Ottorino Respighi was an Italian violinist, composer, and musicologist,
born (in Bologna) on July 9, 1879.
Although making a living by playing the violin for many years, today, he
is known for his very popular tone poems – The Pines of Rome, The Fountains of
Rome, and The Roman Festivals among others.
He also composed at least eight operas which are not as popular. Respighi was very prolific and his music
still sounds modern, even 80 years after his death. His father was his first teacher of both
violin and piano. Respighi later entered
the Music Lyceum in Bologna where he studied violin with Federico Sarti. He graduated in 1899. He was 19 years old. He then traveled to Saint Petersburg, Russia
to play principal viola in the Russian Imperial Theatre. The Russian Revolution would not occur until seventeen
years later. He took advantage of his
stay there by studying composition with Rimsky-Korsakov. After returning to Bologna, he took a degree
in composition, perhaps from the same institution. However, his principal income came from playing
violin. Until 1908, he was first
violinist of the Mugellini Quartet. He
also spent time playing in Germany. Upon
returning from Germany, he turned his attention, almost completely, to
composition. He settled in Rome in 1913
and used it as his base of operations for the rest of his life. He also began teaching composition at the
Rome Conservatory that year. Whether he ever gave violin lessons is unknown to me. By 1917, he
had become famous as a composer. In
1923, he was appointed Director of the Conservatory. Here is Heifetz’ rendition of Respighi’s
violin sonata in B minor – first movement.
Respighi died on April 18, 1936, at age 56.
Scipione Guidi was an Italian violinist born
(in Venice) on July 17, 1884. He is one
of many outstanding violinists who established themselves in Hollywood as
studio musicians – players such as Louis Kaufman, Israel Baker, Heimo Haitto,
Toscha Seidel, Felix Slatkin, Paul Shure, Eudice Shapiro, and Joseph
Achron. He is known among cognoscenti
and music specialists, especially because of his extraordinary recording of
Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben tone poem, but most everyone else is not at
all familiar with him. The famous
recording was done in December of 1928 with the New York Philharmonic and
Willem Mengelberg, the conductor to whom Ein Heldenleben was dedicated. Between November, 1905 and January, 1929, Mengelberg
performed the Strauss work no fewer than 21 times with the philharmonic. Guidi was the soloist for almost all of these
performances. Guidi studied at the Royal
Conservatory in Milan. At what age he
began his studies is unknown to me. He
is said to have begun teaching at the same school later on. However, he soon moved to London where he
formed a trio. I do not know whether it
was a string or a piano trio. From
London he moved to New York. In New
York, he was hired (in 1919) as concertmaster for the National Symphony of New
York. He was 35 years old. In 1921, when the National Symphony of New
York was absorbed by the New York Philharmonic, he stayed on as
concertmaster. Willem Mengelberg had
been the conductor of the National Symphony and was then hired as conductor of
the restructured New York Philharmonic. Guidi
formed the New York Trio in 1919 (with Clarence Adler, piano, and Cornelius
Vliet, cello) but had to leave the trio in 1923 because he simply became too
busy with orchestral work. Louis Edlin took
his place as violinist. As far as I know,
Guidi first soloed with the New York Philharmonic on November 26, 1922, playing
Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy. Josef
Stransky conducted. Guidi went on to
appear at least 12 times as soloist with the orchestra. Among the works he played were Beethoven’s
concerto, Bruch’s g minor concerto, Mendelssohn’s second concerto, Saint Saens’
third concerto, Beethoven’s triple concerto, and Brahms’ double concerto (with
Alfred Wallenstein on cello.) In 1928,
the New York Philharmonic merged with the New York Symphony, another New York
orchestra. Guidi retained his post as
concertmaster. In 1931, one year after
the ill-tempered Arturo Toscanini took over the orchestra as permanent
conductor, Guidi moved to St Louis. He
was 47 years old. In St Louis, Guidi served
