Peter Rybar

Peter Rybar was a Czech violinist and teacher born (in Vienna, Austria) on August 29, 1913.  His playing style was not showy and flashy but he was very well regarded as a soloist and concertmaster - Rybar’s recordings (mostly produced prior to 1960) are now collector’s items.  (His recording of the Bach Double Concerto (for two violins) with Henryk Szeryng is probably the best I have ever heard.)  Nonetheless, as were so many other artists of the time, he was eclipsed by the likes of Heifetz, Ricci, Oistrakh, Menuhin, Milstein, Francescatti, Kogan, Grumiaux, and a few other soloists who performed in the limelight during the same period.  Like Szeryng, he became fluent in seven languages, although (ironically) English was his mother tongue.  His first teacher (a pupil of both Otakar Sevcik and Cesar Thomson) was his mother.  He then studied in Geneva and Leipzig with teachers whom I don’t know anything about.  He eventually (in 1929, at age 16) ended up at the Prague Conservatory where he spent three years (perhaps more.)  One of his teachers there was Josef Suk - the elder Josef Suk (1874-1935.)  (There are three Josef Suk: the grandfather (composer and son-in-law of Antonin Dvorak); the father (an engineer but also an accomplished amateur violinist); and the son (the well-known concert violinist.)  Rybar also later (from 1934 onward) studied with Carl Flesch in Paris.  By then, he had already begun his concertizing career (at age 19) and been playing professionally for at least two years.  He toured Europe many times and became known for playing the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin to which he had dedicated more than a year of study during a sabbatical in Portugal.  Although he did not premiere the piece (Samuel Dushkin did in Berlin), Rybar was the first to play the Stravinsky violin concerto (composed in 1931) in Prague and in Paris.  He was also the first to record the Goldmark and the Viotti (number 22 in a minor) concertos.  In 1937 (some sources say 1938), he was hired as violin professor at the Winterthur Conservatory (one of the oldest in Europe) and as concertmaster of the Winterthur Symphony in Switzerland.  He was 25 years old.  (Winterthur can almost be considered a suburb of Zurich.)  In 1952, he formed a duo with his wife who was a pianist.  He retired from his posts (as well as first violinist in the orchestra’s string quartet) after about 30 years.  In 1970, he was persuaded to abandon his retirement to become concertmaster of the Orchestra of the Suisse Romande in Geneva.  At the same time, he began teaching at the Geneva Conservatory.  He was 57 years old by then.  In 1980, he left the orchestra but I don’t know if he left the conservatory as well.  He often gave recitals with pianists Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, and Helene Boschi.  He also sometimes partnered with Clara Haskil as well (who often accompanied Arthur Grumiaux) in recitals and recordings.  Rybar last played in public in 1986.  His discography is not extensive but it fills at least two dozen CDs and includes the standard concertos as well as some not-often-heard works like the Tartini d minor concerto and the Schumann concerto.  A few of his hard-to-find recordings are priced at over one thousand dollars.  Here is a YouTube audio file of the Tartini concerto.  Rybar died in Lugano, Switzerland, on October 4, 2002 at age 89.  

Oldrich Vlcek

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 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.  

Josef Suk

Josef Suk was a Czech violinist, composer, and teacher born on January 4, 1874 (Brahms was 41 years old.) He is famous for having married one of Antonin Dvorak's daughters and for being the grandfather of violinist Josef Suk (whose micro biography is on this blog for August, 2009.) From 1885 until 1892, he studied at the Prague Conservatory, where he was a pupil of Antonin Dvorak, among others. He formed the Czech Quartet and played second violin with the quartet for most of his life. From 1922 he taught at the Prague Conservatory where his pupils included Bohuslav Martinu (composer) and Rudolf Firkusny (pianist-conductor.) His compositions include much chamber music and a few large-scale works. His second symphony (Opus 27 - 1905) was recorded by the Czech Philharmonic in 1952 and the recording is still available. His last composition (Sousedska, 1935) was a piece for five violins, bass, cymbals, triangle, side drum, and bass drum. Suk died on May 29, 1935, at age 61.

Josef Suk

Josef Suk was a Czech violinist, violist, and conductor born on August 8, 1929 (Heifetz was 28 years old and would live an additional 58.) He is descended from two highly distinguished musicians – his grandfather, the violinist-composer Josef Suk, and his great grandfather, Antonin Dvorak. In Czechoslovakia, he was given the title of National Artist. His concert appearances in the U.S. were few and far between. He is well-known for having favored chamber music over solo playing. At the Prague Conservatory, his teacher (up to 1950) was Jaroslav Kocian. He also studied at the Prague Academy. While still a student, he joined the Prague Quartet as first violinist. In 1951, he formed the Suk Trio with cellist Janos Starker and pianist Julius Katchen (some sources say it was cellist Josef Chuchro and pianist Jan Panenka because the trio was initially begun with these artists.) His solo debut in Prague took place in 1954 and was very successful. It has been said that his worldwide tour with the Czech Philharmonic in 1959 was especially memorable. Suk recorded extensively for various labels – EMI, Decca, Naxos, and Supraphon, among others. Suk won the Grand Prix Du Disque several times – for recordings of music by Claude Debussy, Leos Janacek, Alban Berg, and others. He was once asked why he did not compose like his grandfather and great-grandfather - he said the following: "To be a composer after Dvorak and after Suk, I would have to be sensational.  I don't have that sort of inspiration.  I tried, but it wasn't that good so I stayed with my fiddle."  He also founded the Suk Chamber Orchestra in 1974.  Suk retired in 2004, at age 74, but, like Heifetz, did play afterward now and then.  He even recorded in the year 2010.  He was 80 years old. Suk played a 1729 Stradivarius, a 1744 Guarnerius, and a 1758 Guadagnini. There are many videos of his playing on YouTube. Josef Suk died on July 6, 2011, at age 81.