Maurice Hasson

Maurice Hasson is a French violinist and teacher born on July 6, 1934.  He is recognized as a long-time violin professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.  He is also known for having spent thirteen years of his music career in Venezuela (1960-1973), contributing greatly to that country’s cultural life.  He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1950.  He was 16 years old.  I do not know who his teachers were before his conservatory days.  After graduation, he studied privately with Polish violinist Henryk Szeryng.  In Venezuela, he taught at the University of the Andes, after which he relocated his career to England.  Though he has dedicated a great deal of time to teaching, he has also been very busy concertizing around the globe since the early 1960s.  He owned and played a 1727 Stradivarius for quite some time (the Halphen Strad, also known as the Benvenuti Strad) but now plays a Domenico Montagnana and a Guadagnini, although I don’t know the years of his current instruments.  It is said he also owns several other fine violins.  The 1727 Strad is now being played (though not owned) by Eckhard Seifert, a violinist with the Vienna Philharmonic.  Hasson made his American debut on January 19, 1978, playing Paganini's first concerto (in D) with the Cleveland Orchestra.  Lorin Maazel was on the podium.  Hasson has been teaching at the Royal Academy of Music since 1986.  He has approximately 20 CDs to his credit and has recorded most of the standard repertoire for various labels, including EMI, Philips, and Pickwick.  He is also known for master-classes all over the world.  Here is a fascinating YouTube video of him playing “Summer” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in 1987.  It is very interesting and very rare – apart from the brilliant performance – in that Yehudi Menuhin is the conductor.  You can marvel at how unobtrusive Menuhin was as a conductor.  The governments of France and Venezuela have bestowed several honors on Hasson in recognition of his service to their countries.  His best-known pupil is probably brilliant Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma.  Among his other pupils are Cassandra Hamilton, Catherine Geach, Gill Austin, Diana Yukawa, Amy Yuan, Marisol Lee, Tereza Privratska, Daniel Pioro, Laurence Kempton, Luis Cuevas, Mark Wilson, Nathaniel Anderson, Patrick Sabberton, Pierre Bensaid, Giovanni Guzzo, Remus Azoitei, and Eloisa-Fleur Thom.  

Ossy Renardy

Ossy Renardy (Oskar Reiss) was an Austrian violinist born (in Vienna) on April 26, 1920.  He had the unenviable distinction of having died at a very young age.  Many critics (and writers) have said he had a very brilliant career ahead of him – one to rival Bronislaw Huberman, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Ruggiero Ricci, Mischa Elman, and other top violinists of that time.  I don’t know if Paganini ever played his Caprices in public or whether, if he did, he ever played all 24 in a single concert.  Renardy did.  He may have been the very first to do it.  On January 8, 1938, at his Town Hall debut in New York, he played Dvorak’s Sonatina, Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnol, and Pietro Nardini’s e minor concerto (a very popular work at the time – Pinchas Zukerman has recorded it) in the first half of the program.  He then played all 24 Paganini Caprices on the second half.  He was 19 years old.  The following year, he recorded the Caprices (the version with piano accompaniment), becoming the first violinist to record all 24 Caprices on a single disc (actually, they were issued on two discs.)  Seven years later, Ricci put out his first version of all 24 Caprices – without the piano accompaniment – and he later went on to record the Caprices a total of four times – the last version in 1988.  Renardy re-recorded the Caprices which again included the piano accompaniment (with a different accompanist) the year he died.  Renardy studied with a now-forgotten Russian violin teacher, Theodore Pashkus (1905-1970), but at what age he began is something I don’t know.  Pashkus and his wife were successful pedagogues until about 1970.  I don’t know if they ever taught at a conservatory or university.  Their pupils included Yehudi Menuhin and Ivry Gitlis and their instructional books are still in print.  In any case, Renardy is said to have been entirely self-taught (which is possible but hard to believe) prior to meeting Pashkus and made sufficient progress to make his first public appearance at age 11.  In October of 1933, he joined a variety show in Merano, Italy.  (Merano is about 120 miles southwest of Salzburg, Austria, or about 250 miles from Vienna.)  It was then that he changed his name.  Another well-known violinist who changed his name was Mischa Mischakoff – three times.  In Merano, Renardy played Paganini’s first concerto at the Merano Casino and then took off to tour Italy.  He was still only 13 years old.  After that, he played in his native Vienna and toured France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Italy.  Interestingly, no mention is made in any source I checked about his having toured Germany or Austria.  He left the European mainland for England in 1937.  He came to the U.S. the same year.  He was 17 years old.   First, he embarked on a tour of a few central states and then made his New York debut, described above, in 1938.  As did many other violinists, Renardy played hundreds of concerts for the U.S. armed services during the Second World War (1941-1945.)  As far as I know, he never played in an orchestra.  In 1947, he began touring once again, playing with most major orchestras in the U.S., Europe, and Israel.  He was 27 years old.  In June of 1948, he recorded the Brahms concerto with the Royal Concertgebouw and Charles Munch.  Although he recorded about 35 works altogether, he did not record another concerto after this.  Here is an audio file of Renardy playing a very familiar work by Wieniawski.  His Guarnerius violin - the Carrodus Guarnerius del Gesu of 1743 – is now being played by Richard Tognetti, concertmaster of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.  This violin is not to be confused with other Guarnerius violins bearing the same or a very similar name.  It is said to be one of the best four or five violins (by any maker) in the world.  I do not know how Renardy acquired the violin (in 1949.)  Supposedly, it remained un-played for 54 years - between December, 1953 and January, 2007.  On December 3, 1953, in the afternoon, Renardy died in an automobile accident while traveling with his accompanist, George Robert, to give a concert in Colorado (USA.)  He was 33 years old.  George Robert and the Guarnerius survived.  Hermilo Novelo (pupil of Louis Persinger and concertmaster of the National Symphony of Mexico) also died in an automobile accident and his accompanist (Violina Stoyanova) was with him at the time as well.  His violin survived but went missing after the accident.  Stoyanova did not survive.  

