Rodney Friend

Rodney Friend is an English violinist, teacher, and author born (in Bradford, England) in 1939.  He is best known for being the concertmaster of three of the world’s best orchestras – the New York Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony.  He began his violin studies at age seven.  I do not know who his first teacher was. At 12, he received a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London.  His main teacher was Frederick Grinke, a Canadian violinist who played for Churchill, Truman, and Stalin at the famous Potsdam Conference in the summer of 1945.  Friend later studied with Endre Wolf, Yehudi Menuhin, and Henryk Szeryng.  One usually-reliable source says he also later studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music.  In September, 1964, Friend became the concertmaster of the London Philharmonic.  He was 24 years old.  He played the Britten concerto in his first solo appearance with this orchestra.  However, by then, he had made his London debut playing the Sibelius concerto with the Halle Orchestra (in 1961) at the Festival Hall with John Barbirolli on the podium.  Friend played with the London Philharmonic for 12 years. In 1975, he was invited to be the New York Philharmonic’s concertmaster.  He was 35 years old.  He had already made his American debut with this orchestra playing the Britten concerto.  He probably began his tenure as concertmaster in New York in the fall of 1976.  On March 10, 1977, in his new role as concertmaster, he soloed with the orchestra, this time playing Karol Szymanowski’s first concerto.  Erich Leinsdorf was on the podium.  In 1981, Friend returned to England and became the concertmaster of the BBC Symphony.  In that year also, he became professor of violin at the Royal College of Music.  He was 42 years old.  Since 1990, he has devoted his time to teaching, writing, judging international competitions, and playing and/or directing chamber music concerts.  He formed the Solomon Trio in 1991.  In 2006, Friend’s two-volume work entitled The Orchestral Violinist (a study guide for orchestral players) appeared.  It has been acclaimed by many critics.  In 2010, he founded the Cambridge International String Academy at Trinity College.  In 2015, he joined the Royal Academy of Music faculty.  In 2019, his pedagogic work entitled The Violin in Fifths was published.  Many sources say it is a unique study guide.  It is easily found on the internet.  Among other violins, Friend has played (and might still be playing) a Giuseppe (Battista) Guarneri violin dated 1696 (not a Del Gesu.)  (According to a usually-reliable source, for a time, he also played a Guarneri Del Gesu dated 1731.) Needless to say, he has recorded (as an orchestral violinist) practically the entire orchestral repertoire.  He has also appeared in every important concert hall in the world and worked alongside the most eminent conductors and soloists of the twentieth century.  Here is a very charming YouTube audio file of one of his commercial recordings as soloist. 

Jennifer Pike

Jennifer Pike is an English violinist and teacher born (in Stockport, England – Stockport is about five miles southeast of Manchester) on November 9, 1989.  She is known for having been the youngest winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Award competition in 2002.  On the occasion of her performance, she played the well-known Mendelssohn concerto - the one in e minor.  She was 12 years old.  Since then, she has forged a solo career, touring the world as soloist in recital and with orchestra, as most concert artists do.  Her violin studies began at age 5.  I do not know who her first teacher was, although it is very likely that it was her father, a violinist and composer.  At age 8 she entered Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester.  She made her debut at age 15 playing Haydn’s fourth violin concerto (the one in G), although by then she had already been recognized as a child prodigy and made public appearances, including one at the Royal Opera House when she was ten years old.  She further studied with David Takeno in London.  She also attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the University of Oxford (in Oxford, England – about 40 miles northwest of London) from which she graduated in 2012.  Her discography is not extensive but she has recorded a few works for the Chandos and Sony labels.  Pike has played a Matteo Goffriller violin constructed in 1708 for some time but I do not know if she is still playing that violin.  Here is a YouTube video where she is playing a popular piece by William Kroll.

