Valery Klimov

Valery Klimov (Valeri Alexandrovich Klimov) is a Russian violinist and teacher born (in Kiev) on October 16, 1931.  He is known for having won the very first International Tchaikovsky Violin Competition (in March, 1958), the best known violin competition in the world.  He was 26 years old.  That was the same competition at which Van Cliburn (the American piano player) won first prize in the piano division, subsequently becoming popular and famous.  That year, Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was the chairman.  Klimov’s first teacher was his father.  He later studied at the Odessa Conservatory and later still at the Moscow Conservatory with David Oistrakh.  As far as I was able to determine, Klimov did not perform outside Russia until 1967.  Quite possibly his first concert outside the Soviet Union was in London, England.  Although he has toured around the world, his career has mostly been spent in Russia.  He has been teaching at the Moscow Conservatory for a long time and has received many official awards.  Among his many pupils are Elena Denisova, Hisaya Sato, Alice Waten, Fiona Ziegler, Evgeny Grach, Rachel Schmidt, and Alena Tsoi.  Here is a YouTube video with Klimov playing the Khachaturian concerto.  Among other things, it gives you a chance to hear the excellent acoustics of the Sydney Opera House.  

Sergei Stadler

Sergei Stadler is a Russian violinist, teacher, and conductor born (in Saint Petersburg) on May 20, 1962.  Although he took first prize (alongside Viktoria Mullova) in the famous Tchaikovsky Competition (in 1982) and the Grand Prize in the Jacques Thibaud Competition (in 1980 – one source has it as 1979), he is not as well-known as one might expect.  (Please see comment below.) However, he has developed a very successful career in Russia and Europe, having played in most of the important concert venues.  He is also an opera conductor.  Stadler actually began his music studies in piano, taking lessons from his parents, although his father was a professional violinist.  He entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory at age 12.  He studied violin with Boris Sergeyev in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg.)  He also later studied with Mikhail Vaiman, Victor Tretyakov, Leonid Kogan, and David Oistrakh.  From 1984 to 1989 he taught at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.  In his career as a teacher, he has conducted master classes in Europe and the far east.  He has also founded several performing organizations - the Hermitage Music Academy, and the New Saint Petersburg Symphony are among them.  He has about 30 CDs to his credit – one source says 50 – including one with all Beethoven Sonatas, accompanied by his sister Julia.  Here is one video of his on YouTube.  

Vaclav Hudecek

Vaclav Hudecek is a Czech violinist, conductor, and teacher born on June 7, 1952.  He is known for his effortless, natural artistry and having been one of David Oistrakh’s last students.  His recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (with the Virtuosi di Praga - 1992) is the most successful classical recording in the Czech Republic’s history.  He has recorded standard concertos under the direction of famous violinists, namely, Igor Oistrakh, Pavel Kogan, and Dmitry Sitkovetsky, who are themselves sons of famous Russian violinists.  I do not know who his first teacher was but I do know he later studied and graduated from the Prague Conservatory.  His studies with David Oistrakh took place between 1970 (or 1971) and 1974.  One of his early successes took place on November 11, 1967 when he appeared as soloist with the Royal Philharmonic in London.  He was 15 years old.  He has concertized throughout the world and played in the most prestigious venues as well as participated or led renowned music festivals in Europe, Japan, and Australia.  Hudecek has also presented master classes in Canada, Germany, and Japan, as well as other countries.  He plays a 1729 violin constructed by well-known violin maker Antonio Stradivari.  There are several YouTube videos of his performances, including this one.  His recordings are easy to find on the internet.  