Daniel Hope

Daniel Hope is a British violinist, writer, teacher, and conductor, born (in Durban, South Africa) on August 17, 1973.  Besides his concertizing, he is known for his varied interests and is also identified with his extended promotion (more than 17 years) of the music of composers who perished in concentration camps in World War II.  Those composers include Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Erwin Schulhoff, and Zigmund Schul.  As a violinist and advocate for various causes, he follows in the footsteps of Bronislaw Huberman, Arthur Hartmann, Joseph Achron, Vladimir Spivakov, Ivry Gitlis, and Shlomo Mintz.  Hope began his violin studies at age four in England as a result of his (indirect) close association with Yehudi Menuhin, whose secretary was Hope’s mother.  He later studied at the Royal Academy of Music (London) with Zakhar Bron (teacher also of Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin) until graduation.  However, by age 11, he was already playing concerts with Yehudi Menuhin, with whom he collaborated artistically more than 60 times, including Menuhin’s final concert on March 7, 1999 – Menuhin died five days later.  At age 29, in the midst of an established concertizing career, Hope joined the famous Beaux Arts Trio (Menahem Pressler and Antonio Meneses) in 2002 and played with them until they disbanded (after a 53-year career) in 2008.  Of course, he has already played in most of the major concert halls with most of the major orchestras in the world.  He has for many years also been engaged by some of the top music festivals.  Hope has written a fascinating book entitled Family Album but it is written in German – I don’t know whether an English translation is available.  His recording catalog is not extensive but it includes the original version of the Mendelssohn concerto.  Thanks to this recording, we can better appreciate Ferdinand David’s contribution in making the concerto more Romantic in style – the original version sounds a little archaic; in places, as if it had come from Viotti or Spohr.  The recording is not available on YouTube but this one is - it's a more modern concerto.  The New York Times has stated that Hope “puts classical works within a broader context – not just among other styles and genres but amid history, literature, and drama – to emphasize music’s role as a mirror for struggle and aspiration.”  Among other violins, Hope has played a 1769 Gagliano (purchased from Menuhin) and a 1742 Guarnerius – the Lipinski Guarnerius – on loan from a German family.  

