Cesar
Thomson was a Belgian violinist, teacher, arranger, and composer born (in
Liege, Belgium) on March 18, 1857. Although
he was considered a brilliant violinist in his time, he is now remembered more
for his teaching. He began violin
lessons with his father at age 5 or 6.
By age 7 he had entered the Liege Conservatory where he studied with
Jacques Dupuis, a very strict teacher. (Liege
is about 50 miles east of Brussels, Belgium.)
He also studied with Rodolphe Massart and Desire Heynberg, who also
taught Eugene Ysaye. According to
Grove’s Dictionary, it was said that Thomson, by age 16, had a technique
unrivalled by any other living violinist – the year was 1873, so that is saying
quite a lot. Take it with a grain of
salt. Thomson later studied additionally
with Hubert Leonard, Henryk Wieniawski, and Henri Vieuxtemps. If he was already a superlative, pre-eminent
violinist, it is hard to imagine what it was they taught him. In 1873, he became concertmaster of a private
orchestra (in Switzerland) at the service of Paul von Derwies, a Russian
banker, railroad industrialist, and serious patron of the arts. Thomson stayed for four years and during the
interim, married into the nobility. By
1879, he was assistant concertmaster of Benjamin Bilse’s Band in Berlin, where
Eugene Ysaye was the concertmaster. Thomson
was barely 22 years old - Ysaye was 21. A
few years later, this orchestra would become the Berlin Philharmonic, but not
under the direction of Benjamin Bilse. One
source clearly states that Thomson was concertmaster of the Bilse Band but that
may be due to a tradition in German orchestras of having two or more
concertmasters, making no distinction between two or three leaders in the same
position. By 1882, Thomson was back
where he started, in Liege, teaching at the Liege Conservatory. In 1897, he took over for Eugene Ysaye at the
Brussels Conservatory. He was 40 years
old. A year later, he formed a string
quartet. Many sources state that Thomson
was austere and cerebral in his approach to music - he can perhaps be compared
to Joseph Szigeti. A review of his first
concert in New York City on October 30, 1894, stated the following: “His
treatment of the Bruch concerto [in d minor] proved him to be a player of
substantial force, but it revealed no influential emotional power. It was dignified, well-considered, and thoughtful. Mr. Thomson may be classed with the scholarly
players who interest the mind rather than overwhelm the heart.” On November 9, 1894, he played one of the
violin concertos of Leopold Damrosch with the New York Symphony, Walter
Damrosch conducting. That concerto has
probably not been heard from since, but that I do not know for sure. Thomson toured a great deal in Europe, South
America, and the U.S. Between 1924 and
1927, he taught at Ithaca College (New York) and at Juilliard as well. Students came from faraway places to study
with him. Among Thomson’s pupils are Haydn
Wood, Johan Halvorsen (famous for his Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia for violin
and viola), Paul Kochanski, Adolfo Betti, Antoinette Zoellner, Joseph Zoellner,
Alma Moodie (Carl Flesch’s favorite pupil), Aylmer Buesst, Edwin Grasse (blind violinist and composer), Hugo
Alfven, and Guillermo Uribe Holguin (founder of the National Symphony of
Colombia.) Thomson edited, arranged, and
transcribed music by Arcangelo Corelli, George Frederick Handel, Giuseppe
Tartini, J.S. Bach, Pietro Nardini, and Vitali – I don’t know which of the
Vitalis. Among his own works is a Gypsy
Rhapsody for violin but I don’t know if it has been recorded or even
published. He played a G.B. Guadagnini
violin (1780), a Santo Serafin (constructed in 1740 – later owned for many
years by Zino Francescatti), Giuseppe Guarneri (1703, auctioned in late 1990s
for about $400,000), and an Andrea Guarneri violin (1650) which ended up in a
museum. Thomson died (in Bissone,
Switzerland) on August 21, 1931, at age 74.
In Liege, a street is named after him.
Franz
Kneisel was a German (some would say American or Romanian) violinist,
conductor, composer, and teacher born (in Bucharest) on January 26, 1865. He is known for having taught for many years
at the Institute of Musical Arts (Juilliard) and for having led the famous
Kneisel Quartet for more than thirty years (1886-1917.) Together with Theodore Thomas, Max Bendix,
Simon Jacobsohn, Theodore Spiering, Ferdinand Laub, and Hans Letz, he was a
violinist who set the groundwork for the establishment of classical music as a
viable and serious art in the U.S. at the turn of the twentieth century. In Europe, that tradition had already been in
motion and thriving for over 200 years.