Stefan Gheorghiu

Stefan Gheorghiu was a Romanian violinist and teacher born (in Galatz) on March 23, 1926.  Although he concertized around the world, he spent most of his time playing and teaching in Romania.  As most professional violinists have done, he began his violin studies very early in life – at age 5.  He later (at age 9) became a student at the Royal Conservatory in Bucharest and later still at the National Conservatory in Paris, studying with Maurice Hewitt, a violinist I had never before heard of.  He completed his studies in Moscow under the tutelage of David Oistrakh.  In 1946, he became violin soloist with the George Enesco Philharmonic in Bucharest.  He also formed the Romanian Piano Trio.  He was 20 years old.  Using Bucharest as his home base, he toured various parts of the world (mostly Europe and Russia), championing the music of Romanian composers, especially George Enesco, recording several first editions of their works.  In 1960, he was appointed violin professor at the University of Music (Music Academy) in Bucharest.  He was 34 years old.  Among his many pupils are Angele Dubeau, Corina Belcea, Liliana Ciulei, and Silvia Marcovici.  Gheorghiu died on March 17, 2010, at (almost) age 84.  

Lydia Mordkovitch

Lydia Mordkovitch (Lydia Shtimerman Mordkovitch) was a Russian violinist, violist, and teacher born (in Saratov) on April 30, 1944.  She spent much of her later career in England.  She began her violin studies at the local music school in Kishinev (Kishniev or Kishinyov), a city in Moldova where her family returned after World War Two.  Since Kishinev was a shambles during the war, her mother fled as far as she could (980 miles eastward, all the way to Saratov, in this case) to get away from the fighting forces.  Mordkovitch may have been six or seven years old when she first began her studies.  I didn’t take the trouble to find out.  Beginning in 1960, at age 16, she studied briefly in Odessa (Ukraine) at the Stolyarski School of Music.  (Odessa is only 96 miles southeast from Kishinev.)  She then moved her studies to the (Nezhdanova) Odessa Conservatory.  One of her teachers there was Monzion Mordkovich, a violinist I had never heard about before.  [Please see comments below]  She was there two years and graduated.  She was 18 years old.  Later still, she entered the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.  She was 24 years old by then.  Her main teacher there was David Oistrakh.  In fact, when she first met Oistrakh to prepare for her entrance exam, he asked her why she had “come so late,” referring to her age.   From 1968 to 1970, she was Oistrakh’s teaching assistant as well.  From 1970 to 1973 she taught at the Institute of Arts in Kishinev.  A couple of sources say she studied there between those same years but that is highly unlikely – Mordkovitch was already an established violinist by then.  In Israel, she taught at the Academy of Music in Jerusalem between 1974 and 1979.  Mordkovitch made her British debut on January 7, 1979, playing the Tchaikovsky concerto with the Halle Orchestra (Manchester, England) conducted by Walter Susskind.  She moved to England permanently in 1980.  She was 36 years old.  All the while, she was concertizing in Europe, England, Russia, Israel, and the US.  Her American debut came in 1982 with the Chicago Symphony (in Chicago.)  George Solti was on the podium.  In 1980, she began teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.  In 1995, she began teaching at the Royal Academy of Music in London.  Mordkovitch made over sixty recordings, mostly under the (British) Chandos label.  Some of them are unique in that they feature works for violin which are seldom heard – John Veale’s violin concerto, for instance.  Her recording of the Shostakovich concertos won awards from British and French music critics.  Most of her recordings are easy to find on the internet.  Her best-known pupil is probably British violinist Pip Clarke.  Mordkovitch played a 1746 Nicolo Gagliano violin for many years but she would use other instruments as well (mostly Strads and Guadagninis on loan from friends or the Royal Academy), especially when recording.  Here is a YouTube audio file of her recording of the first Szymanowski concerto.  Mordkovitch died on December 9, 2014, at age 70.   