Eda Kersey

Eda Kersey was an English violinist and teacher born (in Goodmayes, a district of London) on May 15, 1904.  She was a very accomplished musician whose career was mostly spent in England.  She was also one of quite a few female violinists who died young – Maud Powell, Johanna Martzy, Ginette Neveu, Edith Volkaert, Alma Rose, Alma Moodie, and Arma Senkrah are among them.  Several sources speak very highly of her and emphasize that she would have left a great legacy if only she had lived long enough to record the great works of the violin repertoire.  She is also known to have stated that practicing seven hours a day (which she routinely did) should be sufficient for any violinist.  Her musical education began on the piano at age four.  She took up the violin at age six when she actually began studying at the Trinity College of Music in London.  Two years later, she was awarded a certificate from the college with very high marks.  She was eight years old.  After that, she began studying with Edgar Mouncher (a pupil of Otakar Sevcik.)  After only two years, at age ten, she played Wieniawski’s second concerto (first movement only) in Southampton, a city which is 65 miles from London.  That concert (in 1915) was a great success.  At age 13, she moved to London to live with an aunt and uncle in London and began studying with Margaret Holloway, a pupil of Leopold Auer.  Her first London recital took place three years later at the Aeolian Hall when she was sixteen years old.  (New York City also had its own Aeolian Hall.)  Along the way, she premiered the concertos of Arnold Bax, Erno Dohnanyi, and Stanley Wilson, as well as works by other contemporary composers.  She also gave the first English performance of the Barber concerto at a Proms concert in 1943.  Her first Proms concert had been in 1930 playing the Beethoven concerto with the famous Henry Wood conducting.  She was 26 years old.  That performance was the first of several appearances she made at the popular Proms concerts.  In 1931, she formed a piano trio which was simply named The Trio Players.  Her last concert took place in June, 1944, at the Albert Hall in London.  Kersey played a Nicolo Amati, a J.B. Vuillaume, and a Guarnerius del Gesu (which she acquired from Belgian violinist Alfred De Reyghere in 1942), among other violins.  Eda Kersey died on July 13, 1944, at age 40.  Negotiations for many recordings of the standard repertoire had nearly been concluded before her sudden death but she never got to actually record anything other than some small pieces (with piano accompaniment) and the Bax concerto (with orchestral accompaniment) several months earlier. 

Roger Best

Roger Best was an English violinist, violist, and teacher born (in Liverpool) on September 28, 1936.  I think he is only the sixth violist I have posts on – the others are Alessandro Rolla, Paul Hindemith, Emanuel Vardi, William Primrose, and Walter Trampler.  Every one of them began on violin and later switched to the viola.  Of course, there are many concert violinists who also play viola, even as soloists, but never relinquish violin for viola – Pinchas Zukerman, Maxim Vengerov, Nigel Kennedy, and Wolfgang Mozart are among them.  Best also played other instruments, as did Stephane Grappelli and a few other violinists, but mostly to make a living while he was a student.  He began his violin studies with his father but soon began to study with a professional teacher.  At age 11, he won a scholarship to the Liverpool Institute.  He later won a scholarship to study at the Royal Manchester College of Music – his teacher was Paul Cropper - earning a living touring all over England with various orchestras as well.  Later on, none other than John Barbirolli invited Best to play in the Halle Orchestra, based in Manchester, England.  After two years there, Best joined the Northern Sinfonia as Principal violist.  The orchestra was based in Newcastle, about 300 miles north of London.  Although he sporadically concertized as a soloist, he eventually (by 1972) gravitated toward orchestral playing, performing as a chamber player and studio musician.  He ended up playing in dozens of recordings, though anonymously, as most orchestral players do.  Beginning in 1977, Best was also the violist of the Alberni Quartet but only for a time.  The Alberni has had at least four different violists.  Best was the third in the series.  Among others, Richard Bennett and Malcolm Arnold wrote viola concertos for Best - Best premiered the Arnold concerto in September, 1971 and recorded it later on.  The Bennett concerto he actually premiered in New York in 1973.  Best later taught at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Royal Scottish Academy.  He played an Antonio Mariani viola constructed in 1645, give or take.  The instrument had previously been played by Lionel Tertis.  Best died on October 8, 2013, at age 77.  There is a quote in his obituary which I like: “He also played croquet at national championships level – a game that suited his temperament well, combining as it does courtesy with a killer instinct.” 