Kneisel graduated from the Bucharest Conservatory in 1879, at age
14. In Vienna, he studied with Jacob
Grun and Joseph Hellmesberger at the Vienna Conservatory for three years. In 1882, he made his debut in Vienna. He then soon became concertmaster of the Hofburg
Theatre Orchestra in Vienna. He was 18
years old. The following year (1884), he
became concertmaster of Benjamin Bilse’s Band in Berlin, the precursor of the
Berlin Philharmonic. By then, however,
it was actually known as “Former Bilse’s Band,” since most of its musicians had
broken away (in 1882) from conductor Benjamin Bilse to form their own
organization. It did not adopt the
Berlin Philharmonic name until 1887. Eugene
Ysaye had just left the concertmaster’s post in that orchestra to become a
concert violinist, teacher, and composer.
Kneisel left Germany for the U.S. in 1885 and was soon appointed
concertmaster of the Boston Symphony, where he played for 18 years (1885-1903),
and with which he appeared as soloist many times. He was also its assistant conductor. He was 20 years old. It has been said that over the years, Kneisel
conducted the Boston Symphony over a hundred times. Joseph Silverstein was probably the last
concertmaster in Boston who enjoyed the privilege of being an assistant
conductor as well. Kneisel formed the
Kneisel Quartet from among members of the orchestra (Emanuel Fiedler, Louis
Svecenski, and Fritz Giese.) Kneisel and
Svecenski (violist) stayed with the quartet until it was disbanded in 1917 but
the other positions were filled by many other players later on. The Kneisel Quartet became known all over the
U.S. and Europe. Several sources state
that Kneisel gave the premiere performances of the Brahms and Goldmark violin
concertos in the U.S. as well as the famous Cesar Franck A major sonata. According to Bridget Carr, Archivist for the Boston Symphony, Kneisel first performed the Brahms concerto in Boston on December 6, 1889 (almost ten years after it was premiered in Germany by Joseph Joachim) and the Goldmark concerto almost exactly a year later, on December 5, 1890. In 1897, Kneisel acquired a 1714 Stradivarius
which he owned until his death. It is
known as the Grun ex-Kneisel Strad but I have no idea who plays it now. He had previously played (and presumably
owned) a G.B. Guadagnini from 1752. He
also acquired a 1780 Guadagnini in 1914.
In 1905, Kneisel moved to New York to become the head of the violin
department at the Institute of Musical Arts (Juilliard) which was newly
established. He was fifty years
old. Eventually, Kneisel became so busy
teaching that he had to disband his quartet, by then, considered the best in
this country and one of the best in the world. He taught at Juilliard until
the day he died – about 11 years. Kneisel’s
pupils include Elias Breeskin, Louis Kaufman, Joseph Fuchs, Jacques Gordon, Sascha Jacobsen,
Samuel Gardner, Michel Gusikoff, Robert Talbot, Bernard Ocko, William Kroll, Lillian Fuchs, Joan Field, and
Olive Mead. He published several study
books which are probably no longer in print.
He also wrote a Grand Concert Etude for violin which, as far as I know,
nobody plays anymore. The Kneisel Quartet
may have recorded only once – in 1917. Kneisel
died (in New York City) on March 26, 1926, at age 61.
Karl
Halir (Carl Halir) was a Czech violinist, teacher, and composer born on
February 1, 1859. In his day, he was
famous for his interpretation of the Beethoven concerto. However, he is also remembered for having
played the first performance of the revised version – the version now commonly heard
today – of the Sibelius concerto. He was
also a very tall man with an imposing presence, as were August Wilhelmj and
Erick Friedman (and is Arnold Steinhardt.)
It has been said that in his hands, the violin looked like a toy. His father was his first violin teacher. At the Prague Conservatory he studied under
Antonin Bennewitz (teacher also of Josef Suk and Otakar Sevcik) and later (from
age 15) with Joseph Joachim in Berlin, at the Advanced School for Music. Upon graduation, Halir joined Benjamin
Bilse’s Band in Berlin, the precursor of the Berlin Philharmonic. He was either the concertmaster of this band or
played among the first violins. I do not
know for sure. He was concertmaster also
of the orchestra at Konigsberg in 1879.
