Antal Zalai

Antal Zalai (Antal Szalai) is a Hungarian violinist, composer, and teacher born (in Budapest) on January 31, 1981.  He is known for what has been described as a perfect technique and refined artistry.  He is a former child prodigy who was offered his first recording contract while still a teenager and his musical education is very broad.  Zalai began his violin studies with his father and mother at age 5.  From age 7 to age 14 he studied, in Budapest, with Laszlo Denes.  His other teachers in Budapest were Josef Kopelman and Peter Komlos.  In fact, it has been said that he acquired his 1733 Stradivarius violin from Professor Komlos.  That violin had been owned by another Hungarian violinist, Gyorgy Garay, who is now almost completely forgotten.  Zalai graduated from the Royal Conservatory in Brussels in 2009.  He was 28 years old.  However, Zalai had been concertizing since age 12.  Along the way, he had participated in masterclasses given by Erick Friedman, Pinchas Zukerman, Tibor Varga, Lewis Kaplan, Isaac Stern, Gyorgy Pauk, and an assortment of other concert violinists.  He made his British debut in Liverpool in 2008.  That same year he made his debut in Berlin.  The venues he has played in include Carnegie Hall (New York), the Musikverein (Vienna), the Philharmonie (Berlin), and the Moscow Conservatory.  Zalai has toured almost the entire globe and played with some of the most famous names in the conducting world.  He also frequently conducts masterclasses wherever he performs.  As are so many violinists, he is a chess player.  The cadenzas he plays are very frequently his own.  Here is a YouTube video where he teams up with Russian violinist Marianna Vasileva to play the violin duos by Shostakovich – Zalai plays the second violin part.  These duos are written in a style which we do not associate with the famous Russian composer.  The (intense and emotional) performance is easily the best on YouTube.  This othervideo is also quite unique and interesting. 

Kristof Barati

Kristof Barati is a Hungarian violinist and teacher born (in Budapest) on May 17, 1979.  Although born in Hungary, he and his family spent a few years in Venezuela (for reasons unknown) and he even began violin lessons there with his mother at age 5.  By age 8 he was giving concerts with orchestras in Venezuela.  I don’t know at what point the family moved from Venezuela to Europe but several sources state he performed in France at age 11.  Sometime after or before this, he relocated to Hungary to study at the well-known Franz Liszt Academy.  Exactly what year that was is unknown to me.  His teachers at the academy were Miklos Szenthelyi and Vilmos Tatrai.  By 1995, at age 16, he began entering violin competitions at which he was very successful, placing either first, second, or third at all of them.  In 1996, he began studying privately with a little-known professor of violin, Eduard Wulfson, in Paris.  Music critics frequently praise his musicianship (artistry) in addition to his phenomenal technical prowess.  In addition to his world-wide concertizing, he also takes part in important music festivals in Italy, France, Switzerland, and elsewhere as a chamber music player.  Barati’s discography is not yet extensive, but his recordings of the first and second Paganini concertos are among the best.  His recording of the Mozart concertos (all five) has also been very highly praised.  Although he has played other very fine and valuable violins, for about 14 years (from 2003), he played (and recorded with) the Lady Harmsworth Stradivarius violin constructed in 1703.  I don’t know if he is currently using that instrument.  He is known for being a very strong chess player and avid photographer.  Barati has taught at the Sorbonne in Paris and at other venues as a masterclass professor.  Although he has not (as far as I know) performed all 24 Paganini Caprices at a single recital, he has performed all six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by Bach in one (very lengthy) recital (in France, then again in Russia.)  Here is a link to the entire recording of the Mozart concertos, courtesy of Brilliant Classics recordings.  Here is a YouTube video of a movement from the Bach Sonata number 1. 