Laura Archera

Laura Archera (Laura Archera Huxley) was an Italian violinist, writer, filmmaker, and lay psychologist born (in Turin, Italy) on November 2, 1911.  She is best known for having been the wife of writer, philosopher, and LSD guru Aldous Huxley.  Her career somewhat mirrors that of Olga Rudge, a highly accomplished violinist who gave up her career for Ezra Pound, the controversial writer, poet, composer, and political activist.  Several sources state that Archera began her violin studies at the age of ten in Turin, Italy.  Encouraged by her father, she dropped out of formal school at age fourteen in order to focus on her music studies.  At that age also, she played for the Queen of Italy (Marie-Jose’.)  According to a usually reliable source, she then traveled to Berlin, Paris, and Rome for further study.  The same source states that she earned her degree in Rome at age 17.  Another source, however, states she graduated at age 21.  In Paris she studied with George Enesco; in Berlin, with Carl Flesch; in Rome, I do not know.  She gave numerous recitals throughout Europe during these years.  It is also stated in various easily available sources that she traveled between Europe and the U.S. for several years.  She made her U.S. debut in 1937 in Carnegie Hall playing Mozart’s fifth concerto, accompanied by the New York Women’s Orchestra.  She was 26 years old.  She then went on to study at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.  How much playing she did (or where) in the U.S. is not well-documented on the internet, so I have no clue about that.  Some sources state that she played at Carnegie Hall as a teenager but those same sources say that she first came to the U.S. shortly before the war.  Both statements cannot be right.  After the start of World War II (1939), she did not return to Europe.  She played in the Los Angeles Philharmonic from the beginning of the 1943-1944 season to the end of the 1945-1946 season.  She owned and played a 1705 (Cozio says 1703) Guarnerius violin, an early gift from her father (a stockbroker), which, supposedly, she later donated to violinist Yehudi Menuhin, though I find that very, very hard to believe.  Even extremely generous people do not donate such valuable instruments, unless they are wealthy philanthropists.  In any case, Menuhin had the violin until 1978, after which the violin was auctioned off.  Archera did have her precious Guarnerius at least up until 1961.  It was one of the few things she was able to save when her house in Hollywood burned down.  She began working as a free-lance film editor at RKO Studios at about the time she quit her job with the Los Angeles Philharmonic though she had been delving into documentary filmmaking since 1945.  If she ever played the violin again after 1946 is anybody’s guess.  She was only 35 years old.  Along the way, she wrote several self-help books, a memoir-biography of Huxley (whom she married in 1956), and started a group that helps children and parents of children.  Archera died on December 13, 2007, at age 96.  As far as I know, she died without ever having recorded anything.  

Alina Ibragimova

Alina Ibragimova is a Russian violinist born (in Polevskov) on September 28, 1985.  She is known for playing on modern as well as period instruments – equally well.  She is also known for having played at Yehudi Menuhin’s funeral in Westminster Abby in 1999, at age 13.  She began her violin studies with her mother at age four.  She then entered the well-known Gnessin Music School in Moscow at age five, studying under Valentina Korolkova, a familiar name in Russia but not anywhere else.  In 1996, at age ten, she relocated to London with her family and began studying at the Yehudi Menuhin School.  Her main teacher was Natalya Boyarskaya, also known as Natasha Boyarsky.  She spent six years there then moved on to The Royal Academy of Music (Guildhall School of Music) and finally the Royal College of Music, from which she graduated in the summer of 2007.  Her main teacher there was Gordan Nikolitch.  She was 21 years old.  She has been concertizing ever since and has played with some of the major orchestras in the world.  Along the way, she founded a quartet – the Chiaroscuro Quartet – which plays on period instruments.  The quartet does not play on a regular basis since all of its members (Pablo Benedi, Emelie Hornlund, and Claire Thirion) have independent careers.  Ibragimova has recently conducted the Academy of Ancient Music, the famous period instrument ensemble based in England.  Her exclusive record label is Hyperion Records and her discography so far includes 9 CDs on that and the Wigmore Hall Live labels.  She also, of course, has a website, which contains extensive information about her, including all of her future engagements, which are considerable.  YouTube has several videos of her playing, one of which is here.  Ibragimova has played a 1738 Pietro Guarneri violin since 2006 – a violin provided her by industrialist Georg von Opel.  However, she is currently playing a 1775 violin by Anselmo Bellosio (a Venetian violin maker who died young), also provided by Mr. von Opel. 

