What if

If the great composers were still alive today, would they still be writing great music? Or, would they be caught up in the minimalist, atonal, and serial movements? I'm talking about Handel, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Bach, Verdi, Brahms, Vivaldi, Haydn, Stravinsky, Sibelius, Bizet, Schubert, Puccini, Prokofiev - those men.

Jenö Hubay

Jenö Hubay (Eugen Huber) was a German (some would say Hungarian) violinist, composer, and teacher born on September 15, 1858 (Brahms was 25 years old.) He first studied with his father, concertmaster of the opera orchestra in Budapest. At age 11, he made his first public appearance, playing a concerto by Viotti. Two years later, he began studying with Joseph Joachim in Berlin, where he remained for five years. In 1878, he made his Paris debut. He then undertook a course of study with Belgian violinist Henri Vieuxtemps. Beginning in 1882, he taught for four years at the Brussels Music Institute (some say it was the Brussels Conservatory.) He returned to Hungary in 1886 and took a post as head of the Budapest College of Music, where his father used to teach. (He also held a violin teaching post at the Budapest Conservatory at the same time.) Soon thereafter, he (and David Popper) founded the original Budapest String Quartet, which ceased to exist in 1913. Brahms frequently played chamber music with this group. (The subsequent Budapest Quartet was founded by other players in 1917 and was disbanded in 1967.) Together with Popper and Brahms, Hubay premiered Brahms’ third Piano Trio (1886.) Among his many pupils were Joseph Szigeti, Eugene Ormandy, Peter Stojanovic, and Stefi Geyer (Bartok’s girlfriend.) Hubay wrote four violin concertos, the first and second of which – as far as I know - are played only by English violinist Chloe Hanslip. In fact, Hanslip’s Naxos recording of the first and second concertos will be released this month. The third concerto is played (and has been recorded) by Israeli violinist Hagai Shaham. In addition, Hubay wrote several operas and symphonies which have been utterly neglected, except perhaps in Hungary. Among violinists, he is remembered for his short violin encore pieces, one of which is the popular Hejre Kati. Livia Sohn and Benjamin Loeb did recently record Hubay’s Fantasy on themes from the opera Carmen and that recording (also on the NAXOS label) is very much available everywhere on the internet. Aside from that, Hubay’s considerable output lies dormant somewhere. Hubay died on March 12, 1937, at age 78 (Heifetz was 36 years old.)

Joseph Joachim

Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer born on June 28, 1831 (Mendelssohn was 22 years old.) Because he was associated with so many important musicians (and pupils) during his lifetime, he is still regarded as one of the most influential violinists of all time. One of his early teachers was Stanislaus Serwaczynski, concertmaster of the opera orchestra in Pest, who also taught Henri Wieniawski. At age 8, he began studies at the Vienna Conservatory where he studied with Joseph Bohm, among others. After studying in Leipzig for a while, he made his London debut with the Beethoven violin concerto in 1844 (at age 13) which concert Mendelssohn conducted. Returning to Leipzig, he became assistant concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra - Ferdinand David was concertmaster. He was most likely playing in the orchestra when David premiered the Mendelssohn concerto on March 13, 1845. In 1848, he left Leipzig to join Franz Lizst in his new music endeavors (and his Weimar orchestra), serving as concertmaster. In 1852 (at age 21), he left Weimar (and Liszt’s New German School ideals) to work in Hanover (as concertmaster of the Hanover Court Orchestra), rejoining the old guard, which included Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Brahms. Fourteen years later, in 1866, Joachim moved to Berlin, where he founded the Royal Academy of Music and, in 1869, the Joachim String Quartet. He left the Hanover orchestra (at age 35) over a dispute concerning another player, Jacob Grun. On January 1, 1879, he premiered the Brahms concerto in Leipzig, with the composer conducting. On the same program was the Beethoven concerto. On January 13, 1883, he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, again playing the Beethoven concerto.  He was 51 years old.  One source states that Joachim made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic on March 17, 1899.  That is probably quite incorrect because Joachim would have been 67 years old by then.  Brahms himself related how, after Joachim played his concerto in Vienna on January 14, 1879, the audience applauded right after Joachim finished the cadenza.  The same thing happened years later (1896) when Bronislaw Huberman played it in Vienna - Brahms was again present at that performance.  It was probably a coincidence.  In 1903 (at age 72), he became one of the first violinists to record. Joachim composed a number of works (including 3 violin concertos) which today remain obscure. His best known work is probably the Hungarian concerto in d minor. Though he inspired at least two concertos in the standard violin repertory – the Dvorak and the Schumann – he never played them in public. Thanks partly to his criticism of the work, the Schumann concerto (written in 1853) was not premiered until 1937. A number of cadenzas which he composed for several violin concertos are still in use. Joachim died on August 15, 1907, at age 76. Heifetz was about six years old. Among Joachim's many pupils is Max Pilzer. 

Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar (Sir Edward William Elgar) was an English violinist and composer born on June 2, 1857 (Brahms was 24 years old.) During his early career, he struggled to establish himself as a composer and played in various orchestras and gave lessons in order to support himself. He began his study of the violin and piano at the age of 8 but was mostly self-taught as a composer. He learned much by arranging the music of classical composers for ensembles he played in as a young man. He did not achieve national recognition as a prominent composer until 1899, at age 42; however, by 1902, he was enjoying international fame. Today, he is remembered for his Enigma Variations (1899), violin concerto (1910), cello concerto (1919), and Pomp and Circumstance Marches. His Symphony No. 1 (1908) received over one hundred performances in its very first year, a feat probably unmatched by any other composer since then. One of his violin pupils was Marie Hall, though only for a very brief while. Elgar died in February 1934, at 76 years of age.

Jean-Baptiste Accolay

Jean-Baptiste Accolay was a Belgian violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer born on April 17, 1845 (Brahms was 12 years old.) His best known composition is a student concerto in a minor written in a single movement (1868). I could not locate a photo of Maestro Accolay anywhere but there are several videos of various students playing this concerto on YouTube. Accolay died in August of 1910, at age 65. (By the way, the title of the painting at the left is Jazz Violin.)