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.

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.