Joseph Bohm

Joseph Böhm (Josef Bohm) was a Hungarian violinist and composer born (in Budapest) on March 4, 1795.  He is best known for having been the Director of the Vienna Conservatory and the teacher of famous violinists; Joseph Joachim, Jeno Hubay, Jacob Grun, Heinrich Ernst, Eduard Remenyi, and Jacob Dont among them.  He is also considered the founder of something called the Viennese School of violin playing, whatever that means.  His first teacher was his father, concertmaster of the Pest Theatre Orchestra.  Later, he studied with Pierre Rode.  Bohm made his public debut in Vienna in 1816.  He was 21 years old.  He toured Europe as a soloist for several years.  In 1819, he became the first violin professor at the Vienna Conservatory.  Vienna was the musical capital of Europe at the time.  In 1821, Bohm established a string quartet.  He also became a member of the Court Orchestra - the Imperial band.  He continued to tour but retired from concertizing in 1827.  He retired from the Conservatory in 1848, but only because the Revolution caused it to close its doors.  He was 53 years old.  He continued to play in the Court Orchestra until 1868.  He was 73 years old by then.  He worked with Beethoven but how much time he spent in his company is unknown.  Beethoven never dedicated any works to him.  Bohm’s quartet sort of premiered Beethoven’s string quartet number 12 (opus 127, written in 1825), which turned out to be the first of Beethoven’s late quartets.  The actual premiere took place on March 6, 1825, under the direction of violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh.  That performance was a flop and Beethoven was very displeased.  Beethoven then asked Bohm to take charge of a second premiere which took place in late April, 1825.  That second premiere was, by all accounts, an unqualified success.  Beethoven was by this time completely and irrevocably deaf but he could tell how things went by watching the movement of the performers.  Bohm played none other than the Prince Khevenhuller Stradivarius of 1733 (from 1820 until the day he died – 56 years he had it.)  Upon his death, the violin went to his nephew (Louis Bohm) and eventually (in 1930) ended up in the hands of another famous violinist – Yehudi Menuhin.  Bohm died (in Vienna) on March 28, 1876, at age 81.  Beethoven had been dead 49 years.

Louis Persinger

Louis Persinger (Louis Humphreys Persinger) was an American violinist, teacher, and pianist born (in Rochester, Illinois) on February 11, 1887 (Brahms was 54 years old.)  Some sources give the year of his birth as 1888.  So fleeting was his fame as a virtuoso that Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Third Edition, 1953) has no mention of him.  His concertizing career was short-lived.  However, his name is now immortal thanks to several outstanding violinists he taught – Yehudi Menuhin, Ruggiero Ricci, Isaac Stern, Donald Erickson, Zvi Zeitlin, Guila Bustabo, Arnold Eidus, Camilla Wicks, Louise Behrend, Nannette Levi, Fredell Lack, Leonard Posner, Frances Magnes, Francis Chaplin, Sonya Monosoff, Roland Vamos, and Hermilo Novelo  among them.  In fact, he not only taught them, being an accomplished pianist (as were Fritz Kreisler and Arthur Grumiaux and now Julia Fischer and Arabella Steinbacher), he accompanied several of them on recitals and recordings.  (Ricci, Erickson, Wicks, Zeitlin, and Lack are still with us and Zeitlin and Ricci are still actively teaching.  I believe Camilla Wicks easily rivaled Heifetz, Ricci, Milstein, and Kogan.  It is an artistic tragedy that she had to interrupt her career in order to raise her five children.)  Persinger also taught Dorothy DeLay who then went on to become the teacher of some of the greatest violinists of the twentieth century.  Some time during his childhood, Persinger moved to Colorado (USA.)  With financial backing from a generous and wealthy patron (Winfield Scott Stratton, Colorado Springs gold mine owner) he started out on his career and eventually travelled to Europe (1909) where he studied with Hans Becker at the Leipzig Conservatory, later with Eugene Ysaye (presumably in Brussels, Belgium), and with Jacques Thibaud in France for two summers.  He made his London debut on May 9, 1912 (at age 25) at Bechstein Hall (now Wigmore Hall) and received excellent reviews.  The Titanic disaster had already occurred - April 15, 1912.  On November 1 and 2, 1912, he played with the Philadelphia Orchestra with Stokowski on the podium.  On November 9 of the same year he made his New York recital debut at the Aeolian Hall, the site of the world premiere of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in 1924.  It was a small hall, seating about 1100.  His accompanist was pianist Samuel Chotzinoff, who would later accompany Jascha Heifetz and Efrem Zimbalist as well, become Director of Music at NBC (1936), become a music critic, and write Toscanini’s biography (1956.)  Among the works Persinger played were a concerto by Pietro Nardini (an obscure work though Pinchas Zukerman has made a recording of it) and the Bruch g minor concerto.  He also played six encores.  The reviews were very favorable.  More than a month later (December 22, 1912), he played Edouard Lalo’s violin concerto in f minor (Opus 20 – not the better-known Symphonie Espagnole, Opus 21) with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall.  Returning to Europe, he served as concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic (some sources say he played in the first violin section) and was also concertmaster of the Royal Opera Orchestra in Brussels, Belgium.  In 1915, he accepted the post of concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony.  He was also named assistant conductor.  He was 28 years old.  He later became the Director of the Chamber Music Society of that city.  It was in San Francisco that he had the good fortune to be sought out by Ricci, Menuhin, and Stern.  In 1925, he moved to New York.  In 1930, he was appointed professor at the Institute of Musical Art (Juilliard) to replace Leopold Auer.  He taught at Juilliard until the day he died.  Menuhin later said “I was, in some ways, the pupil of Persinger’s abandoned dreams.”  Around the same time, Persinger was also on the violin faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. Persinger played a Nicolas Lupot violin for some time although he also played a Stradivarius and a Guarnerius violin.  YouTube has a recording of him playing the Capriccio Espagnol solos with the San Francisco Symphony and some with him playing piano for Menuhin.  The only other recording by Persinger that I know of is the one with his son Rolf, the late principal violist of the San Francisco Symphony (1963-1976), featuring works by Hindemith and Handel.  He was a chess player too, though not a very good one.  David Oistrakh, among others, beat him at it.  (Since I have beaten a computer at its top level, I know I would probably have been able to beat him, too.  On the other hand, he was a much, much better violinist than I.)  Persinger died in New York City on New Year’s Eve, 1966.  He was 79 years old. 