He was 20 years old. Two years
later, he became concertmaster in Mannheim and remained for 3 years. One source states that after Konigsberg, he
spent two seasons in Italy as part of the private orchestra of a Russian
nobleman. In 1884, he was appointed
concertmaster of the orchestra in Weimar (Grand Ducal Court Orchestra) and was
there for 10 years (1884-1894.) That
same year, as part of the Bach Festival, he and Joachim played the Bach
concerto for two violins in Eisenach to great acclaim. He was 25 years old. Joachim was more than twice his age. Halir much later (in 1897) joined Joachim’s
string quartet as second violinist – the quartet had originally been formed in
1869. After Joachim’s death, Halir
formed his own quartet. After leaving
the Weimar orchestra in 1894, he became concertmaster of the Berlin Court Opera
orchestra and teacher at the school from which he had graduated (the Hochschule
fur Musik) – he taught there until the day he died. In Berlin, he also formed a piano trio which
included pianist George Schumann and cellist Hugo Dechert. All the while, he continued his solo concerts
and recitals. In 1888, Halir played the
Tchaikovsky concerto in Leipzig.
Tchaikovsky was at the performance and was so impressed with the concert
he later described it as a memorable day.
In 1896, Halir toured the U.S. He
arrived on November 4, 1896, for a 25-concert tour. For the tour, Joachim lent Halir his Red
Stradivarius of 1715 (now called the Joachim Strad – not to be confused with
the Red Mendelssohn), said to be worth $12,000 at the time. That violin was a gift to Joachim from the
City of London in 1889. It went to
Joachim’s nephew, Harold Joachim, upon Joseph Joachim’s death. Today, it is in Cremona, Italy and is worth
more than $12,000. Joachim’s generosity
was a further sign of the affection and respect he had for Halir. Halir’s itinerary included the cities of
Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Cambridge, Boston, Baltimore, Washington,
Philadelphia, and New York, among other places.
On November 13, 1896, in New York, he made his U.S. debut with the
Beethoven concerto. On December 4, he
gave the U.S. premiere of Spohr’s eighth concerto. On October 19, 1905, in Berlin, with Richard
Strauss conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, Halir gave the famous performance
of the final version of the Sibelius concerto. He also played one of Charles Loeffler's violin works at that same concert. In Berlin, most of his students were American violinists. Among other things, Halir wrote violin etudes
and scale studies and a cadenza for the Brahms concerto, works which are not
well-known today. Halir died (in Berlin)
on December
21, 1909, at age 50.
Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher born on July 16, 1858 (Brahms was 25 years old.) His first lessons were with his father but later on, he was largely self-taught until about age 12. After he entered the Conservatory at Liege at age 7, he was dismissed because he made little progress. As a teenager, he became a pupil of both Henryk Wieniawski and Henri Vieuxtemps. Having graduated from the same conservatory he had previously been kicked out of, he became concertmaster of a highly accomplished orchestra which was about to become (in 1882) the Berlin Philharmonic – Benjamin Bilse’s Band. Many famous musicians frequented the beer hall where this orchestra played – among them were Joseph Joachim, Franz Lizst, Clara Schumann, and Anton Rubinstein. At age 27, Ysaye made his Paris debut and thus began a highly successful concert career. The following year, he was appointed violin professor at the Conservatory in Brussels, Belgium. Louis Persinger, Josef Gingold, Nathan Milstein, Alfred Dubois, Jascha Brodsky, Nikolai Sokoloff, and William Primrose were among his many students. In 1886, he founded the Ysaye String Quartet. Debussy, Saint Saenz, Chausson, and Franck were among composers who dedicated works to him. Ysaye was a busy concert artist. In fact, he turned down the conductor’s post at the New York Philharmonic when it was offered to him (1898) precisely because he was too busy. Understandably, Ysaye did not have too much time to compose though he wrote six sonatas for solo violin which are part of the standard repertoire, some chamber music, a few orchestral pieces, and an opera (Peter the Miner.) Carl Flesch, the Hungarian violin pedagogue was quoted as saying that Ysaye was the most outstanding and individual violinist that he had ever heard in his life. Ysaye was principal conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony for four years – 1918 to 1922 – and made a few recordings with that orchestra. It was during his tenure there that he met his second wife – he was 66 and she was 22 (Jeanette Dincin, a violinist.) Ysaye died in Brussels on May 12, 1931, at age 72.