Joseph Lendvay

Joseph Lendvay (Jozsef Lendvay) is a Hungarian violinist and conductor born (in Budapest) on November 7, 1974.  He is best known as a crossover violinist who is very successful as a traditional classical violinist and a gypsy fiddler.  He often performs with his own gypsy band – a group of five or six players – two violins, cello, cembalom, bass, and guitar.  He (probably) began his violin studies with his father, a very popular gypsy violinist.  By age 14, he was already playing some of the most difficult standard works for classical violin.  He studied at the Bela Bartok Conservatory in Budapest as well as the famous Franz Liszt Academy, also in Budapest.  He has won numerous European-based violin competitions; the Koln International Violin Competition and the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition are among them.  In 2002, the President of the Hungarian Republic awarded him the Golden Cross for his artistic contributions to the nation.  He was 28 years old.  It has been said that due to his classical training, his folkloric interpretations sound lighter and more virtuosic and, because of his folkloric roots, his classical performances are more emotional and powerful.  Lendvay was concertmaster of an orchestra called the Philharmonic of Nations (founded by pianist and conductor Justus Frantz in 1995) for a time.  Lendvay has been playing the Ries Stradivarius from 1691 (or 1693 - opinions vary on the date) since 2008. There is another Ries Stradivarius dated 1710 but I don't know who owns or plays that one.  Here is a YouTube video of Lendvay and Vadim Repin playing Csardas.  Here is another where he is playing Gypsy Airs by Sarasate – the harmonies have been altered in several places and the accompaniment includes some traditional folk instruments.  You may likely want to watch it more than once in order to appreciate some of the unusual bowings and fingerings which Lendvay uses.  Finally, here is one where Lendvay plays the Tchaikovsky concerto. 

Tibor Serly

Tibor Serly was a Hungarian violinist, violist, conductor, composer, and teacher born (in Losone, Hungary) on November 25, 1901.  He studied with some of the greatest musicians of the late nineteenth century, including Jeno Hubay and Zoltan Kodaly.  Although he was an orchestral violinist for many years, he is now mostly remembered as a composer and the arranger of the Bartok viola concerto.   Serly’s first teacher was his father who was a composer of theatre works and conductor as well.  Interestingly, Serly began his studies in the U.S. since his family brought him here as a very young child.  He played in pit orchestras in New York (which his father conducted) until he was 21 years old, at which time he returned to Hungary (in 1922) to study at the Liszt Academy in Budapest.  His main teachers there were Jeno Hubay, Zoltan Kodaly, and Leo Weiner (teacher also of Fritz Reiner, Georg Solti, and Janos Starker.)  Serly graduated from the academy in 1925.  He was 24 years old.  He then returned to the U.S. and played in the Cincinnati Symphony (as violist from 1926 to 1927 under Fritz Reiner), in the Philadelphia Orchestra (as violist – one source says violinist - from 1928 to 1937 under Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy), and the NBC Orchestra (as violist from 1937 to 1938 under ill-tempered Arturo Toscanini.)  It has been said that Stokowski appointed Serly Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1933 – perhaps it is true.  (I made an inquiry of the Philadelphia Orchestra to confirm that but they never responded.)  After 1938, Serly mostly devoted his time to composition, conducting, and teaching.  He was 37 years old.  His friendship and professional association with Bela Bartok began in 1925 (in Hungary) - he met with him sporadically thereafter.  However, Serly was in regular and frequent contact with Bartok between 1940 and 1944, after Bartok came to the U.S.  Serly completed Bartok’s viola concerto from many sketches which Bartok didn’t have time to assemble himself prior to his death.  (The concerto has subsequently been further revised by Bartok’s son Peter Bartok and violist Paul Neubauer as well as by violist Csaba Erdelyi – every edition is quite different so that an orchestra must be careful to use the same edition as the soloist when performing it.)  Serly also completed the last 17 bars of the third piano concerto – some say he merely orchestrated the last 17 bars of the piece – others say he orchestrated the entire piece.  Serly’s own works are now very seldom played but he remains an important figure in modern music because he promoted atonal and other non-traditional ways of putting notes together to form a whole.  He became a professor at the Manhattan School of Music (New York) but taught at other institutions as well.  Serly was one of many musicians who became well acquainted with poets and other artists of that period, including the notorious Ezra Pound and his violinist-lover, Olga Rudge.  (Few people know that Ezra Pound was also a composer.  It has been said that Rudge discovered 300 of Vivaldi’s forgotten concertos in Italy and thus greatly helped the resurgence in interest in Vivaldi’s music.)  Serly helped Pound organize concerts in Rapallo, Italy, to which he frequently traveled.  As late as 1976, Serly was still publishing books on music theory which are now not widely known.  He wrote a viola concerto in 1929 and that work is still sometimes played.  He also wrote a violin concerto.  His other works remain quite obscure.  He died after being struck by a vehicle (some sources say it was a car) while visiting London in 1978.  His exact date of death is October 8, 1978.  He was 76 years old.  

