Oldrich
Vlcek is a Czech violinist and conductor born (in Byk, Czechoslovakia) on May
18, 1939. (I could not find Byk on a map
of Czechoslovakia so I don’t know where it is.)
He is known for having recorded over 200 CDs with various European
chamber orchestras, although the vast majority (on various labels) have been
with the Prague Chamber Orchestra and the Virtuosi di Praga. He has also performed with some of the most
outstanding soloists of our time, including Mstislav Rostropovich, Josef Suk, Sergey
Krylov, and Placido Domingo. Among his
distinguished accomplishments has been his appointment (in 2004) as one of the
principal conductors of the orchestra of the Estates Theatre in Prague. You can read a little more about this famous
theatre here. After studying with
Bohumila Kotmela, Vlcek was a pupil of Nora Grumlikova at the Prague Academy of
Art (Academy of Performing Arts in Prague - film director Milos Forman [aka Jan Tomas Kohn] also studied there.) Vlcek also studied conducting with
Vaclav Neumann, the chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic (1968-1990). He was appointed concertmaster and conductor of
the Prague Chamber Orchestra (established in 1951) in 1980. In 1990, he re-established the Virtuosi di
Praga. He is given credit for quite successfully
navigating (with this ensemble) the hard economic times that came upon Czechoslovakia
after the fall of the Communist regime in 1990.
He had actually founded the Virtuosi di Praga in 1976 but the orchestra
had disbanded for reasons I know nothing about.
Besides Czechoslovakia, Vlcek has also guest conducted in Europe, Korea,
and Canada. As leader and soloist with
the Prague Chamber Orchestra and the Virtuosi di Praga, Vicek has toured
worldwide. His very interesting
recording of the Four Seasons is here. You
can hear Vlcek play Vivaldi here.
Antonin Bennewitz (Antonin Benevic) was a Czech violinist, teacher, and
conductor born (in Privrat, Bohemia) on March 26, 1833. Johannes Brahms was born the same year, about
a month later. Bennewitz is one of those
violinists who, despite significant achievements and the advantages that accrue
to a very long life, somehow manage to get overlooked by historians. He is mostly mentioned in connection with three
or four famous pupils he had. The most
famous of these are probably Otakar Sevcik, Josef Suk, and Karl Halir. From the age of 12, from 1846 to 1852, he
studied at the Prague Conservatory with another obscure violinist, Moritz
Mildner (teacher also – at about the same time - of Ferdinand Laub, one of
Tchaikovsky’s favorite violinists.) In
1852, he became concertmaster of the Estates Theatre orchestra. He was 19 years old. He stayed for nine years. The Estates Theatre was a very important
concert venue in Europe. As part (since
1920) of the present-day Czech National Theatre, it still is. Mozart’s Don Giovanni had its world premiere
there in 1787. Paganini gave concerts
there. Gustav Mahler and Karl Goldmark
also conducted concerts there. Bennewitz
undertook short concert tours during his years at the Estates Theatre and
subsequently played in orchestras in Stuttgart and Salzburg. He participated in various premieres of
chamber music and orchestral works by Czech composers, as violinist or
conductor – Bedrich Smetana was one of them.
In 1866, he became violin teacher at the Prague Conservatory. He was 33 years old. He became first violinist of the Bennewitz
String Quartet in 1876. In 1882, he was
made Director of the Prague Conservatory.
He remained for nineteen years – Antonin Dvorak took over in November of
1901. After 1901, Bennewitz seems to
have disappeared. He died on May 29,
1926, at age 93. Brahms was long dead by
then and Richard Wagner, Claude Debussy, Jean Sibelius, Richard Strauss, and
Igor Stravinsky had already revolutionized the musical landscape. I am sure Bennewitz played a superlative
violin, though I could not find a single source which mentioned any specific
instrument. The Bennewitz Quartet is
alive and well, having been resurrected in 1998.