Nigel Kennedy

Nigel Kennedy is an English violinist born on December 28, 1956 (Perlman was 10 years old.) He was born on the same day as Josef Hassid, though 33 years later. He studied with Yehudi Menuhin and Dorothy DeLay (Juilliard.) He is famous for wearing a funny outfit on stage, his funny haircut, and his very slow rendition of the Brahms violin concerto. He has been recording since 1984 and has recorded most of the standard violin repertory in addition to some jazz music. A few critics have said that his classical playing style lacks discipline, insight, and finesse, although that opinion is really open to question.

Sarah Chang

Sarah Chang is a Korean (some would say American) violinist born on December 10, 1980 (Itzhak Perlman was 34 years old.) She was a child prodigy and has been highly praised by many of the world's greatest musicians and violinists, including Yehudi Menuhin. Her father, who is also a violinist, was one of her first teachers. When she entered Juilliard (New York) at age 6, she played the Bruch g minor concerto as her audition piece. At age 8, she played the Paganini concerto (in D) with the New York Philharmonic. At age 9, she recorded her first CD for EMI Classics, becoming the youngest violinist to be professionally recorded. She effectively began her concert career at the same age. (Chloe Hanslip was signed to a recording contract at age 13.) It is said that it took Ms Chang no more than two weeks to learn the Tchaikovsky concerto when she was only 12. Although she has garnered many awards (including the Avery Fisher Prize), she has never entered any violin competitions - possibly because she never had to. Chang has recorded most of the standard repertoire. As is usual with modern violinists, there are several videos of her playing on YouTube. In 2010, she got into an unpleasant controversy over her scheduling a concert in Detroit during the Detroit Symphony's strike.  I don't know if she has a page on MySpace. She plays a 1717 Guarnerius.

Chloe Hanslip

Chloe Hanslip (Chloë Elise Hanslip) is an English violinist born on September 28, 1987 (Perlman was 41 years old.) She began violin lessons at age 2. She first played in public at age 4 and at age 5 was encouraged (by Yehudi Menuhin himself) to enroll at the Yehudi Menuhin School. By age 10, she had played in some of the most prestigious venues in the U.S. and Europe. She also studied with Russian violinist Zakhar Bron in Germany (1995.) At 13, she was the youngest recording artist ever to be signed to Warner Classics (England); however, she is not the youngest violinist to be professionally recorded – that honor goes to Sarah Chang (and EMI Classics.) Hanslip has won numerous awards and scholarships and played privately for English royalty since July, 2001 – the most recent such recital in 2008. She recorded Jeno Hubay’s long-neglected first and second violin concertos in June, 2008 – Naxos will release the CD tomorrow, September 29, 2009.

