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.
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.
Isidore Cohen was an American violinist and teacher born on December 16, 1922 (Heifetz was 21 years old.) He never made a living as a virtuoso concert violinist but had an outstanding career as a chamber music player. He began studying violin at age 6. After graduating from the High School of Music and Art (New York), he attended Brooklyn College until World War Two caught up with him. After the war, he enrolled at Juilliard (at age 24) and studied with Ivan Galamian for a while. From 1952, he played second violin in Alexander Schneider's quartet for about six years then, in the Juilliard Quartet for about ten years. Cohen taught at Juilliard from 1958 to 1966. He also later taught at the Curtis Institute, Princeton University, and the Manhattan School of Music. In 1968, he joined the Beaux Arts Trio and stayed for twenty three years. He recorded extensively with the trio. YouTube has several videos of their playing. (Menahem Pressler, the trio's pianist-founder was also born on December 16, but one year after Cohen. He currently teaches at Indiana University.) Cohen died on June 23, 2005, at age 82.
