Itzhak Perlman

Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli violinist, teacher, and conductor born on August 31, 1945 (Heifetz was 43 years old.) He is at the forefront of virtuosos (Zukerman, Kremer, Mullova, Wha Chung, Midori, Laredo, Accardo, Fodor, etc.) who came after the early Twentieth Century era of violinists – Kreisler, Milstein, Gitlis, Heifetz, Elman, Szeryng, Zimbalist, Oistrakh, Kogan, Haendel, Francescatti, Ricci, Ferras, Stern, Grumiaux and others. In addition to a golden tone and an impressive, seemingly effortless technique, he is known for having a good bass voice and a charismatic stage presence. He first took up the violin at age 5 while living in Tel Aviv, Israel. He came to the U.S. in 1958. Winning a scholarship, Perlman attended the Juilliard School of Music (New York) where his teachers were Ivan Galamian and Dorothy Delay. Today, he teaches in their place. His U.S. debut (at Carnegie Hall) took place in 1963 and Perlman has been concertizing, recording, and making television appearances ever since. In addition, as most concert artists of today do, he frequently plays chamber music. His conducting work is mostly done with the Detroit Symphony and the Westchester Philharmonic. Perlman has a profile page on MySpace and YouTube features lots of videos of his playing. A particular favorite of viewers is the Handel Halvorsen Passacaglia (with Pinchas Zukerman on viola.) Perlman plays the Soil Stradivarius of 1714, previously owned by Yehudi Menuhin.

Vadim Repin

Vadim Repin is a Russian violinist born on August 31, 1971 (Perlman was 25 years old), in the same city as Maxim Vengerov. He began his studies with Zakhar Bron (in Novosibirsk) at the age of 5 and was soon recognized as a child prodigy. His first public performance with orchestra was made when he was 7. At age 11, he made his recital debuts in Moscow and St Petersburg, the same year he won the gold medal at the Wieniawski Violin Competition. In 1985, at age 14, he debuted in Munich, Berlin, Helsinki, and Tokyo. His Carnegie Hall debut took place when he was 15. He won the Queen Elizabeth Music Competition at age 17, the youngest winner ever. He is known for his interpretations of Russian music. Though he champions (and plays) contemporary works, his discography (on various labels) includes only the standard repertory – Mozart, Beethoven, Sibelius, Prokofiev, Shostakovitch, and Myaskovsky. He played a Guarneri del Gesu (1736) - until it ended up in the hands of Eugene Fodor - but previously (for about ten years) played Sarasate’s old Stradivarius, the Ruby Stradivarius (1708.)  In 2010, the 1736 Guarnerius returned to Europe to be sold in the private market.  It has been said that as a child, Repin played a rare ¾ Stradivarius, though it is thought by many experts that Stradivari never constructed any ¾ violins. YouTube has several videos of his concerts.

Eugene Fodor

Eugene Fodor (Eugene Nicholas Fodor, Jr.) was an American violinist born on March 5, 1950 (Perlman was about 5 years old.) His career was somewhat uneven and enigmatic. He first took up the violin when he was five and initially studied with Harold Wippler, concertmaster of the Denver Symphony for a number of years. At 10, he made his orchestral debut with that orchestra (playing Bruch's first concerto) and continued his studies with Wippler for another five years. At 15, he enrolled at Juilliard (New York) where he studied with Ivan Galamian. He also soloed with the Detroit Symphony at age 15. Josef Gingold was his teacher at Indiana University a short time later. By this time, he was already concertizing. He was then a student of Jascha Heifetz at USC. It has been reported that Heifetz dismissed Fodor from his class after Fodor refused to get a haircut to Heifetz' specifications (short.)  He was also winning several competitions along the way, including the Merriweather Post Competition in Washington D.C. After picking up first prize in the Paganini Competition in Italy in 1972 at age 22, Fodor became famous. As if this weren’t enough, two years later (1974), he won a Silver Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (no Gold Medal was awarded that year.) Ironically, even with these competition wins and dozens of successful concert tours under his belt, he was never a guest soloist with some of the best American orchestras – Boston, Chicago, and New York, among others. Speculation that Isaac Stern was somehow instrumental in shutting him off from certain venues prevails until this day. Fodor had at least 40 concertos and more than 40 violin Sonatas in his repertoire, in addition to countless miscellaneous works for violin and piano or unaccompanied violin. YouTube has a few videos of his playing.  He also recorded several major works for the RCA, Sony, and Grazioso labels, among others. Fodor married (Susan Davis, with whom he had three children) in 1978 and divorced in 1985 (some sources say 1986.) He married her again in November of 2010.  He was said to have a difficult personality.  Fodor is known for having been selected to play Paganini’s violin (the Guarnerius Cannone of 1743, worth about $40 million) in a San Francisco recital in 1999, on the eve of Paganini’s birthday. (Other violinists who have been granted this honor are Camillo Sivori, Bronislaw Huberman, Salvatore Accardo, Ruggiero Ricci, Leonid Kogan, Dmitri Berlinsky, and Regina Carter) The recital received great as well as cool reviews. He is also known for having been arrested (in Massachussetts) for drug possession in 1989. His latest prize was the European Soloist award in 1999. Some time in 2010, he stopped playing the violin altogether. Fodor died on February 26, 2011, at age 60. His 1736 Guarnerius is now for sale in Europe - on the private market.

