Vladimir Cosma is a Romanian violinist, composer, and conductor born (in
Bucharest) on April 13, 1940. He is one
of several musicians who began their careers as violinists and digressed to
other (musical) endeavors. In France, he is
well-known as a prolific film composer although he is a composer of classical
(concert) works as well. Perhaps he can
be compared to Victor Young, American violinist-composer. There is scant information about Cosma’s
career as a violinist other than that he began his violin studies while still
quite young and he graduated from the Bucharest Conservatory of Music and then
moved on to the Paris Conservatory in 1963.
In Paris, he also studied with Nadia Boulanger, the famous French
teacher. Up until about 1968 (between
1964 and 1967 approximately), he played in orchestras and toured as a concert violinist. After that, he focused on composition and
(necessarily) on conducting. He credits
a meeting with French composer Michel Legrand with his entry into the world of
soundtrack composing. He was 28 years
old by then. It has been said that one
of his grandmothers (I don’t know which one) studied with the famous piano
player, Ferruccio Busoni. According to
one (usually-reliable) source, Cosma is the composer of more than 300 scores
for films and television programs. Another
source puts the number at 150. He has
conducted a number of orchestras outside of the recording studios though mostly in France. The French government has bestowed several
honors on him as he is considered a national artistic treasure. Several of his scores have also been awarded the French equivalent of an Academy Award. As you can see from the
photo, Cosma has never entirely given up the violin. Whether he has or has ever had any pupils is
something I do not know. He is on record saying that melody is the most important thing in a composition. In an
interview, Cosma was quoted as follows: “In a few centuries, we shall see what
will come of the serial experiments and of these [atonal] composers. I think that all this decadence of the
Viennese romantic music is an end and not a beginning as, for such a long time,
Boulez and the promoters of new music wanted to make us believe.” Here is a YouTube audio file of one of his film works featuring the Berlin Philharmonic - I don't think I need to identify the violin soloist because you will immediately recognize it is the inimitable Ivry Gitlis.
Vilde Frang (Vilde Frang Bjaerke) is a Norwegian violinist and teacher
born (in Oslo) on August 19, 1986. She
is known for having successfully made the jump from child prodigy to mature
violin superstar. That transition does
not always prove successful for artists.
In addition to being technically brilliant, her playing has been
described as being fresh, seductive, sinewy, inspired, voluptuous, and
possessed of startling emotional sincerity. A highly regarded music critic went so far as to say that he had never heard such a great violinist since the late Jascha Heifetz. Her playing is rhythmically and tonally flexible, not straight-laced,
predictable, and pedantic. She began her
violin studies at age four, on a violin built by her father, a professional
bass player. By 1993, she was a student
at the Barratt Due Institute of Music (founded in 1927) in Oslo. She was 7 years old. Her teachers there were Stephan Barratt Due,
Alf Kraggerud, and Henning Kraggerud. Frang
made her public debut at age ten with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (some
sources say Norwegian Chamber Orchestra.)
She graduated from the Barratt Due Institute in 2002. In 1999, aged 12 (or 13), she debuted with
the Oslo Philharmonic, playing Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy. Mariss Jansons was on the podium. The concert was a great success and her career
took off after that. However, from 2003
to 2009, Frang studied further with Kolja Blacher at the Advanced School for
Music and Theatre in Hamburg and with Ana Chumachenco at the Kronberg Academy
in Kronberg (about ten miles from Frankfurt, Germany.) She debuted with the London Philharmonic in
2007. Her first album was released in
2009. She records exclusively for
EMI/Warner Classics and has received numerous awards for her recordings,
including the Diapason d’Or, Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, Classical BRIT, and
the ECHO Klassik Award. As far as I
know, Frang has never entered any violin competitions. In 2010, Frang received an award of 1 million
NOK (Norwegian Krone – about 175,000 U.S. dollars) from a large Norwegian
business enterprise. She also received
an award of 75,000 Swiss francs (approximately 79,000 U.S. dollars) from Credit
Suisse (international bank) in 2012. The
award included a performance with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Lucerne
Festival. She made her BBC London Proms
debut in August, 2013, playing Bruch’s first concerto. She was 26 years old. By now, Frang has played with virtually every
major orchestra in the world and been accompanied by most major
conductors. She has also played recitals
or made solo appearances in all of the world’s important venues, including
those in China, Japan, Korea, Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany,
Holland, Switzerland, Russia, and the U.S.
Frang now teaches at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. One of her violins is one constructed in 1864
by J.B. Vuillaume, a maker not considered to have the status of a Guarneri, a
Stradivari, or even a Guadagnini. She
has also played (since the summer of 2013) the 1709 Stradivarius known as the Engleman Strad. Frang has made the following interesting
comment regarding her artistic perspectives: “I need things to worry
about. I need some resistance and
struggle. That’s part of my music
making. I think talent has a lot to do
with knowing how to be inspired. Inspiration
is really the most important thing. ” On April 1 and 2, 2015 (last week) Frang was
to have played the Korngold concerto with the Toronto Symphony (and James
Conlon) but had to cancel due to “scheduling difficulties.” What that really means is anyone’s guess
since concerts are scheduled (and contracts are signed) very far in advance
(sometimes three years in advance) in order to avoid this sort of
difficulty. Perhaps all it means is that
her concert managers are disorganized, although that is extremely unlikely. Here is a YouTube video of one of her
performances. Photo is courtesy of Marco
Borggreve, photographer of (mostly European) musicians.