Daniel Hope

Daniel Hope is a British violinist, writer, teacher, and conductor, born (in Durban, South Africa) on August 17, 1973.  Besides his concertizing, he is known for his varied interests and is also identified with his extended promotion (more than 17 years) of the music of composers who perished in concentration camps in World War II.  Those composers include Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Erwin Schulhoff, and Zigmund Schul.  As a violinist and advocate for various causes, he follows in the footsteps of Bronislaw Huberman, Arthur Hartmann, Joseph Achron, Vladimir Spivakov, Ivry Gitlis, and Shlomo Mintz.  Hope began his violin studies at age four in England as a result of his (indirect) close association with Yehudi Menuhin, whose secretary was Hope’s mother.  He later studied at the Royal Academy of Music (London) with Zakhar Bron (teacher also of Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin) until graduation.  However, by age 11, he was already playing concerts with Yehudi Menuhin, with whom he collaborated artistically more than 60 times, including Menuhin’s final concert on March 7, 1999 – Menuhin died five days later.  At age 29, in the midst of an established concertizing career, Hope joined the famous Beaux Arts Trio (Menahem Pressler and Antonio Meneses) in 2002 and played with them until they disbanded (after a 53-year career) in 2008.  Of course, he has already played in most of the major concert halls with most of the major orchestras in the world.  He has for many years also been engaged by some of the top music festivals.  Hope has written a fascinating book entitled Family Album but it is written in German – I don’t know whether an English translation is available.  His recording catalog is not extensive but it includes the original version of the Mendelssohn concerto.  Thanks to this recording, we can better appreciate Ferdinand David’s contribution in making the concerto more Romantic in style – the original version sounds a little archaic; in places, as if it had come from Viotti or Spohr.  The recording is not available on YouTube but this one is - it's a more modern concerto.  The New York Times has stated that Hope “puts classical works within a broader context – not just among other styles and genres but amid history, literature, and drama – to emphasize music’s role as a mirror for struggle and aspiration.”  Among other violins, Hope has played a 1769 Gagliano (purchased from Menuhin) and a 1742 Guarnerius – the Lipinski Guarnerius – on loan from a German family.  

Celebrity Violinists

I have been meaning to put together a list of celebrity violinists for a while, but I have not done so for reasons I do not understand.  However, I have decided – instead - to now put together a list of violinists on this blog who, for reasons I also do not understand, have gotten very little attention – fewer than 70 (unique) views.  And, here it is, in reverse chronological order: Arthur Hartmann, Jacob Grun, Franz Kneisel, Eddie South, Tivadar Nachez, Karl Halir, Camilla Urso, Nahan Franko, Albert Sammons, Jose Lafitte, Daisy Kennedy, Isidore Cohen, Erick Friedman, Victoria Mullova, Joseph Hellmesberger, Robert Mann, Emmanuel Wirth, William Reed, Otto Joachim, Ion Voicu, Jan Kubelik, Willy Hess, Pierre Baillot, Jacques Thibaud, Antonio Bazzini, Roman Totenberg, Jeno Hubay, and Emile Sauret.  With time, perhaps these violinists may get a few more views and reach 100 views or so.  Few people seem even aware that these once-famous people were very influential musicians in their day.  Of course some profiles have gotten over 2,500 (unique) views but the reason eludes me.  Why some old names stick and others don’t is a mystery.  The ones who are contemporary but have very few views are Robert Mann and Viktoria Mullova but the reason for that is that my Pronetoviolins blog post about them does not even show up in the first ten pages of Google.  I wonder if, fifty years from now, Gil Shaham or Itzhak Perlman or Hilary Hahn will still be remembered.  Not too long ago, I asked a violin student if she had heard a certain Heifetz recording.  She said she had never heard of Jascha Heifetz.  Well, there it is. 