Georges Enesco

Georges Enesco was a virtuoso Romanian violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born on August 19, 1881 (Brahms was 48 years old.) He is best remembered for his two Romanian Rhapsodies for orchestra (1901-1902), although there are piano versions of these works as well. He composed quite a number of other pieces (symphonies and a lot of chamber music but no violin concertos) which are now seldom performed by anyone. He entered the Vienna Conservatory at age 7 where he studied with Robert Fuchs, among others. In 1895, he traveled to Paris to continue his studies. As a teacher, he is famous for having taught Ivry Gitlis, Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras, Ida Haendel, and Arthur Grumiaux, among many others. His conducting debut came in 1923 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Although he continued to conduct until very late in his life, he retired from playing at age sixty nine, due to physical ailments. In the U.S., he spent a season as conductor of the New York Philharmonic (1936-37), gave innumerable concerts, and taught (in New York) for about five years. He famously said that he was not so much interested in perfection as in emotionally reaching his audience. In 1939, he married a princess, a friend of Queen Marie of Romania. His recording legacy extends to not only conducting, but to recording on the violin and piano. He may very well have been the first to record the complete violin solo works of Bach. That recording was not treated kindly by some critics. In Enesco's case, he had the bad luck to reach his violinistic prime when recording technology was virtually nonexistent and to reach old age just as the recording industry was beginning to make progress (1950). An interesting story about Enesco has been told many times though I'm not certain if it is factual or not.  It is said that Enesco once arranged a recital at the Salle Gaveau in Paris, as a favor to a good friend, who was the father of a young violin student who was not terribly gifted and who was not quite ready to play in public.  However, nobody bought a ticket to the recital because the young violinist was completely unknown.  The young boy's father persuaded Enesco to accompany the student on the piano so that the concert would sell out. Reluctantly, Enesco agreed and the concert was sold out quickly - Enesco was an accomplished pianist, as was Arthur Grumiaux. An excited audience gathered on the night of the concert. From the stage, before the concert began, Enesco asked the audience if someone might not volunteer to come up and turn pages for him.  Alfred Cortot, the famous pianist, was in the audience and came up to turn pages for Enesco. The soloist was of a low quality so the following morning the critic of Le Figaro wrote: "There was a strange concert at the Salle Gaveau last night. The man whom we adore when he plays the violin played the piano. Another man whom we adore when he plays the piano turned the pages. But the man who should have turned the pages played the violin."  Enesco died on May 4, 1955, at the age of 74. 

Adolf Busch

Adolf Busch (Adolf Georg Wilhelm Busch) was a German violinist, composer, and teacher born on August 8, 1891 (Stravinsky was 9 years old.) He began violin lessons at age 3 and studied – from age 11 - with Willy Hess at the Cologne Conservatory. Busch also studied composition with his future father-in-law (Hugo Gruters) in Bonn, where he used to sit in on the Joachim Quartet’s rehearsals. In 1912, Busch founded his first quartet, which floundered when the First World War overtook it. After the war, in 1918, he founded the famous Busch Quartet, which played almost continuously until 1951. Apart from this, Busch is remembered for having been one of Yehudi Menuhin’s teachers, though he also taught Erica Morini, among others. In 1927, he moved to Switzerland and from there, in 1939, he moved to Vermont. In the middle of all this, the Busch Quartet had become the core of the Busch Chamber Players, another group Busch founded, and the forerunner of today’s ubiquitous chamber orchestras. In Vermont, he eventually founded (with his son-in-law, Rudolf Serkin, and Marcel Moyse) the Marlboro Music School and Marlboro Music Festival (1951.) During his career, Busch kept concertizing as a soloist, solidifying his reputation as a great Beethoven and Brahms interpreter. Rudolf Serkin often served as his recital accompanist. Though Busch recorded extensively with the quartet, few studio recordings exist of him as a solo player. Live recordings of his performances can be found on YouTube – sound only. It is said that Max Reger (whom he knew since 1907) greatly influenced his composition style. Among his many compositions are a violin concerto, a Quintet for saxophone and string quartet, and a Concerto for Orchestra (1929, fourteen years before Bela Bartok wrote his concerto for orchestra in 1943.)  Adolf Busch died on June 9, 1952, at age 61.

