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.
Melanie
Clapies is a French violinist, teacher, and composer born (in Paris) on
December 16, 1981. She is one of less
than a handful of concert violinists who currently write works for their own
use, in the style of so many violinists of past generations – Tartini, Corelli,
Nardini, Geminiani, Biber, Vivaldi, Locatelli, Mozart, Leclair, Paganini, Viotti,
Lipinski, Gavinies, Spohr, Wieniawski, Joachim, Ernst, Vieuxtemps, De Beriot, Conus,
Enesco, Ysaye, Kreisler, Spalding, and Markov are among them. In fact, the tradition of the
violinist-composer has so much been neglected that violinists do not even write
their own cadenzas to concerti anymore.
Clapies does. As did Bronislaw
Huberman so many years ago, Clapies has had a good number of teachers. She began her violin studies at age 5 in
Paris and later, in the southern coastal city of Toulon, beginning at age 8,
with Solange Dessane (Toulon is located about 520 miles south of Paris but only
25 miles west of Saint-Tropez.) Her
public debut came at age 14. She later
studied with Pavel Vernikov and Christophe Poiget at the Lyon
Conservatory. She graduated in
2003. While studying in Lyon, she also
studied with John Glickman at the Guildhall School in London as an exchange
student. She later entered the Paris
Conservatory where she was a student of Ami Flammer and Claire Desert, graduating
in 2011. Clapies also received her
Master’s from Yale University in the US this year (2014.) Her chamber music studies were under the
tutelage of the world-famous Tokyo String Quartet and the Emerson String
Quartet. Clapies has already taught at
the conservatories in Toulon and Bordeaux, and at the Alfred Cortot Music
School in Paris (Zino Francescatti, Pablo Casals, Charles Munch, Jacques
Thibaud, and Paul Dukas were once teachers there.) She has also founded (with French cellist Yan
Levionnois) a Chamber Music Festival in Burgundy, France. Clapies has performed most extensively in
England, France, Italy, Russia, Canada, and the US. Leonard Bernstein once said that “music can
name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable.” In a similar vein, Clapies has stated that
her compositions are attempts to catch something from the inexpressible. She has also stated the following: “To me, a
good interpreter is a researcher, someone able to find new ways to express and
reveal what the pieces possess. I find a
direct path to composition from there.
For me, composing is a means by which to interrogate my surroundings; to
make deeper my relation to it.” She
formerly played a Tommaso Carcassi violin and a modern violin by Italian
luthier Carlo Colombo Bruno but her current violin is a Joseph Gagliano from
1781. Nonetheless, Clapies also plays an
authentic (period instrument) baroque violin on occasion. Among the works in her extensive repertoire
is one of my favorites – the Schumann concerto.
Here is her recording of the second movement from it on YouTube with the
Amadeus Chamber Orchestra. You will
immediately notice that her playing is intensely poetic. Her recordings include a collection of duo
works – in a more contemporary vein - for violin and cello, available here. She is currently organizing a piano trio in
New York as well as a project which will feature the music of Ravel which
combines music and mime. In addition,
Clapies is also interested in conducting!
In her upcoming performances of the Beethoven concerto, she will be
using her own cadenza. (There are at
least ten cadenzas to the Beethoven concerto out there (Kreisler’s and
Joachim’s being the most played) and Heifetz used his own too (some of it
borrowed from Leopold Auer), but there are no contemporary violinists who play
their own original cadenzas so this will be a unique joy for her audiences.) Photo of Melanie Clapies is used courtesy of
Francois Olivier de Sardan.
Daniel Stabrawa is a Polish violinist,
teacher, and conductor born (in Krakow) on August 23, 1955. He is very well-known as the concertmaster of
the Berlin Philharmonic and easily one of the best concertmasters in the
world. In addition, as almost all
concertmasters have done for centuries, he performs as soloist or chamber music
player as often as he can. Stabrawa began
his violin lessons at age 7. He later
studied with Zbigniew Szlezer at the Music Academy in Krakow. He entered the Paganini violin competition in
1978 and came in a respectable sixth place.