as concertmaster of the St Louis Symphony, under conductor Vladimir Golschmann. On December 7, 1934, Guidi played the Sibelius concerto with the orchestra, with Golschmann conducting. That was the first performance of the concerto in St Louis. American violinist Maud Powell had premiered the Sibelius concerto on November 30, 1906 - apparently, it took 28 years for the work to travel from New York to St Louis. It has been said that it was Golschmann who
recruited Guidi for the concertmaster job. It has also
been said that Golschmann later fired him in the middle of a rehearsal in 1942, during a disagreement about how a passage should be played. Guidi went to Los Angeles after losing his
job in St Louis and played in Hollywood studio orchestras. He also became conductor of the Glendale
Symphony. After Guidi passed away, his
spacious home just off Sunset Boulevard was purchased by harmonica virtuoso, George
Fields. Later on, for almost two years, Fields
used part of the house as his personal recording studio. He said Guidi’s inscribed photos of many of
his famous colleagues on the walls of his study – Bruno Walter, Jascha Heifetz, Antal Dorati, Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Casals, Arturo
Toscanini, Yehudi Menuhin, Fritz Reiner, Wanda Landowska, Wilhelm Backhaus, Willem Mengelberg, Walter Damrosch, Vladimir
Horowitz, and Wilhelm Furtwangler among others - were “formidably
inspiring.” Among Guidi’s violins was a
1772 Guadagnini, purchased in 1930. Guidi
died (in Los Angeles) on July 7, 1966, at (almost) age 82. His Guadagnini is now very valuable but I do
not know what became of it.
Daniel Guilet (Guilevitch) was a Russian violinist
(some would say French or American) born (in Rostov) on January 10, 1899. Although he was for a few years concertmaster
of the famous NBC Symphony under the ill-tempered Arturo Toscanini, he is
better known as the original violinist and founder of the Beaux Arts Trio. His parents moved from Russia to Paris before
the turn of the century, and he later trained at the Paris Conservatory with
George Enesco. After graduation, he
toured Europe as a recitalist with Maurice Ravel as his accompanist. He also played second violin in the Calvet
String Quartet (with Joseph Calvet, Leon Pascal, and Paul Mas.) A YouTube audio file of one of their
recordings can be found here. Guilet
came to the U.S. in 1941. He was about
41 years old. He soon formed a quartet (which at various times included Henry Siegl,
Jac Godoretzky, William Schoen, Frank Brieff, David Soyer, and Lucien Laporte) under his own name. A YouTube
performance by this quartet can be heard here.
Three years later (1944) he joined the NBC Symphony. Seven years after that (1951), he became its
concertmaster and remained in that position after Toscanini retired in 1954,
although the orchestra had to change its name – a string quartet from the NBC
orchestra which included Emanuel Vardi and Daniel Guilet, used to play for the
retired maestro at his home almost every Sunday in order to cheer him up. In that same year (1954), Guilet formed the
Beaux Arts Trio with pianist Menahem Pressler and cellist Bernard
Greenhouse. The trio gave its first
concert on July 13, 1955 and its last on September 6, 2008. Guilet retired from the trio in 1968 and from
playing altogether (publicly) in 1969. The
trio (featuring Guilet) has a few audio files on YouTube although files and
videos with subsequent violinists are more numerous. One such audio file is here. After his retirement, Guilet taught at
Indiana University, the Manhattan School of Music, the Royal Conservatory in
Canada (Montreal), Oklahoma University, and Baylor University (Waco,
Texas.) He owned a JB Vuillaume violin
from 1867, a Carlo (or Michele Angelo) Bergonzi from 1743, and a 1727
Guarnerius Del Gesu which he got rid of in 1973 (after he retired from playing)
and which passed through the hands – perhaps in 1998 - of infamous violin
dealer Dietmar Machold, who is now in prison for defrauding clients and banks. I’m guessing Guilet used the Vuillaume and Bergonzi
violins for most of his recordings since the Guarnerius was not acquired until
1965. The violin now bears Guilet’s
name. Guilet died in New York on October
14, 1990, in relative obscurity, at age 91.