Franz Vecsey

Franz von Vecsey (Ferenc Vecsey) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, and composer born (in Budapest) on March 23, 1893.  He was a child prodigy in the early part of the last century but is for the most part now forgotten.  There are a few YouTube audio files which attest to his unbelievable artistry at a very young age.  Bela Bartok served as his piano accompanist for a time.  The Sibelius violin concerto was dedicated to him (in 1905) when he was only 12 years old.  Although he did not premiere the concerto, he first played the Sibelius concerto one year later.  His first teacher was his father, Lajos Vecsey.  He studied with Jeno Hubay from age 8.  It has been said that he became Hubay’s favorite pupil.  (Eugene Ormandy and Joseph Szigeti also studied with Hubay.)  His debut took place on May 17, 1903 in Berlin.  He was ten years old and on that occasion played the Beethoven concerto while Joseph Joachim conducted the orchestra.  Afterward, he studied with Leopold Auer in St Petersburg, Russia.  Jeno Hubay dedicated his third violin concerto (probably his best-known among the four he composed) to Vecsey.  Later, after concertizing for about ten years, Vecsey married into an aristocratic family, as did four or five other famous violinists (Teresina Tua, Johanna Martzy, Cesar Thomson, and Georges Enesco come to mind.)   He managed his career from a palace in Venice.  It has been suggested that he became psychologically scarred after serving in the Austrian army during World War One and that his career suffered as a result.  He was very interested in a conducting career in the mid-1930s but became seriously ill just about then and died after an unsuccessful operation in Rome.  Vecsey’s compositional output consisted mainly of miniature violin works, one of which is Le Vent (Caprice number 1), a rather difficult work which is still very popular today.  A 1716 Stradivarius instrument was among the violins he played.  It is now owned by an Italian philanthropic foundation, which also owns other great and valuable string instruments.  Here is a YouTube audio file where Vecsey plays a Paganini caprice.  Vecsey died on April 5, 1935, at age 42.  

Endre Granat

Endre Granat is a Hungarian violinist, music editor, and teacher born (in Miskolc, Hungary – about 100 miles northeast of Budapest) on August 3, 1937.  He is best known for having recorded prolifically in Los Angeles as a studio (session) musician, (as did Louis Kaufman, Toscha Seidel, and Israel Baker before him), where he almost always served as concertmaster.  He has played and recorded for hundreds of movie soundtracks, CDs, and Television shows.  Granat is easily the most experienced studio violinist working today.  He may also be the only concert violinist in history whose wife was a murder victim (1975).  His first teacher was his father (Josef Granat) who was the concertmaster of the Budapest Philharmonic for many years.  He then studied with Gyorgy Garay at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest in his native country.  I don’t know at what age he entered the Academy.  He fled the country during the revolution in 1956.  He was 19 years old.  He then spent five years living in Switzerland although his initial plans were to go to Paris, France.  Between 1956 and 1964 he was concertmaster or a section violinist with the Hamburg Symphony, the Orchestra of the Suisse Romande, and the Gothenburg Symphony.  He also graduated from the conservatory in Basel with a Master’s degree during that time.  In 1962 he entered and won a violin competition at Heidelberg, Germany.  He was 25 years old.  He came to the U.S. in 1964 and studied further with Josef Gingold at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.  Granat was assistant concertmaster with the Cleveland Orchestra from 1964 to 1966.  In 1967 he participated in the Queen Elizabeth violin competition and came in lower than fifth place – I don’t know how much lower.  He was 30 years old.  He then studied for five years with Jascha Heifetz in Los Angeles.  Between 1975 and 1977, he played very little, spending two years in South Korea studying God-knows-what.  I did not take the trouble to find out; however, he and pianist Edith Kilbuck did record the complete works for violin and harpsichord by J.S. Bach in 1976.  When he returned from Korea, he began playing in the studios in Los Angeles where he has been working ever since.  Granat has taught at various music schools during different times in his career, including the Royal Academy of Music in Gothenburg (Sweden), Seoul National University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and USC in Los Angeles, where he might still be teaching.  He has also frequently participated in several music festivals in the U.S. and abroad and intermittently concertized as a soloist working with some of the world’s conducting luminaries, including George Szell, Zubin Mehta, and Georg Solti.  He was concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony in California from September 1983 to June 1993.  With regard to that experience, Granat has said: “It's one thing to have a great number of wonderful players; it's another thing to have a great orchestra.  Eighty extraordinary musicians do not equal an extraordinary orchestra.  That takes years.”  Granat plays a 1721 Domenicus Montagnana violin which he acquired in 1968.  He may have sold that violin in 2005. 

