Valery Klimov (Valeri Alexandrovich Klimov) is
a Russian violinist and teacher born (in Kiev) on October 16, 1931. He is known for having won the very first
International Tchaikovsky Violin Competition (in March, 1958), the best known violin
competition in the world. He was 26
years old. That was the same competition
at which Van Cliburn (the American piano player) won first prize in the piano
division, subsequently becoming popular and famous. That year, Russian composer Dmitri
Shostakovich was the chairman. Klimov’s
first teacher was his father. He later
studied at the Odessa Conservatory and later still at the Moscow Conservatory
with David Oistrakh. As far as I was
able to determine, Klimov did not perform outside Russia until 1967. Quite possibly his first concert outside the
Soviet Union was in London, England. Although
he has toured around the world, his career has mostly been spent in
Russia. He has been teaching at the
Moscow Conservatory for a long time and has received many official awards. Among his many pupils are Elena Denisova,
Hisaya Sato, Alice Waten, Fiona Ziegler, Evgeny Grach, Rachel Schmidt, and
Alena Tsoi. Here is a YouTube video with
Klimov playing the Khachaturian concerto.
Among other things, it gives you a chance to hear the excellent
acoustics of the Sydney Opera House.
Naoum Blinder was a Russian (Ukrainian) violinist and teacher born (in
Lutzk) on July 19, 1889 – since various sources vary his exact date and place
of birth are approximate. He is best
remembered for being one of Isaac Stern’s teachers – between 1932 and 1935. He was a touring concert violinist for a
while but finally settled in San Francisco to become the orchestra’s
concertmaster for 25 years. He began his
violin studies as a child although I don’t know at what age. By age 14 he had graduated from the Imperial
Conservatory in Odessa. There, he had
studied with Peter Stolyarsky and Alexander Fiedemann. He then entered the Moscow Conservatory (in
about 1904) and studied with an unknown teacher there until about 1910. He was by then 21 years old. From there, he went to pursue further study
in England at the Royal Manchester College of Music. His main teacher there was Adolph
Brodsky. Blinder graduated from the RMC in
1913 or 1914 and then returned to Odessa to teach at the Conservatory. He was 25 years old. He remained there until 1920. All the while, he toured (mostly Russia and
the Middle East) as a soloist. Between
1923 and 1927, he taught at the Moscow Conservatory. I don’t know what he did or where he was
between 1920 and 1923. Blinder and his
family (his wife and daughter) came to the US (via Japan) in December, 1927. Between 1929 and 1931, Blinder taught at
Juilliard in New York. In 1931, he
became the concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony at the invitation of a
friend who had known him in Russia. Blinder
was 42 years old. He continued to tour
intermittently as a soloist and founded the San Francisco String Quartet in
1935 as well. In that year, he and Isaac
Stern played the Bach concerto for two violins with the orchestra. That is fairly typical of teachers and their
favorite students to do. Blinder had a
very large body of students; many of them became members of the San Francisco
Symphony and other orchestras. Glenn
Dicterow and Joseph Roisman also studied with him for a time.
Blinder owned and played several violins – a 1774 G.B. Guadagnini, a
1753 G.B. Guadagnini, and an 1850 J.B. Vuillaume are among them. He died on November 21, 1965, at age 76. Here is a rare solo recording of his.
Bernard Chevalier is an American violinist and teacher born on October 21, 1949 (Heifetz was 48 years old.) He typifies the violinist who, despite having the ability to perform as a soloist on any stage in the world, deliberately chooses to work with a group of colleagues like himself – a professional orchestra’s string section. In Chevalier’s case, it’s the San Francisco Symphony’s first violin section. Playing in a prestigious professional orchestra requires highly developed skills that soloists often do not attend to. After playing as a guest with many orchestras, Gil Shaham has often sat among the violin ranks (trying to look inconspicuous) to learn what it takes and to learn the orchestral repertoire, which is infinitely larger than the solo repertoire. Leonard Friedman used to do exactly the same thing. (Concert violinist Guila Bustabo tried playing in the string section of the Alabama Symphony but was unsuccessful due to her training as a soloist. She was also unable to read music well enough.) Chevalier’s first teacher was Isabel Stoval (Isaac Stern’s first teacher as well, many years earlier.) He was six years old. After Stoval came Carol Weston, pupil of Russian pedagogue Leopold Auer (the intended dedicatee of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto.) He later studied with Zaven Melikian, Ivan Galamian, Stuart Canin, Lazlo Varga, Andor Toth, Rolf Persinger, and Frank Houser, among others. His debut came at age 16 with the San Francisco Symphony playing Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnol. He later joined the San Francisco Symphony at the invitation of Seiji Ozawa (who would later lead the Boston Symphony as well.) As a violinist in one of the top orchestras in the U.S. (Gramophone listed it at number 13 in the world, right after the New York Philharmonic, which came in at 12), Chevalier has shared the stage with all of the world’s great artists, too numerous to list, and has also toured widely as soloist, chamber musician, and (needless to say) with the orchestra. Even prior to being engaged by the San Francisco Symphony, Chevalier was already embarked on his teaching career. His recordings include the Kreutzer book of 42 Etudes – the only recording of these works other than Steven Staryk’s - and the Caprices of Pierre Rode. The complete Beethoven Sonatas, the 24 Paganini Caprices, and the Bach Partitas for solo violin, are already among works on his upcoming recording schedule. Chevalier also has several videos on YouTube - including the very seldom recorded Scene De Ballet by De Beriot - which you can view here. Among his violins have been a Nicolas Lupot (1813 – purchased from Frank Passa, pupil of Sacconi), a Guarnerius (1728), and three violins by Anthony Lane, California Luthier (1999, 2006, and 2010.)