Raymond Cohen

Raymond Cohen is an English violinist born on July 27, 1919 (Heifetz was 18 years old.) He first studied violin with his father in Manchester. At 15, he entered the Manchester College of Music where he studied (for four years) with Henry Holst, former concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic. Soon thereafter, still aged 15, he joined the ranks of the famed Halle Orchestra, based in Manchester - the youngest member of England’s oldest orchestra (founded in 1858.) At age 18, he became concertmaster of the Blackpool Orchestra, a city less than fifty miles from Manchester. While still studying, he concertized extensively, playing the concertos of Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Busoni, Sibelius, and others. In 1940, he played a historic concert with the Halle Orchestra – still only 19 years old – in which he played the Bach (E Major), the Mendelssohn, and the Brahms concertos in the same evening. Few violinists have ever attempted or accomplished such a feat, though Yehudi Menuhin was one who did. The Second World War interrupted Cohen’s fast rise but he re-emerged in 1945 by winning the Carl Flesch Violin Competition. Soon, he had a full schedule of concerts in Europe, having more than 40 concertos in his repertoire by then. However, he slowly gravitated toward concertmaster positions everywhere – English Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia, London Symphony, BBC, and Royal Philharmonic (1959, under Thomas Beecham.) He also started teaching at the Royal College of Music in London. In addition, he was very active in the chamber music arena. With his pianist wife (Anthya) and son Robert (a cellist), he eventually formed the Cohen Trio. He was the first to realize a videotaped performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. He has also recorded the entire set of Beethoven Violin Sonatas for the Meridian label. Raymond Cohen teaches privately and is on a very short list of distinguished elder statesmen of the violin still working – with Zvi Zeitlin, Ruggiero Ricci, Ida Haendel, and Ivry Gitlis.

Ruggiero Ricci

Ruggiero Ricci is an Italian (some would say American) violinist, writer, and teacher born (in San Bruno, California) on July 24, 1918 (Heifetz was 17 years old.) He is one of the last great living (legendary) violinists of the Heifetz era – Ivry Gitlis, and Ida Haendel being the other two. He was a child prodigy who first studied violin with his father. At age seven, Ricci studied with Louis Persinger (who also taught Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, and Zvi Zeitlin, among others.) Later on, Persinger was also his piano accompanist for many recitals and recordings. One of Ricci’s other teachers was Adolph Busch. His first public performance took place in San Francisco in 1928, at age 10, playing works by Wieniawski, Vieuxtemps, Mendelssohn, and Saint Saens. At age 11, he made his orchestral debut with the Mendelssohn concerto and later that same year gave his Carnegie Hall debut in New York which solidly established him as a virtuoso concert violinist. A quote from a review of the concert has become famous: "All that great violinists do, he did." As a teenager, he went to Berlin for further study. He toured Europe in 1932 (age 14) and continued his worldwide concertizing until 1942. During the Second World War, he played hundreds of concerts everywhere as an enlisted man (1942-1945.) His repertoire includes over 50 concertos, myriads of solo violin works, sonatas, and showpieces. There are several videos of his playing on YouTube, though some are sound-only uploads. One of them is here. His discography is enormous – over 500 recordings. In fact, he has recorded the complete Paganini Caprices no less than four times, the first one dating from 1947 (he was the first to do so) and the last one from 1988.  On one of his interesting recordings he plays 16 different cadenzas for the Brahms concerto.  Jascha Heifetz, Louis Kaufman, and Steven Staryk might rival him in the recording sphere - they also have enormous discographies.  Ricci has taught at Juilliard, Indiana University, and at the Mozarteum (Austria), among other schools. His book on left hand technique is a classic. Ricci played his last concert in the U.S. in October, 2003, in Washington D.C., having already given over 5000 concerts during his 75-year career.  In all those years, he played many violins - a 1731 Guarnerius, a 1734 Guarnerius, a 1771 Balestrieri, a 1780 Storioni, a 1714 Stradivarius, and a Vuillaume (with double purfling) from an undetermined year. (See comment below.)  The 1714 Stradivarius has had at least 18 different owners but only 3 have been musicians.  In 1995, Ricci commissioned a violin from modern luthier Samuel Zygmuntowicz.  The violin was a copy of the famous Plowden Guarnerius Del Gesu.  It was sold in 2012 for about $65,000. 

