Hans Letz

Hans Letz (Jean Letz) was a German violinist born (in Ittenheim) on March 18, 1887.  He is mostly remembered as a teacher of many students at Juilliard (New York.)  He studied at the Strasbourg Conservatory and at the Berlin Royal Academy of Music with the famous Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), concertized in Europe for a while then came to the U.S. in June of 1908.  He was 21 years old.  He soon joined the Chicago Symphony (in 1909) and was appointed concertmaster in 1910.  Theodore Thomas had already left the scene, so to speak.  Letz left this position in the spring of 1912 and in May of that year joined the Kneisel Quartet (the best string quartet in the country according to several critics) as second violinist.  (For some odd reason, Chicago Symphony concertmasters do not stay on for long periods, unlike other top orchestra concertmasters at the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.)  Letz also began teaching at the Institute of Musical Art (now Juilliard) in 1912 and continued doing so until 1920.  When Kneisel disbanded the quartet in 1917, Letz formed his own – the Hans Letz Quartet it was called.  It was active until 1925.  It is doubtful that any recordings of the quartet exist – I do not know.  Letz then again taught at Juilliard (the Institute of Musical Art) from 1925 onward.  He was 38 years old.  Letz retired from Juilliard in 1960, though he took two years off between 1956 and 1958.  He had been there more than forty years.  Letz played a Pressenda violin from 1829, a Guadagnini from 1783, a Testore from 1739, and a Montagnana from 1730.  The Guadagnini eventually ended up in the hands of Lorin Maazel, a sometime violinist who became a conductor - he sold it late last year for an undisclosed sum.  Letz is said to have favored a small, refined tone, especially suited to chamber music.  Among Letz’ many pupils are Mary Canberg, Dorothy DeLay, Sally Thomas, Vittorio Giannini, Anatoly Kaminsky, Robert Kurka, Peter Marsh, Calvin Sieb, Andor Toth, and Patricia Travers.  Hans Letz died (in Hackensack, New Jersey) on November 14, 1969, at age 82, largely forgotten.

James Ehnes

James Ehnes, is a Canadian violinist born on January 27, 1976.  Ehnes is probably, along with Leila Josefowicz, the best known Canadian violinist concertizing today.  He is also one of the most-recorded contemporary violinists, with over 25 CDs to his credit.  One of those CDs is similar to ones which Ruggiero Ricci and Elmar Oliveira have done previously – a comparison of some very remarkable and valuable violins.  Many have said that Ehnes is the most underrated violinist of this generation, though that has also been said of Pinchas Zukerman.  In fact, YouTube has very few videos of his performances though I did find this one.  He began violin lessons with his father, a trumpet player, at age 4 (some sources say age 5.)  At age 9 he began studies with Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin, pupil of Louis Persinger and violin professor at Brandon University (Manitoba, Canada.)  His first recital he gave at age 10.  At age 13, he performed as soloist with the Montreal Symphony, playing Ravel's famous Tzigane.  After 1989, his main teacher was Sally Thomas, pupil of Ivan Galamian.  Ehnes graduated from The Julliard School (New York) in 1997, winning several prizes along the way.  He was 21 years old.  Ehnes has been concertizing on a world-wide scale ever since.  His debut appearance with the New York Philharmonic took place on July 7, 2003.  On that occasion, he played the Tchaikovsky concerto.  The Canadian (British) Monarchy and the Canadian Governor General have also bestowed honors on him.  In 2008, he won a Grammy for his recording of the Korngold concerto; he has also won several other awards for his recordings.  His technique is so advanced and polished a Canadian newspaper has called him “the Jascha Heifetz of our day.”  Another reviewer stated that Ehnes “achieves a sonority of such beauty that words cannot describe it.”  For the last fifteen years, Ehnes has spent part of his summer with the Seattle Chamber Music Society - in 2012, he becomes its Artistic Director.  His violin is the Marsick Stradivarius from 1714, although he has also played the 1717 Windsor Stradivarius and a Riccardo Antoniazzi (1853-1912) violin.