Martin Marsick

Martin Marsick (Martin Pierre Joseph Marsick) was a Belgian violinist, teacher, and composer born on March 9, 1847.  He created a scandal toward the latter part of his life as did Jean Marie Leclair at the very end of his.  Thanks to a few of his students, he will forever remain in the history books, even if his name is not exactly the most remembered among violinists.  These students included Bronislaw Huberman, Carl Flesch, George Enesco, and Jacques Thibaud.  He is also identified with the violin David Oistrakh played from 1966 until the day he died – the Marsick Stradivarius of 1705.  That violin ended up in the hands of Igor Oistrakh, but its present whereabouts are unknown to me.  In 1854, seven-year old Marsick was admitted to the Royal Conservatory of Music in Liege (in other words, the Liege Conservatory.)  He studied violin with a very obscure teacher named Desire Heynberg and graduated in 1864.  Brahms was about 31 years old at the time.  Marsick then continued his studies in Brussels with Hubert Leonard.  Later still (1868) he went to Paris – which he made his home from that time forward - to study with Joseph Lambert Massart at the Paris Conservatory.  He was 21 years old.  Sponsored by the Belgian government, he went to Berlin in 1870 to study privately with Joseph Joachim.  In 1871, he founded a string quartet – not an unusual thing to do for recently-graduated violinists.  His debut took place in Paris in 1873.  He then concertized in Europe and the United States for about 20 years.  He was by then playing a Nicolo Amati violin from 1652, given to him by a member of the French nobility.  Conductors with whom he frequently worked in Paris included Edouard Colonne, Jules Pasdeloup, and Charles Lamoureux.  He also gave concerts with a piano trio which included Anatolyi Brandukov (teacher of Gregor Piatigorsky), and Vladimir de Pachmann (pupil of Anton Bruckner.)  In 1892, Marsick was appointed professor of violin at the Paris conservatory.  He was 45 years old.  He stayed until 1900.  In that year, he left his job, his students, and his wife and did not return until 1903.  The woman he lived with during this brief time was married and the situation, which was widely known, created a scandal.  It has been said that this incident ruined his career.  In 1906, he published a study book for violinists entitled Eureka (Opus 34, 18 pages long) and another book (Violin Grammar) published in 1924.  Perhaps these books are available in France.  Thibaud did record at least one of his pieces (Opus 6, number 2, Scherzando) about one hundred years ago and that recording is still available.  Among many other things, Marsick also composed three violin concertos, a quintet, a piano quartet, and a music drama.  Whether these works are nowadays performed is unknown – I would guess probably not, except perhaps in France.  According to some sources, Marsick died in poverty (in Paris) on October 21, 1924, at age 77.

Liana Isakadze

Liana Isakadze is a Georgian (Russian) violinist, conductor, and teacher born (in Tbilsi) on August 2, 1946.  She is very well known in Europe and Russia though not in the U.S.  She began studying music at age three.  One of her first teachers was Leo Shiukashvili.  She was to have been a pianist but became a violinist by pure chance.  Isakadze first performed in public (as a violinist) at age 7 and by age 9 had already soloed with the Georgian State Orchestra.  Her first recital took place when she was 10.  She started winning prizes at competitions when she was 12, including First Prize in the 1970 Sibelius Competition (Helsinki, Finland.)  She graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1968.  She was 22 years old.  Her principal teacher there was David Oistrakh.  Isakadze has been concertizing in Russia and Europe ever since.  Ironically, Isakadze and her cellist brother – Eldar Isakadze - were rehearsing the Brahms Double Concerto with Oistrakh (as conductor) in Amsterdam in 1974 when he suddenly died while there.  In 1971, she became a soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic (1970-1994) and ten years later was made head of the Chamber Orchestra of Georgia (a province of the Soviet Union at that time.)  She led this orchestra for fifteen years.  In 1988 she was named People’s Artist of the USSR, the youngest to be so named.  Isakadze has also received various other honors from the governments of various countries.  For over two years, she even served as a Deputy in the Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies (March 1989 to December 1991.)  She has resided in France and Germany for many years and presided over various music festivals in Georgia, Russia, and Europe.  She has also given Master classes at the Mozarteum (Salzburg, Vienna) among many other venues.  Her recordings are very numerous and YouTube has many videos of her playing.  Here is one of them - a small slice of a nice violin concerto by Georgian composer Otar Taktakishvili.  For many years,  Isakadze played a Stradivarius violin from the Russian State collection.  I do not know what violin she is playing these days.