Stefi Geyer

Stefi Geyer (Steffi Geyer) was a Hungarian violinist and teacher born (in Budapest) on June 28, 1888.  Although a very popular and distinguished violinist in the early part of the century, she is better known for her relationship to Bela Bartok, one of the greatest composers of the 20^th Century.  Bartok dedicated his first violin concerto (composed in 1907 but not published until 1959) to her, although she never performed it in public.  It is said she had the only copy of the score and did not release it until very late in her life, after Bartok had died.  Her violin studies began at age three – her father was her first teacher.  From age seven she studied with Kalman Adolf, an obscure violinist.  At age ten she began studying at the Budapest Academy of Music with Jeno Hubay, one of the most respected violinists and teachers of the time.  Geyer began concertizing in Hungary and Austria at age twelve.  Her studies with Hubay ended in 1902.  She was fourteen years old.  She toured Europe frequently and was admired for her intelligent and elegant interpretations of a very wide repertory.  She moved to Vienna in 1911.  In 1919 she settled in Zurich.   She was very busy playing throughout Europe, giving over 100 concerts in the 1922-23 season alone.  She toured the U.S. in 1924, although not for the first time.  Geyer taught at the Zurich Conservatory from 1934 to 1953 (one source says 1923 to 1953.)  In 1935 she was appointed concertmaster of the Sacher Chamber Ensemble.  She became the concertmaster of the Collegium Musicum in Zurich in 1941.  Beginning in 1938, she would often play in the orchestra of the Lucerne Festival.  She played a 1742 Guarnerius (del Gesu) violin known as the Soldat.  The violin has an interesting history.  Her recordings from the 1930s are numerous but somewhat hard to find.  Here is a YouTube audio file of one of her recordings from the year 1927.  Geyer died in Zurich on December 11, 1956, at age 68.  

Gyorgy Garay

Gyorgy Garay was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, and music editor born (in Rakospalota) on December 2, 1909.  He is now a very obscure violinist who was well-known in his day.  His first teacher was Joseph Bloch at the Budapest Academy of Music.  Garay was 9 years old when he started his studies.  Three years later, he was a student of Oscar Studer.  In 1925, he began studying with Jeno Hubay and graduated a year later.  Interestingly, his public debut took place in Vienna (1926.)  He made his debut in Hungary (Budapest) in 1927.  Garay soon gravitated toward a career in chamber music, playing violin in the Hungarian Trio from 1927 to 1930.  Between 1930 and 1933, he was first violinist with the Garay Quartet.  In the 1930s, he developed a second career as a soloist in Europe.  Between 1940 and 1945, he was a violinist with the Fovarosi Orchestra in Budapest.  He became principal violinist at the Hungarian State Opera House in 1945 and stayed until 1951.  From 1951 to 1960, he was concertmaster of the National Philharmonic (State Concert Orchestra) – this orchestra may or may not be the same orchestra which exiled itself (to Germany) in 1956 and became the Philharmonia Hungarica.  From 1949 to 1961, Garay was also a violin teacher at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest.  In 1960, he became concertmaster of the Radio Symphony in Leipzig (MDR Symphony Orchestra.)  While there, he also taught at the Mendelssohn Academy of Music.  Henceforth, he performed less and less as a soloist.  He gave many premiere performances of new works (mostly by Hungarian composers) and recorded some of these works as well.  Here is one of several of his audio files on YouTube - the violin concerto (1973) by Wilhelm Neef.  Garay died (in Leipzig) on May 15, 1988, at age 78.  His violin was a Stradivarius of 1733 – as far as I know, it bears no name.  It is now played (and perhaps owned) by well-known Hungarian violinist Antal Zalai.  

