Mari Samuelsen (Mari Silje Samuelsen) is a Norwegian violinist born (in
Hamar, Norway) on December 21, 1984. She
is well-known for having the most views for one of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
concertos on YouTube – more than 31,729,000.* (Please see updates below.) That is probably a record for a classical musician on YouTube. It is a really superb performance. The video is posted on Samuelsen's own channel on YouTube which has 97 thousand subscribers. However, although she is a supremely gifted
artist and technically brilliant, her discography is truly tiny – the reasons for
that, as far as I know, are a mystery. She
began violin lessons at age 3 then began studying with Norwegian violinist and
teacher Arve Tellefsen from age four.
After about ten years, she began studying with Stephan Barratt Due in Oslo. She also later studied with well-known
pedagogue Zakhar Bron in Switzerland. In
addition, she attended masterclasses with Ivry Gitlis, Ana Chumachenco, Midori,
Donald Weilerstein, Pamela Frank, and Robert Mann. Samuelsen’s career is well-established in
Europe although she has performed in several venues in the US as well. She has also played with several major
orchestras led by high profile conductors in some of the world’s great concert
halls. As far as I know, she has never entered any violin competitions. On August 25, 2016, Samuelsen and
her cellist brother (with whom she frequently performs as a duo) gave the
American premiere (with the Los Angeles Philharmonic) of a work for violin and
cello by the late film composer James Horner.
Samuelsen plays a 1773 Guadagnini violin on loan from a Norwegian
foundation. Here is one YouTube video of
hers (Vivaldi) and here is another (variations on the theme God Save the King
by Adrien Servais and Joseph Ghys.)
Vladimir Cosma is a Romanian violinist, composer, and conductor born (in
Bucharest) on April 13, 1940. He is one
of several musicians who began their careers as violinists and digressed to
other (musical) endeavors. In France, he is
well-known as a prolific film composer although he is a composer of classical
(concert) works as well. Perhaps he can
be compared to Victor Young, American violinist-composer. There is scant information about Cosma’s
career as a violinist other than that he began his violin studies while still
quite young and he graduated from the Bucharest Conservatory of Music and then
moved on to the Paris Conservatory in 1963.
In Paris, he also studied with Nadia Boulanger, the famous French
teacher. Up until about 1968 (between
1964 and 1967 approximately), he played in orchestras and toured as a concert violinist. After that, he focused on composition and
(necessarily) on conducting. He credits
a meeting with French composer Michel Legrand with his entry into the world of
soundtrack composing. He was 28 years
old by then. It has been said that one
of his grandmothers (I don’t know which one) studied with the famous piano
player, Ferruccio Busoni. According to
one (usually-reliable) source, Cosma is the composer of more than 300 scores
for films and television programs. Another
source puts the number at 150. He has
conducted a number of orchestras outside of the recording studios though mostly in France. The French government has bestowed several
honors on him as he is considered a national artistic treasure. Several of his scores have also been awarded the French equivalent of an Academy Award. As you can see from the
photo, Cosma has never entirely given up the violin. Whether he has or has ever had any pupils is
something I do not know. He is on record saying that melody is the most important thing in a composition. In an
interview, Cosma was quoted as follows: “In a few centuries, we shall see what
will come of the serial experiments and of these [atonal] composers. I think that all this decadence of the
Viennese romantic music is an end and not a beginning as, for such a long time,
Boulez and the promoters of new music wanted to make us believe.” Here is a YouTube audio file of one of his film works featuring the Berlin Philharmonic - I don't think I need to identify the violin soloist because you will immediately recognize it is the inimitable Ivry Gitlis.
