 or 1940, I don’t know which. His first teacher was Nina Dulova. In 1943, he returned to Moscow with his
family. He was 11 years old. He entered the Tchaikovsky Conservatory at
age 18. Yuri Yankelevitch was one of his
teachers. He later graduated from the
conservatory with top honors. He was
named Artist of the Russian Republic in 1998.
Futer died (in Gijon, Asturias, Spain) on September 5, 2011, at (almost)
age 79. His granddaughter, Vera Futer,
is now a professor at the University of Oviedo.
Here is an audio file of Futer’s Wieniawski recording.
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Jennifer Pike
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