He became concertmaster of the Polish Radio Symphony in Krakow in
1979. He was 24 years old. He probably worked somewhere else prior to
this but I don’t know where. In 1980 he
again entered the Paganini violin competition and again came in sixth
place. He first joined the Berlin
Philharmonic in 1983. He was 28 years
old. Herbert Von Karajan was chief
conductor back then. Three years later,
Stabrawa was appointed concertmaster – actually one of three concertmasters. (German orchestras usually hire three
concertmasters considered equals – they are known as first concertmasters. They also hire two or three concertmasters of
lower rank. It is very unusual for all
three first concertmasters to be present for even a few concerts; however, it
is also highly unusual for all three first concertmasters to be absent at the
same time so this arrangement guarantees that a first concertmaster is always available
to play. Therefore, an associate or
assistant concertmaster rarely gets to sit in the first chair.) In 1985, Stabrawa began playing – as first
violinist – in the Philharmonia Quartet (with Christian Stadelmann on second violin, Neithard Resa on viola, and Jan Diesselhorst on cello - Dietmar Schwalke replaced Diesselhorst in 1999. All are Berlin Philharmonic players.) Here is a YouTube video of the quartet playing a movement from the second of
Beethoven’s Opus 59 quartets. The
quartet recently completed recording all of Beethoven’s string quartets. Stabrawa taught at the Orchestra Academy of
the Berlin Philharmonic for fourteen years - from 1986 to 2000. In 1994, he took an interest in
conducting. He began conducting the
Capella Bydgostsiensis Chamber Orchestra in 1995 (possibly 1994) and conducted
it for at least seven years, although I do not know if he is still conducting
that ensemble. It resides in Bydgoszcz,
Poland, about 225 miles northeast of Berlin and 175 miles northwest of
Warsaw. He has been quoted as saying
that he actually conducts very little, which is understandable given the heavy
concert schedule maintained by the Berlin orchestra. He has stated: “If you can direct, that helps
a lot as concertmaster. Orchestra
musicians have always felt they could do better than the conductor. But when you stand in front, you realize:
Conducting's like playing the violin, you have to have an incredible technique;
you need to know how it works. Every
little wrong movement is transferred to the orchestra. Conducting is as hard as playing
violin.” In 2008, he founded the
Stabrawa Ensemble Berlin. As far as
recording, Stabrawa has recorded most of the orchestral repertoire as a
concertmaster, though he has also recorded some solo works. His solos in Korsakov’s Scheherazade are
second to none (and I should say I have heard quite a few.) His sound has always been described as being
very beautiful. You can judge for
yourself here (in a short video, playing one of Jeno Hubay’s concertos with his
Berlin colleagues) and here, playing a Wieniawski piece (Opus 20.) This one features him with Nigel Kennedy
playing a little-known duo concerto by Vivaldi. Stabrawa has played a violin by Francesco Ruggeri from 1674 and might still be playing it - of that I am not certain.
Boris Kuschnir is a
Russian violinist and teacher born (in Kiev, Ukraine) on October 28, 1948. More than anything, he is known as a violin
pedagogue and chamber music player. Several
of his students play in the Vienna Philharmonic and some have international
careers as soloists. Just as Arthur
Hartmann and Tivadar Nachez knew so many of the musical luminaries in their
day, Kuschnir does in his own time. As
far as violinists go, Kuschnir’s website is probably the most comprehensive on
the internet. I don’t know at what age
he began his violin studies but, as a young man, he studied with Boris Belenky
and Valentin Berlinsky at the Moscow Conservatory. He also studied with David Oistrakh. In 1970, he founded the Moscow String
Quartet. He was 22 years old. In 1981, he left Russia and settled in Austria,
where one of his first jobs was playing concertmaster of the Bruckner Orchestra
in Linz (about 110 miles west of Vienna.)
