Valeriy Sokolov is a Russian (Ukrainian) violinist born (in Kharkiv) on
September 22, 1986. He has a very busy
concert career and he tours throughout Europe regularly. He is known for having a highly personal (and
distinctive) style of playing. He began
his studies in his native Ukraine but left at age thirteen (1999) upon
receiving a scholarship (from the Sarasate violin competition) to study in
England with Natalya Boyarskaya. He
began his violin studies in Kharkiv at age five but I do not know who his first
teachers were. He later studied with
Felix Andrievsky and in Germany and Vienna with (among others) Ana Chumachenco,
Mark Lubotsky, and Boris Kuschnir. By
2006, his career was firmly established.
He was barely 20 years old. Sokolov
is particularly well known for his interpretation of Bartok’s second concerto
which he has recorded. He made his U.S.
debut in 2007. Sokolov is the subject of
a 2004 documentary about his emerging career.
Here is a short YouTube video of him playing Beethoven. Photo is courtesy of Derry Moore.
Lydia Mordkovitch (Lydia Shtimerman
Mordkovitch) was a Russian violinist, violist, and teacher born (in Saratov) on
April 30, 1944. She spent much of her
later career in England. She began her
violin studies at the local music school in Kishinev (Kishniev or Kishinyov), a
city in Moldova where her family returned after World War Two. Since Kishinev was a shambles during the war,
her mother fled as far as she could (980 miles eastward, all the way to Saratov, in this case) to get away from
the fighting forces. Mordkovitch may
have been six or seven years old when she first began her studies. I didn’t take the trouble to find out. Beginning in 1960, at age 16, she studied briefly
in Odessa (Ukraine) at the Stolyarski School of Music. (Odessa is only 96 miles southeast from
Kishinev.) She then moved her studies to
the (Nezhdanova) Odessa Conservatory. One of her teachers there was Monzion Mordkovich, a violinist I had never heard about before. [Please see comments below] She
was there two years and graduated. She
was 18 years old. Later still, she
entered the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.
She was 24 years old by then. Her main
teacher there was David Oistrakh. In
fact, when she first met Oistrakh to prepare for her entrance exam, he asked
her why she had “come so late,” referring to her age. From 1968 to 1970, she was Oistrakh’s
teaching assistant as well. From 1970 to
1973 she taught at the Institute of Arts in Kishinev. A couple of sources say she studied there
between those same years but that is highly unlikely – Mordkovitch was already an
established violinist by then. In
Israel, she taught at the Academy of Music in Jerusalem between 1974 and
1979. Mordkovitch made her British debut on January 7, 1979, playing the Tchaikovsky concerto with the Halle Orchestra (Manchester, England) conducted by Walter Susskind. She moved to England permanently
in 1980. She was 36 years old. All the while, she was concertizing in
Europe, England, Russia, Israel, and the US.
Her American debut came in 1982 with the Chicago Symphony (in
Chicago.) George Solti was on the
podium. In 1980, she began teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. In 1995, she began teaching at
the Royal Academy of Music in London. Mordkovitch
made over sixty recordings, mostly under the (British) Chandos label. Some of them are unique in that they feature
works for violin which are seldom heard – John Veale’s violin concerto, for
instance. Her recording of the
Shostakovich concertos won awards from British and French music critics. Most of her recordings are easy to find on
the internet. Her best-known pupil is probably British violinist Pip Clarke. Mordkovitch played a 1746
Nicolo Gagliano violin for many years but she would use other instruments as
well (mostly Strads and Guadagninis on loan from friends or the Royal Academy), especially when recording. Here is a YouTube audio file of her recording
of the first Szymanowski concerto.
Mordkovitch died on December 9, 2014, at age 70.