Arthur Grumiaux

Arthur Grumiaux was a Belgian violinist, teacher, and pianist (in the style of Julia Fischer) born on March 21, 1921 (Heifetz was 20 years old.) He began violin studies when he was 4 years old. As a very young student, he studied at both the Charleroi Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory in Brussels (where Alfred Dubois was his teacher.) He also studied composition with George Enesco (in Paris) later on, though I am not certain whether he studied violin with him. It is quite likely. He won the Vieuxtemps Prize in 1939. It has been said that after his public debut with the Brussels Philharmonic in 1940 (playing Mendelssohn’s e minor concerto), he did not play publicly until 1945, the year in which he made his debut in London with the BBC Symphony. This interval of non-participation in public performances was due to the German occupation of his neutral country during World War Two. However, he did play chamber music privately during this time. He was appointed professor of violin at the Royal Conservatory in 1949. By then, he had established himself as one of the world’s great violinists. His first tour of the U.S. came in 1951. He is remembered for his partnership (and recordings) with pianist Clara Haskil, who was also a violinist (as Grumiaux was a pianist.) Sometimes, Haskil and Grumiaux were known to switch instruments in recitals. It is probably true that their Mozart (and possibly Beethoven) recordings have never been excelled by anyone. Grumiaux’ recording of Zigeunerweisen (Sarasate) is my personal favorite. His recordings for the Philips label covered a wide range of violin repertory. There is at least one recording (of a Brahms and Mozart sonata) in which he plays both the violin and the piano accompaniment. His playing has often been described as supremely refined and elegant and his technique as exquisitely effortless. His intonation was impeccable. A recording of Arthur Grumiaux playing JS Bach’s Gavotte and Rondo from the Partita No. 3 in E major for unaccompanied violin is included on the Voyager Golden Record attached to the Voyager spacecraft. As Menuhin was made a Lord in Britain, Grumiaux was made a Baron in Belgium (1973.) He played a J.B. Guadagnini violin made in 1773 previously owned by Alfredo Campoli and subsequently (after 1962) played by Joseph Silverstein, now in the hands of the concertmaster of the Washington National Symphony. He also played a Guarneri from the year 1744 which was certified by the notorious violin dealer Dietmar Machold. There are numerous videos of his playing on YouTube and he also has a fan page on Facebook. Grumiaux died unexpectedly on October 16, 1986.

Edith Volckaert

Edith Volckaert was a Belgian violinist born on August 27, 1949 (Heifetz was 48 years old.) Someone wrote a biography about her but I do not own it. Since there is precious little information about her on the web, I can only mention that she recorded several albums (works by Beethoven, Vivaldi, Bartok, Cesar Franck, and others) before her early death on July 2, 1992 (at age 42) and that she was the fifth prize winner in the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium violin competition in 1971. Volckaert also taught at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels until 1978. Her CDs can be easily found on the internet. She played a 1620 Maggini. That’s about it. On a different topic, I am guessing that great composers have always been pianists. It seems logical since the piano covers such a wide spectrum of notes all at once, obliging the player to think and see vertically, as if visualizing a score. Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev were pianists (or keyboardists.) Sibelius might be the only exception, if one considers him a great composer. There are many second (and third) tier composers who were violinists though: Vitali, Geminiani, Tartini, Molter, Vivaldi, Corelli, Paganini, Spohr, Rode, Viotti, Wieniawski, Enesco, Ernst, De Beriot, Sinding, Vieuxtemps, Bridge, Novacek, Sarasate, Kreisler, Elgar, Ysaye, and more.

William DeFesch

William DeFesch (Willem de Fesch) was a Dutch violinist, cellist, organist, composer, and teacher born on August 26, 1687 (JS Bach was 2 years old.) Little is known of him other than that he composed Oratorios for the London public at the same time as Handel. At age 21 (1708), he was concertmaster of the civic theatre orchestra in Amsterdam. He was choirmaster in Antwerp from 1725 to 1731. He then went to England in 1732. Handel was already there. In fact, DeFesch was Handel’s concertmaster. DeFesch composed lots of chamber music, concertos, and two Oratorios (one of which is lost.) You can hear some of his music on YouTube. According to some sources, DeFesch died on January 3, 1761, at age 73. According to others, he died four years earlier, in 1757. 

Walter Trampler

It seems odd that in the space of just three days, I would be writing about another violist. The other day it was William Primrose - now, it's Walter Trampler. Not that I resent them in any way, though it's annoyingly coincidental. Trampler was born in Germany on August 25, 1915 (Heifetz was 18 years old.) He became famous for playing the viola as well as the viola d' amore and for having been married four times. Trampler studied violin with his father, a violinist in the Munich Opera Orchestra, from age 6. I don't know when he switched to the viola, but he did, early in his career. He made his debut as a violinist with the Beethoven concerto in 1933, at the age of 18. He attended the State Academy of Music in Munich up to 1934. However, at age 17, he was already the violist of the Strub String Quartet - a very obscure ensemble, as far as I know. Finally, Trampler ended up as Principal violist of the Berlin Radio Orchestra. He came to the U.S. in 1939, concertizing extensively, recording, and teaching at many major music schools, including Juilliard and Yale. One of his first jobs in the U.S. was as a violinist in the Boston Symphony. He was also one of the founding members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He was a champion of contemporary music, but I could not find any videos of his on YouTube. Trampler died on September 27, 1997, at age 82.