Isolde Menges

Isolde Menges (Isolde Marie Menges) was an English violinist born on May16, 1893 (Igor Stravinsky was 11 years old but Fritz Kreisler was already 18 years old.)  She is known for having a major prize named after her at the Royal College of Music (RCM-England.)  Menges was said to possess a very legato and fine tone and her playing was described as being soulful and exuberant.  She began her violin studies with her father.  She later studied for three years in Russia (St Petersburg) with Leopold Auer, although she was never known as one of his famous pupils.  She also studied with Carl Flesch – she was not one of his famous pupils either.  She began her concertizing career at an early age, as do most violinists, while still a very young student.  For her formal London debut in February of 1913, she played both the Tchaikovsky concerto and the Symphonie Espagnol by Eduard Lalo, something that no concert violinist today would dare do (for a debut.)  She was 19 years old.  (A few violinists – Raymond Cohen and Yehudi Menuhin, for instance - have played three concertos in one evening, but not two in a debut performance.)  Two weeks later, she played the Beethoven and the Wieniawski concertos at another concert.  Soon thereafter, she again played two concertos in a single program - the Brahms and the Glazunov concertos.  Her interpretations were highly praised and she was compared to Marie Hall.  In 1918, she spent several months teaching in Canada.  Menges was entrusted with presenting the English premiere of Ernst Von Dohnanyi’s first violin concerto (opus 27 - 1915) in 1923, a work which was later championed by another English violinist, Eda Kersey.  She also toured the U.S.  Three famous conductors with whom she worked early on were Willem Mengelberg, Bruno Walter, and Ernest Bloch.  In September 1931, she was appointed violin and chamber music teacher at the Royal College of Music in England.  She was 38 years old.  Coincidentally, she also founded the Isolde Menges Quartet in that same year.  The quartet was somewhat unusual for the time in that it brought together female and male players – Isolde Menges, Beatrice Carelle, John Dyer (viola), and Ivor James (cello.)  Menges also played and gave many concerts with a Quintet.  In 1938, her Quartet was one of the first to present the entire cycle of Beethoven Quartets in London.  Menges retired from the Royal College of Music in 1971.  She was 78 years old.  Her pupils include Leonard Salzedo, Norma Varga, Isobel Murray, and Malinee Peris.  The only YouTube performance of hers is here – Bach’s Air on the G String.  Interestingly, her brother, (conductor-composer) Herbert Menges, conducted the recordings by Joseph Szigeti, of the Brahms and the first violin concerto of Prokofiev.  Isolde Menges died on January 13, 1976, at age 83.  She is now completely forgotten, although there is a fan page on Facebook.

Marie Hall

Marie Hall (Marie Pauline Hall) was an English violinist born on April 8, 1884 (Brahms was 51 years old.)  Her claim to fame rests on the fact that Vaughan Williams wrote and dedicated his best known work, The Lark Ascending, for her.  She also (briefly) took lessons from Edward Elgar (1894.)  Her playing was once described as being emotionless.  Her first teacher was her father, a harpist in the Carl Rosa Opera Company (which is still active today.)  It may be (or perhaps not) that a certain Hildegarde Werner also taught her as a very young child.  Other teachers she had included August Wilhelmj (1896) Max Mossel (1898), Johan Kruse (1900), and Otakar Sevcik (1901.)  Early on, being barely nine years old, she had missed an opportunity to study with Emile Sauret because her family did not have enough money to pay her tuition at the Royal Academy (London.)  It has been reported that as a child, she played her violin in the street, in Malvern, England, accompanied by her mother, to help out with family expenses - Lucien Capet did the same thing, playing in theaters, cafes, and cabarets as well.  Her subsequent music education was financed through scholarships.  Her first concert took place in Prague (where Sevcik taught) in 1902.  She was 18 years old and later said that she had been extremely nervous before her performance.  In January, 1903, she made her Vienna debut and a month later, her London debut.  Physically, she was very petite but possessed great stamina.  She appeared in New York (Carnegie Hall) for the first time on November 8, 1905.  On that occasion, she played the Tchaikovsky concerto and an arrangement of the first Paganini concerto, among other things.  After 1909, she toured far and wide fairly regularly and even recorded, though not nearly as much as most of her contemporaries.  With Elgar conducting, she recorded an abridged version of his concerto in 1916 for the HMV record company.  (Fritz Kreisler, to whom the concerto is dedicated, never recorded it.)  A few of her recordings can be found on YouTube.  She is inextricably linked to The Lark Ascending, which she first performed in 1921, the same way that Franz Clement is linked to the Beethoven concerto, Ferdinand David to the Mendelssohn concerto, Joseph Joachim to the Brahms concerto, Leopold Auer to the Tchaikovsky concerto, and Rodolphe Kreutzer to the Kreutzer Sonata.  In each case, the composition eclipsed the violinist by far.  From 1905 onwards, Hall played what is now known as the ex-Viotti Marie Hall Stradivarius (constructed in 1709 - not to be confused with the ex-Bruce Viotti Stradivarius from 1709 as well, now housed at London’s Royal Academy of Music.)  I do not know how she acquired it.  About thirty years after her death, it was sold at auction for a large sum (more than $800,000.)   She died in Cheltenham on November 11, 1956, at age 72, in hazy obscurity. 

