Franz von Vecsey (Ferenc Vecsey) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor,
and composer born (in Budapest) on March 23, 1893. He was a child prodigy in the early part of
the last century but is for the most part now forgotten. There are a few YouTube audio files which
attest to his unbelievable artistry at a very young age. Bela Bartok served as his piano accompanist
for a time. The Sibelius violin concerto
was dedicated to him (in 1905) when he was only 12 years old. Although he did not premiere the concerto, he
first played the Sibelius concerto one year later. His first teacher was his father, Lajos
Vecsey. He studied with Jeno Hubay from
age 8. It has been said that he became
Hubay’s favorite pupil. (Eugene Ormandy
and Joseph Szigeti also studied with Hubay.)
His debut took place on May 17, 1903 in Berlin. He was ten years old and on that occasion played
the Beethoven concerto while Joseph Joachim conducted the orchestra. Afterward, he studied with Leopold Auer in St
Petersburg, Russia. Jeno Hubay dedicated
his third violin concerto (probably his best-known among the four he composed)
to Vecsey. Later, after concertizing for
about ten years, Vecsey married into an aristocratic family, as did four or five other famous violinists (Teresina Tua, Johanna Martzy, Cesar Thomson, and Georges Enesco come to mind.) He managed his career
from a palace in Venice. It has been
suggested that he became psychologically scarred after serving in the Austrian
army during World War One and that his career suffered as a result. He was very interested in a
conducting career in the mid-1930s but became seriously ill just about then and
died after an unsuccessful operation in Rome.
Vecsey’s compositional output consisted mainly of miniature violin works,
one of which is Le Vent (Caprice number 1), a rather difficult work which is
still very popular today. A 1716
Stradivarius instrument was among the violins he played. It is now owned by an Italian philanthropic
foundation, which also owns other great and valuable string instruments. Here is a YouTube audio file where Vecsey
plays a Paganini caprice. Vecsey died on
April 5, 1935, at age 42.