Gioconda De Vito

Gioconda De Vito was an Italian violinist born on July 22, 1907 (Heifetz was 6 years old.) She began formal violin lessons with an uncle, who was a professional violinist, at the age of 8. Three years later, she entered the Pesaro Conservatory. She graduated two years after that and started her career as a soloist. By age 17, she was teaching at the Conservatory in Bari. At age 25, she won an international violin competition in Vienna. She was then hired (supposedly through the influence of Mussolini) to teach at the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. Since the Second World War interrupted her solo career, her London debut, which was very successful, didn’t happen until 1948. She subsequently performed frequently in the major European venues, sometimes appearing with other important artists, including Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Rafael Kubelik, and Furtwangler. She also twice played for the Pope (Pius XII). De Vito was one of several famous female violinists of the early Twentieth Century who were quickly forgotten by the general public – Ginette Neveu and Janine Andrade were two others. In 1961, she retired from playing and virtually from the violin itself. She was then only 54 years old. Although she toured Europe and other countries (Australia, Russia, India, Israel), she never played in the U.S. A highly admired player, she was nevertheless, almost an anachronism during her career. Her repertoire was old fashioned and did not include the concertos of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Elgar, Bartok, Barber, Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Korngold, Glazunov, Berg, Walton, or Szymanowski. It is said that she was such a meticulous player, that she worked on the Brahms concerto for fifteen years before she played it in public. She married at age 42. Her discography is rather limited but includes the concertos and sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. De Vito died on October 24, 1994 at age 87, virtually forgotten.

Julia Fischer

Julia Fischer is a German violinist, pianist, and teacher born on June 15, 1983 (Perlman was 38 years old). She was a child prodigy. Fischer began her violin studies at age 4. At age 9, she entered the Munich Academy of Music where she studied with Ana Chumachenco. At age 12 (1995), she won the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition. She began concertizing soon after. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2003. It has been publicized that to honor the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, Fischer played on Mozart’s own violin (a Pietro Antonio Dalla Costa) in Salzburg. Her discography is fairly extensive already and her reviews are always full of superlatives. Her recordings of Prokofiev, Glazunov, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Bach have won accolades from reviewers. She plays with a ferocious technique but an unpretentious, alluring sound. YouTube has many videos of her performances. A little over a year ago, Fischer played Grieg’s piano concerto in Frankfurt, Germany. On that occasion, she also played the B minor violin concerto by Camille Saint Saens. Fischer uses a Guadagnini from 1742. She is also currently teaching at the University of Frankfurt. Unfortunately, she has a reputation for being very rude and arrogant with colleagues. 

Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, was a Russian violinist and conductor born on April 22, 1916 (Heifetz was 15 years old.) He began his career as a child prodigy, having started on the violin at age 3. His teachers were Sigmund Anker, Louis Persinger, Eugene Ysaye, Adolf Busch, and Georges Enesco, among others. He made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in 1923 – at age 7. It is after a concert of his in 1929 that Einstein made the comment after hearing him play "Now I know that there is a God!" All I know is that he played the Paganini Moto Perpetuo faster than anyone else I’ve heard. He was one of four concert violinists to play three concerti in one concert (1929 - Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.) Raymond Cohen, Szymon Goldberg, and Henryk Szeryng were the other three. He was also the first Jewish musician to play in Germany after the Holocaust (1947.) His recording contract with EMI set a record for longevity (70 years.) Menuhin played the Prince Khevenhuller Stradivarius (1733), among other fine violins. In the midst of his career he developed arm problems for which he consulted Theodore Pashkus and his wife (Alice), well-known violin pedagogues at the time. He died on March 12, 1999, at age 82. 

Messiah Stradivarius

This is the famous Messiah Stradivarius. It is a beauty, no? It is currently housed in a British museum - the Ashmolean - almost in pristine condition. It is the closest thing to a virgin violin imaginable - it has never been played. According to most experts, it's priceless. For various reasons, I think it's a fake. If you care to research the history of this intriguing violin (I don't know why you would - you don't have the time), you might want to start with Stewart Pollens, one of the world's foremost authorities on this instrument. No one is allowed to get close to this magical violin - not since questions about its authenticity surfaced. It is rather sad that the truth about it cannot be conclusively determined, but only because commercial interests have decided not to rock the boat. Don't make too many inquiries or you might discover that Stradivari never existed.