Tasmin Little

Tasmin Little is an English violinist born on May 13, 1965 (Perlman was 19 years old.) She is known for her violin-music project known as “The Naked Violin.” Little studied in London with Pauline Scott at the Yehudi Menuhin School and at the Guildhall School of Music though she studied in Canada as well. Her debut came in 1988 with the Halle Orchestra. She has been concertizing around the world since then but has only recorded a small portion of the standard repertoire. Still missing from her discography are the concertos of Bach, Mozart, Paganini, Beethoven, Wieniawski, Vieuxtemps, Saint Saenz, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky. Little has had the distinction of appearing at the popular BBC Proms (London) concerts fifteen times. She plays a 1757 Guadagnini and the 1708 Regent Stradivarius.

Albert Sammons

Albert Edward Sammons was an English violinist, teacher, and composer born on February 23, 1886 (Brahms was 53 years old.) As had Alfredo Campoli, Vasa Prihoda, Grigoras Dinicu, Louis Krasner, Jacques Thibaud, and Geza Legocky, he was not above playing in hotels and dance halls in his early days. He also premiered no fewer than 6 string quartets, 9 violin sonatas, and 4 violin concertos. He first began violin lessons with his father at age 7. As a young teenager, he studied briefly with Alfredo Fernandez, an obscure Spanish violinist who had studied with Ysaye. Other than that, he taught himself to play. By age 12, he was already playing professionally in a band. He also left school at that time. He made his solo debut with orchestra in 1906 playing the Mendelssohn Concerto. He was twenty years old. He was playing popular music with Ernesto Bucalossi’s orchestra at the Waldorf when he was discovered by conductor Thomas Beecham who invited him to join his orchestra as concertmaster. He formed the London String Quartet in 1910. In 1921, he founded the Chamber Music Players with cellist Lauri Kennedy, Nigel Kennedy’s grandfather. During the formation of the BBC Symphony (1929), he heard, along with Lionel Tertis (violist), over 1000 string auditions. Sammons made the first complete recording of the Elgar Concerto in 1929. He later said he played the concerto at least a hundred times during his career, the last time on February 23, 1946. From 1939 onward, he taught at the Royal College of Music. He also published books of exercises and studies which are now largely forgotten. Due to an illness which made it impossible for him to play, he retired in 1948. He was 62 years old. He died on August 24, 1957, at age 71.

Nigel Kennedy

Nigel Kennedy is an English violinist born on December 28, 1956 (Perlman was 10 years old.) He was born on the same day as Josef Hassid, though 33 years later. He studied with Yehudi Menuhin and Dorothy DeLay (Juilliard.) He is famous for wearing a funny outfit on stage, his funny haircut, and his very slow rendition of the Brahms violin concerto. He has been recording since 1984 and has recorded most of the standard violin repertory in addition to some jazz music. A few critics have said that his classical playing style lacks discipline, insight, and finesse, although that opinion is really open to question.

Simon Standage

Simon Standage (Simon Andrew Thomas Standage) is an English violinist, conductor, and teacher born on November 8, 1941 (Heifetz was 40 years old.) He is easily the most-recorded period instrument violinist in the world. His career has not been spent on the Romantic repertoire of Paganini, Wieniawski, Vieuxtemps, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Lalo, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Bruch, and the rest. He studied at Cambridge University and graduated in 1963. He then spent four years in the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. After winning a fellowship, he went to New York where he studied with Ivan Galamian (1967-1969.) His debut was at Wigmore Hall in 1972, the same year he became a founding member of The English Concert. He has been a member, soloist, concertmaster, or director of various ensembles during overlapping years, including: The English Concert (1972-1991); English Chamber Orchestra (1974-1978); City of London Sinfonia (1980-1989); Salomon Quartet (1981-2009); Academy of Ancient Music (1980-1995); and the Collegium Musicum 90 (1990-2009.) His discography is very extensive and his recordings of much of the music of Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann, Mozart, and Haydn are especially well-known. He has also taught baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music since 1983. You will find an abundance of his recordings (though no videos) available on YouTube.