In 1984 he began teaching at the Vienna Conservatory. He was 35 years old. That same year, he founded the Vienna
Schubert Trio (1985-1993, with Claus Schuster on piano and Martin Hornstein on
cello.) In 1993, he founded the Vienna
Brahms Trio with Orfeo Mandozzi (cello) and Jasminka Stancul (piano.) The trio is probably still active. He co-founded the Kopelman Quartet in
2002. This group is interesting because
the first violinist lives in New York, the second violinist lives in Vienna,
and the violist and cellist live (in different cities) in Spain. Here’s a YouTube video of the quartet playing
(in Cyprus) the eighth string quartet of Dmitri Shostakovich. In addition to judging at many violin
competitions around the world, Kuschnir also plays at music festivals far and
wide, including the Spoleto, the Verbier, and the Salzburg Festivals. His best known pupils are probably Alexandra
Soumm, Maria Duenas, Julian Rachlin, Nicolas Znaider, and Lidia Baich. There are many YouTube videos of Kuschnir in
performance. Here is one of them. Since 1991, Kuschnir has been playing a
Stradivarius from 1698 (or 1703, according to several sources) nicknamed La
Rouse Boughton.
Peter
Stojanovic (Petar Stojanovic Lazar) was a Serbian violinist, composer, and
teacher born (in Budapest) on September 7, 1877. He is largely forgotten. Several sources have him studying with Jeno
Hubay in Vienna and Budapest. I am not
aware that Hubay taught in Vienna but I do know he was at the Budapest College
of Music and Budapest Conservatory from 1886 onward. At the Vienna Conservatory Stojanovic studied
with Jacob Grun, who was also concertmaster of the Vienna Opera Orchestra. Grun was Joseph Joachim's close friend and colleague. In 1925, Stojanovic was appointed professor
of violin and composition at the conservatory in Belgrade. He was 48 years old. Stojanovic also concertized throughout Europe
as a soloist and with his string quartet. He later founded the Music Academy in
Belgrade. Among his compositions are 5
violin concertos, 2 viola concertos, 1 horn concerto, one flute concerto, 2
ballets, 2 tone poems, 3 operas, and diverse chamber music. His most famous pupil is probably Robert Virovai, another obscure violinist. Stojanovic died (in Belgrade) on September
11, 1957, at age 80. The world of
classical music had changed drastically by then and he had already become so
obscure that the Grove Dictionary of Music (edition of 1953) has no mention of
him. You can listen to one of his violin
concertos here.
Stefan
Milenkovich (Milenkovic) is a Serbian violinist and teacher born (in Belgrade) on January 25,
1977. He began studying at an extremely
young age – age 3, just like Jascha Heifetz. His first teacher was his father – again, just as Heifetz’ father was his first teacher as well. As have other famous violinists – Bronislaw
Huberman, Bronislaw Gimpel, Leonora Jackson, Julia Igonina, Hilary Hahn,
Natasha Korsakova, and Chloe Hanslip among them - he has performed for world
leaders, including President Reagan, President Gorbachev, and Pope John Paul
II. By age 6, he had already given his
first public concert. By 1994, he had
played over 1000 concerts. He was only 16
years old. Ruggiero Ricci played over 5000
concerts by the time he retired at age 85.
That is probably a world record, although I am not sure about that. At the rate he was going, Milenkovich would
have to play until age 57 before he would surpass the 5000 number; however, few
concert artists nowadays play more than 50 concerts per season. Also in that year (1994), Milenkovic
graduated from the University of Belgrade.
He then began studying in New York with Dorothy Delay at Juilliard. In 2003, he began teaching at that same
school. He was 26 years old. All the while, he was concertizing all over
the world. He has been known to dance - in the fashion of Maxim Vengerov - during special recitals. Three other violinists that I know of are (or were) also very good dancers; Jean Marie Leclair, Andrew Sords, and Tai Murray. As does Simone Lamsma,
Milenkovich loves violin competitions and has won a number of them or placed in
the top three, including the Indianapolis, the Queen Elizabeth, the Yehudi
Menuhin, the Paganini, and the Spohr competitions. He has recorded several CDs which are easy to
find on the internet. Currently he
teaches at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (about 130 miles
south of Chicago) and at the University of Belgrade (since December 26, 2011.) Here is one of many YouTube videos of him –
it features Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen. Milenkovich currently plays a modern violin - a 2006 violin by Chicago luthier Peter Aznavoorian.
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.