Peter Stolyarsky

Peter Stolyarsky (Pyotr Solomonovich Stoliarsky), was a Russian (Ukrainian) violinist and teacher born on November 18, 1871 (Brahms was 38 years old.)  He, like Leopold Auer, Carl Flesch, and Ivan Galamian, is remembered as a pedagogue and not a concertizing soloist.  He began his studies with his father then progressed to Stanislaw Barcewicz, Emil Mlynarski (the founder of the Warsaw Philharmonic) in Poland, and Josef Karbulka back in Odessa.   He graduated from the Odessa Conservatory in 1893 and went to work almost immediately in the orchestra of the Odessa Opera House where he played for about 26 years.  He started teaching privately in 1898 and opened his own music school in 1912 (some sources say 1911), at age 41.  From 1919 he taught at the Odessa Conservatory.  He was instrumental in the opening in Odessa of a music school for gifted children in 1933.  His famous pupils include David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein, Boris Goldstein, Albert Markov, Naoum Blinder, Elizabeth Gilels, Eduard Grach, and Zakhar Bron (himself an eminent teacher.)  Stolyarsky died on April 29, 1944, at age 72.

Leonid Kogan

Leonid Kogan (Leonid Borisovich Kogan) was a Russian (Ukrainian) violinist and teacher born on November 17, 1924 (Heifetz was 23 years old.) There are actually two dates given for his date of birth - I arbitrarily chose this one. He was a modest and quiet man but possessed an astonishing technique, powerful tone, and expressive insight. Kogan began studying violin with his father while still a very young child and by age 10 was taking lessons from Abram Yampolsky. From 1934 until 1951 he continued studying - first at the Central Music School (until 1943) and then at the Moscow Conservatory (until 1951.) However, since he had already made his debut in 1941 at the Moscow Conservatory, his concertizing career actually started in that year. He won first prize at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in that same year, giving an unforgettable performance of the D major Paganini concerto which is still talked about. He started teaching at the Conservatory in 1952. His many recordings are now very much sought after. There are many videos of his on YouTube and he also has a fan page on MySpace. For a time, his daughter Nina was his piano accompanist. He was well-known for shunning publicity though he was one of the finest violinists of all time. He died unexpectedly while on tour on December 17, 1982, at age 58. It has been rumored that the KGB poisoned him.

Ion Voicu

Ion Voicu was a Romanian violinist born on October 8, 1923 (Heifetz was 22 years old.) He began violin lessons at age six, with Constantin Niculescu. He was later admitted to the Royal Academy of Music in Bucharest, managing to graduate in just three years. In 1946, he won a first prize in a national competition which Yehudi Menuhin organized. Beginning in 1949, Voicu made several tours with the George Enesco Philharmonic. In 1954, Voicu pursued further studies with Abram Yampolsky and David Oistrakh in Russia at the Moscow Conservatory. Voicu made his British debut in 1963 and his U.S. debut in 1965 at Carnegie Hall. He toured the U.S. under the management of Sol Hurok, an important impresario in those days. Voicu concertized on an international scale from then on. He also founded the Bucharest Chamber orchestra in 1969. Later on, he devoted time to teaching at the Mozarteum (Austria), in France, and in Switzerland, among other places. His discography includes more than 100 recordings and YouTube also has a few videos of his playing. Voicu died on February 24, 1997, in Bucharest.

David Oistrakh

David Oistrakh (David Fyodorovich Oistrakh) was a Russian (Ukrainian) violinist and teacher born on September 30, 1908 (Heifetz was 7 years old.) He progressed to the point of becoming a legendary Russian string player, in a class with Mstislav Rostropovitch, and Leonid Kogan. Oistrakh began studying violin at age 5 with Peter Stolyarsky. His first concert appearance took place in Odessa, his hometown, in 1914, at age 6. He shared that debut with Nathan Milstein who was 10 years old at the time. In 1923, Oistrakh entered the Odessa Conservatory and remained until 1926. He began concertizing soon thereafter. He married Tamara Rotareva in 1928 and had a son with her in 1931, Igor Oistrakh, who became a famous violinist, too. Oistrakh started teaching at the Moscow Conservatory in 1934. Among his many students was Gidon Kremer. In 1935, he came in second at the Wieniawski Competition – a 16-year-old Ginette Neveu came in first. In 1937, he came in first in the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels, Belgium. After that, his career became firmly established. He premiered many violin works by famous Russian composers – Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Shostakovich, and Miaskovsky, among others. It is said that he played the Tchaikovsky concerto to the end, on a winter day in 1942, despite the heavy bombardment (by the German air force) of downtown Stalingrad - where the music hall was located - during the concert. He did not actually appear in the West (as a concert artist) until 1949 (Helsinki, Finland.) His first tour of the U.S. came in 1955. He began venturing into conducting in the late fifties. Oistrakh died on October 24, 1974, in Amsterdam, at age 66. He had just finished conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra in a series of concerts. His discography is very extensive, though the sound quality of many of his recordings leaves a lot to be desired. There are many videos of his playing on YouTube and a fan page on MySpace as well.