Alfredo Campoli

Alfredo Campoli (also known as Campoli) was an Italian (some would say English) violinist born on October 20, 1906 (Heifetz was 5 years old.) He is remembered for the exquisite, sensuous tone he drew from the violin as well as the span of his repertoire. He began violin lessons with his father, a teacher at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, at age 5 (some sources say age 6.) His family moved to England in 1917. He made his London debut at Wigmore Hall in 1923, though he had already played publicly in London - and entered several competitions - from age 13 and had been playing professionally since then. In the 1930s, he formed the Salon Orchestra and the Welbeck Light Quartet in order to make a living during the Depression, playing in restaurants, hotels, and small halls. He concertized only sporadically during this period. After the war, he re-established his concert career. His U.S. debut came in New York in 1953. On that occasion, he played Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnol with the New York Philharmonic under George Szell. He toured Russia in 1956 and continued touring the world until his retirement. During his 55-year career, he played in over 1000 radio broadcasts and made more than 100 recordings. He also appeared in several films. Arthur Bliss wrote his violin concerto for him and he premiered it in 1955. There are many soundtracks of his playing – no videos yet - on YouTube. Campoli played an 1843 Rocca and the Dragonneti Stradivarius (1700). He died on March 27, 1991, at age 84.

William Reed

William Reed (William Henry Reed) was an English violinist, teacher, composer, and conductor born on July 29, 1876 (Brahms was 43 years old.) Though he was concertmaster of the London Symphony for 23 years (1912-1935) and had a very busy career as a violinist, he is now best remembered as Edward Elgar’s biographer (1936.) Reed studied under Emile Sauret at the Royal Academy of Music (London.) In 1904, Reed was one of the founding members of the London Symphony. By 1910, he was assisting Elgar with technical problems in his violin concerto. Reed even played the concerto in a public performance of the work (off Broadway, so to speak) on September 4, 1910. The concerto was later dedicated to Fritz Kreisler, who premiered it on November 10, 1910 (presumably with the Royal Philharmonic in London.) Reed taught violin at the Royal College of Music for many years, where one of his pupils was the mother (Jean Hermione Johnstone) of Andrew Lloyd Webber, the popular music composer. Reed composed works large and small, most notably a violin concerto and a viola concerto which are now never performed. Reed died in Scotland on July 2, 1942, at age 66.

Cyril Reuben

Cyril Reuben was an English violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra for many years. He was born on October 8, 1926 (some sources say October 6). I do not know anything else about him, other than that he played on a Vuillaume. In fact, I do not even know whether he played first or second violin. (Please see comment below.) As is the case with most orchestral players, he was invisible to history - nearly anonymous, though his sound can be heard in more than a hundred LSO recordings. He died on September 2, 1996, at age 69.

Chloe Hanslip

Chloe Hanslip (Chloë Elise Hanslip) is an English violinist born on September 28, 1987 (Perlman was 41 years old.) She began violin lessons at age 2. She first played in public at age 4 and at age 5 was encouraged (by Yehudi Menuhin himself) to enroll at the Yehudi Menuhin School. By age 10, she had played in some of the most prestigious venues in the U.S. and Europe. She also studied with Russian violinist Zakhar Bron in Germany (1995.) At 13, she was the youngest recording artist ever to be signed to Warner Classics (England); however, she is not the youngest violinist to be professionally recorded – that honor goes to Sarah Chang (and EMI Classics.) Hanslip has won numerous awards and scholarships and played privately for English royalty since July, 2001 – the most recent such recital in 2008. She recorded Jeno Hubay’s long-neglected first and second violin concertos in June, 2008 – Naxos will release the CD tomorrow, September 29, 2009.

