Hugo Heermann

Hugo Heermann was a German violinist and teacher born (in Heilbronn) on March 3, 1844.  He taught briefly in the U.S. but spent most of his teaching career in Frankfurt, at the well-known Hoch Conservatory.  He taught there for 25 years - from 1878 until 1904 – but also concertized sporadically.  Joseph Lambert Massart and Joseph Joachim were among his teachers.  At 20 years of age (1864), he established himself in Frankfurt.  Beginning in 1865, he played first violin in the Heermann Quartet (which also used other names) with Fritz Bassermann on second, Adolf Rebner on viola, and Hugo Becker on cello.  As mentioned previously, he became a teacher at the Hoch Conservatory in 1878.  His most famous pupil at the conservatory (by far) is Bronislaw Huberman – that fact alone is sufficient to keep his name in the music history books forever.  In the early 1900s Heermann came to the U.S. and played the Beethoven concerto in his first U.S. appearance on February 5, 1903.  I don’t know which orchestra accompanied him but I do know he played a cadenza he composed himself.  He very soon after played the Brahms concerto with the New York Philharmonic on February 13, 1903 and received very favorable reviews.  It is said to be the first New York performance of the concerto.  Walter Damrosch was on the podium so it was probably the New York Symphony which he played with, although it was later merged with what we now know as the New York Philharmonic.  Franz Kneisel had already played the first Boston performance – possibly the first U.S. performance of the Brahms concerto - on December 6, 1889.  On April 3 of the same year Heermann played the first Bruch concerto with the philharmonic under the same conductor.  His final appearance with the philharmonic was on January 26, 1907 – by then, he had already settled in the U.S.  He played the Beethoven concerto on that occasion.  A critic pointed out that he had made a “deep impression upon the audience, and was rewarded with all the enthusiastic applause which his performance warranted, being recalled again and again.”  Heermann taught at the Chicago Musical College from 1906 to 1909.  He was later appointed concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony, where he served between 1909 and 1911.  In 1911, he returned to Europe, taking up teaching; first at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, and, beginning in 1912, at the Music Conservatory in Geneva, Switzerland.  For many years, Heermann used a 1733 Stradivarius violin which he purchased in 1860.  On or about the year 1888, Heermann acquired another Stradivarius violin presumably made in 1734.  That violin was purchased by Eugene Ysaye in 1895, from whom it was stolen in 1908.  After it was found in a Paris shop in 1925, none other than (violinist) Charles Munch bought it and kept it until 1960.  It was later played by Henryk Szeryng, who bequeathed it (in 1972) to the City of Jerusalem, to be used by the concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic.  The violin goes by various names but that does not make it hard to trace.  Another Stradivarius which Heermann used and which was constructed in (about) 1734, is now played by Gidon Kremer.  That violin is known as the Heermann Stradivarius.  Heermann also used yet another Stradivarius violin (from about 1700 - the Jupiter Strad) from 1892 to 1895.  According to the Cozio website, that violin is now in the hands of Hollywood studio violinist Arnold Belnick.  Heermann retired in 1922, living mostly in Merano, Italy, where he eventually died on November 6, 1935, at age 91.  

Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith was a German violinist, violist, teacher, composer, author, and conductor, born (in Hanau) on November 16, 1895.  He is much better known as a composer, though he spent much of his early life making a living as a violinist and violist.  He is one of several great artists who played in dance bands and musical theatre groups – far removed from the classical music arena - as a young man.  Eugene Ormandy, Vasa Prihoda, Elias Breeskin, Alfredo Campoli, Theodore Thomas, Albert Sammons, Alma Rose', and Jacques Thibaud did the same thing.  He began violin lessons with Eugene Reinhardt and Anna Hegner as a child but later entered the Frankfurt Conservatory (Hoch Conservatory) in 1908.  His violin teacher there was Adolf Rebner (pupil of Jacob Grun and Martin Marsick.)  Hindemith also studied composition there with Arnold Mendelssohn and Bernhard Sekles.  In 1914, Hindemith became assistant concertmaster of the Frankfurt Opera.  He was 19 years old.  In 1915, he played the Beethoven concerto in public although it is not known to me where or with whom.  Two years later, he was made concertmaster of the Frankfurt Opera.  From 1914 onward, Hindemith also played second violin in the Rebner String Quartet.  Between 1918 and 1920, he served as a musician – probably as a violinist - for the German military - World War One was over by then.  In 1921, he founded his own String Quartet – the Amar String Quartet – in which he played viola.  He was 26 years old.  He continued his activities with this quartet until 1929.  By 1923 he had resigned his position with the Frankfurt Opera and was gaining fame as a composer - by 1927, he was already teaching composition in the Advanced School for Music in Berlin.  In 1928, he wrote a film music score for a film by Hans Richter.  The score was subsequently lost.  On October 3, 1929, he gave the world premiere of William Walton’s now-famous viola concerto after Lionel Tertis refused it.  Walton was on the podium.  Hindemith frequently toured as a solo viola player, including several times in the U.S.  Part of Hindemith’s history includes his relationship to the infamous Nazi Party.  He was both denounced and embraced by the officials controlling anything to do with art and propaganda at the time.  Between 1935 and 1937, he traveled to Turkey to help with that country’s musical education programs.  In 1935 also, he quit his teaching position in Frankfurt – some sources call it an extended leave.  In 1938, he left Germany for Switzerland – his wife was part-Jewish.  In 1940, he settled in the U.S.  He mostly taught at Yale and Harvard.  Hindemith also devoted much of his time to writing about his music theory – or system - of composition.  In 1953, he returned to Europe, settling once again in Switzerland.  He took up numerous and frequent conducting assignments, going as far as Japan with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1956.  Among much other music, most of which has been recorded, Hindemith wrote 8 operas, 3 ballets, 14 concertos (for various instruments), 11 large-scale orchestral works, 7 string quartets, and 7 viola sonatas.  His most popular work is probably the Symphonic Metamorphosis for orchestra on themes of CM von Weber.  You can listen to it here.  I’ve only played it once in my life.  Hindemith died (in Frankfurt) on December 28, 1963, at age 68.  

Alexander Schneider

Alexander Schneider (Abram Szneider) was a Russian (Lithuanian) violinist, conductor, and teacher born on October 21, 1908 (Heifetz was 7 years old.) He is remembered as the second violinist of the Budapest String Quartet, with which he played for about 23 years, and as Pablo Casals' close colleague. As a teenager (1924), he studied at the Hoch Conservatory (a private music school in Frankfurt, Germany) under Adolf Rebner. At age 19, he was concertmaster of the orchestra at Saarbrucken (1927), and of the North German Radio Broadcasting Orchestra in Hamburg from 1929 until he was dismissed (1932). He then joined the Budapest Quartet, which was also based in Germany (Berlin), as second violinist. The quartet made most of its living outside Germany but it, too, was forced out (1934.) They then settled in Paris. They were touring the U.S. in 1939 when war broke out - since then, the U.S. was their home. Schneider left the quartet in 1944 and pursued a career as a soloist and music festival organizer for more than a decade. He returned to the quartet in 1956 but continued to work on projects independently. After the quartet retired in 1967, Schneider kept working as a freelance violinist, organizer, and teacher. He died on February 2, 1993, at age 84.