Elizabeth Gilels

Elizabeth Gilels was a Russian violinist born on September 30, 1919 (Heifetz was 18 years old and would live another 68 years.) Though she was a brilliant violinist in her own right, she is best known for being the wife of violinist Leonid Kogan and the sister of pianist Emil Gilels. She was born on the same date as David Oistrakh, though eleven years later. Gilels began her studies with Peter Stolyarsky, who also taught David Oistrakh and Nathan Milstein, among others. She later studied with Yampolsky in Moscow. Early on, she formed a duo with her brother Emil before taking a third prize at the Queen Elizabeth competition in Brussels, Belgium, in 1937. After the Second World War, she formed her duo with Leonid Kogan, whom she later married. From 1966, she taught at the Moscow Conservatory. Some sources state that Ilya Kaler and Stefan Jackiw studied with her although they actually studied with Zinaida Gilels, Elizabeth Gilels' niece. She also wrote a method book on scales and double stops in the style of Carl Flesch. She died on March 13, 2008, at age 88, in Moscow.

Ginette Neveu

Ginette Neveu was a French violinist born on August 11, 1919 (Heifetz was 18 years old.) She was considered one of the greatest of her time, despite a career that was cut short. Neveu was a child prodigy whose first teacher – at age 5 - was her mother, an accomplished violinist. She made her debut at age 7 in Paris with the Colonne Orchestra (at the Sorbonne Amphitheatre.) Further study at the Paris Conservatory, with George Enesco, and with Carl Flesch, completed her training. She is remembered for having beaten David Oistrakh (who came in second) when competing for the top prize at the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in 1934. She was 15 years old. After that, except for the interval during World War Two, during which she did some recording, she never stopped concertizing. She toured the U.S., Australia, Russia, Poland, Germany, South America, and Canada. Her London debut, however, did not come until 1945. Her brother, Jean-Paul Neveu, was often her accompanist. Her favorite composers were Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. It is said she possessed an intense, powerful sound. There are several videos of her playing on YouTube. Her last concert, at which she played the Sibelius violin concerto, was with the Halle Orchestra – October 20, 1949. A week later, en route to the U.S., Neveu, age 30, died in a devastating plane crash, October 27, 1949. Her brother was with her.

Igor Oistrakh

Igor Oistrakh is a Russian (Ukrainian) violinist born on April 27, 1931 (Leonid Kogan was 6 years old but Heifetz was already 30.) He is the son of violinist David Oistrakh (1908-1974). He attended the Central Music School in Moscow and made his concert debut in 1948. From 1949 to 1955 he studied at the Moscow Conservatory. He then joined the faculty of the Conservatory in 1958. Since 1996, Oistrakh has held the post of Professor of the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. He has appeared as a soloist and in joint recitals with his father, or with his father conducting. He has also recorded extensively and there are various videos of his playing on YouTube.

Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer is a German violinist and conductor born on February 27, 1947 (Heifetz was 45 years old). He lived in Russia with his family (he is Russian-born) until 1980, when he moved to Germany. He began his studies with his father at age four and later studied with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1967 onwards, he entered and placed in the top three places in several competitions, finally winning the first prize in the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1970. He made his German debut in 1975 and in New York in 1976. He has toured the world ever since. He can be heard on many CDs and can be seen on several videos on YouTube. It is said he plays an old Amati violin.