Leonard Salzedo

Leonard Salzedo was a Spanish (some would say English) violinist, conductor, and composer born (in London) on September 24, 1921 (Heifetz was 20 years old.) He is remembered for having led very successful dual careers as a violinist and composer; for his many ballet scores; and for his film score to the movie The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958.) Salzedo first studied at the Royal College of Music in London. While still a student, he won the Cobbett Prize for his First String Quartet and was commissioned to write his first ballet score (The Fugitive) for the Ballet Rambert (now the Rambert Dance Company, whose founder, Marie Rambert danced in the first performances of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.) This was the first of 17 ballet scores which he composed. Between 1946 and 1947, Salzedo wrote four ballets for the Ballet Negres dance company, of which he and his wife were members. From 1947 to 1950 he played in the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and then for sixteen years (1950-1966) in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. While in the Royal Philharmonic, he was also Thomas Beecham’s assistant – it was Beecham who premiered Salzedo’s First Symphony in 1952. His most successful ballet score, The Witch Boy, came in 1956. It has been performed all over the world and has enjoyed several revivals since its premiere. In 1964, Salzedo joined the London Soloists Ensemble - he toured Europe with them and recorded one of his works, Concerto Fervido with this ensemble as well. In 1967, Salzedo gave up playing altogether to become Musical Director of Ballet Rambert (until 1972.) After that, he was appointed principal conductor with the Scottish Ballet, and from 1982 until 1986 he was Music Director of London City Ballet, for whom he re-orchestrated classical ballet scores for smaller orchestra. After 1986, he devoted himself full-time to composition. In spite of his continuous activities as a performer, Salzedo was extremely prolific, writing more than 160 compositions, including 10 String Quartets, two symphonies, 17 ballets, and many other works. Many of these works have been recorded on various labels and are easily available. Salzedo died on May 6, 2000, at age 78.

Hugh Bean

Hugh Cecil Bean was an English violinist and teacher born on September 22, 1929 (Heifetz was 28 years old.) His first lessons were with his father at age 5. At age nine he began studies with Albert Sammons (which he continued for about 20 years) and then attended the Royal College of Music (London) from age 15 until age 17. In 1951, he won second prize in the Carl Flesch Competition. In 1952, he spent a year at the Brussels Conservatory, and, after that course of study, formed the Boise Trio. Along the way, he was winning prizes for his playing. At age 24, he was appointed violin professor at the Royal College of Music, where he taught for the next 37 years. (After that, he taught there on and off.) From 1957 to 1967 he was concertmaster of the Philharmonia Orchestra. The next two years were spent as Associate Concertmaster of the BBC Symphony. He then devoted his time to solo work for 20 years until about 1989, when he returned to the Philharmonia as co-concertmaster (and stayed until 1994.) He recorded as a soloist - Edward Elgar’s violin concerto and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, for instance - but more extensively as a member of the Music Group of London, with which he also toured the world. Bean died on December 26, 2003, at age 74.

Neville Marriner

Neville Marriner is an English violinist and conductor born on April 15, 1924 (Heifetz was 23 years old.) Marriner studied at the Royal College of Music and at the Paris Conservatory, though he was never a concert violinist. He had no famous violin teachers either. In 1949, he played violin in the Virtuoso String Trio and in the Martin String Quartet (second violin.) By 1952, he had become a member of the London Philharmonic. From 1956 to 1968, he was principal second violin with the London Symphony Orchestra. While he held that post, he founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (1959). The Academy is an English chamber orchestra which began life without a conductor in the style of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Marriner led from the concertmaster’s chair) – this orchestra later made him famous. Simultaneously, he was also associated with the Jacobean Ensemble. In 1959, he studied conducting (during summers in the U.S.) with Pierre Monteux (as did David Zinman.) He was also a violin instructor at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1949 until 1959 (some sources say until 1950.) After gradually assuming the conductor’s post with the Academy, he was the first music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (1969-1978.) From 1979 to 1986, he was music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. Subsequently, he was principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony (1986-1989.) Should you ever want to listen to Marriner’s violin playing, you can buy his recording of the concerto for four violins by Vivaldi. Though Marriner has well over 200 recordings to his credit, he is best known for his connection to the soundtrack for the Mozart movie – Amadeus.

Dressing down

I am posting three photos of well-known violinists so that you can appreciate how far we’ve come in styles of dress among some classical violinists. The first and most formal is from the 1920s. It is elegance itself. Every concert violinist used to dress this way until about 1970. The second is Nigel Kennedy – he delights in really dressing down. I do not know why. We should ask a psychologist. The third is Joshua Bell who is so modestly dressed that it makes him look immodest. Many players have adopted this casual attire; however, it does not fit the music we play – classical music is not elevator music after all. It is serious business and needs to be given more than just casual attention. Concert violinists used to wear a coat and tie to rehearsals. Now they shuffle onto the stage wearing jeans and sandals. In following the lead of the stars, orchestra managers have adopted the come-as-you-are policy for audiences and it is beginning to annoy me. These people are being pretentious by trying to look unpretentious. What silliness. Maybe I’m just old fashioned. Maybe I have a sense of decorum and grace.