Barnabas Kelemen

Barnabas Kelemen is a Hungarian violinist and teacher born (in Budapest) on June 12, 1978.  He is known for having won the prestigious Indianapolis Violin Competition in 2002.  His repertoire is very extensive and includes Schumann’s concerto and Bruch’s second concerto which are seldom heard live.  Kelemen also plays a great deal of contemporary music.  On May 2, 2013, he premiered (in New York’s Carnegie Hall) a long lost concerto by Mihaly Nador, composed in 1903 (and revised in 1941-42) but never performed.  Reviewers of the performance compared Kelemen to Heifetz.  The audience applauded after each movement of the concerto, which is not typical, especially in the case of more modern works.  Kelemen began studying violin at age six with Valeria Baranyai.  He entered the Franz Liszt Academy at age 11 and studied with Eszter Perenyi.  He graduated in 2001.  He was 23 years old.  By then, he had already won first prize in the Mozart Violin Competition in Salzburg (1999.)  Three years after winning the Indianapolis competition, he began teaching (in 2005) at the same school from which he graduated.  In 2010, he founded (with his violinist wife Katalin Kokas) the Kelemen Quartet.  (Among violinists who married other concert violinists are Olga Kaler, Adele Anthony, Marina Markov, Ruth Posselt, and Elizabeth Gilels.)  The Kelemen Quartet has also received top prizes at chamber music competitions.  In addition, several of Kelemen’s recordings have also received awards from music periodicals and critics.  Interestingly, except for the cellist, the Kelemen Quartet players sometimes switch places with each other – alternating between first violin, second violin, and viola.  Kelemen has taken conducting lessons from Leif Segerstam and has already conducted a few concerts in Europe.  He often appears in the dual role of soloist-conductor with chamber orchestras.  Needless to say, Kelemen has toured the world several times (and continues to do so) as a soloist and with the quartet.  In 2014, he began teaching at the Advanced School for Music and Dance in Cologne, Germany.  Here is a YouTube video of his playing a well-known Mozart sonata.  It shows how different his temperament and style are from a more conventional concert violinist but you be the judge.  After winning the Indianapolis competition, Kelemen played the 1683 Stradivarius (Martinelli Stradivarius) that all Indianapolis competition winners get to use for four years.  (The Martinelli was “restored” in 2014 and is currently being played by Jinjoo Cho)  Kelemen is currently playing a Guarneri (del Gesu) constructed in 1742.  

Andras Agoston

Andras Agoston is a Romanian (some would say Hungarian) violinist and teacher born (in Cluj) on March 17, 1947.  (Cluj is about 230 miles northwest of Bucharest.)  For the most part, Agoston has made his career in Eastern Europe but is recognized the world over, though mainly by audiences who keep very close tabs on the world of classical music.  To the general public, he is definitely not a household name and there is scant information about him on the internet.  Nonetheless, he is a very brilliant and unique artist.  He first studied in his native city with Paula Kouba, Peter Zsurka, and Istvan Ruha.  An audio file of the famous Handel-Halvorsen passacaglia with Ruha on viola is located here – in my opinion, it’s the best recording of this work available anywhere and it’s not even a studio recording.  (Ruha’s viola playing is also simply phenomenal.)  After graduating from the Klausenburg Music Academy (in 1972?), he taught there for 20 years.  Between 1991 and 2001, he was concertmaster of the Philharmonia Hungarica, an orchestra (mainly composed of self-exiled Hungarian musicians) which was initially based near Vienna, Austria.  The orchestra later settled in Marl, a small city about 30 miles northeast of Dusseldorf, Germany.  It became famous for its recording of the complete Haydn symphonies – one of only three orchestras to produce such a project.  The recording project received every award imaginable.  However, the orchestra recorded much more music than this – a total of about 130 discs.  The Philharmonia Hungarica was funded by Germany between 1956 and 2001, after which it ceased to exist.  Agoston continues to give master classes and perform throughout Europe.  As far as I know, he is still based in Marl, Germany.  What violin he plays is unknown to me. Here is a YouTube file in which he plays the Brahms double concerto.  

Hans Sitt

Hans Sitt (Jan Hanus Sitt) was a Hungarian violinist, violist, teacher, conductor, and composer born (in Prague) on September 21, 1850.  When he was born, Brahms had not yet even begun to make a name for himself – when he died, Stravinsky had turned the musical firmament upside down.  Although Sitt was a prolific composer, he is better remembered – if at all - as a teacher.  Unfortunately, he had no outstanding students who would have turned him into a legend.  Louis Zimmermann was probably his most famous pupil.  Sitt’s father was a violin maker, a luthier.  Sitt entered the Prague Conservatory (Czechoslovakia) at age 11 and studied with Moritz Mildner and Antonin Bennewitz, among others.  He graduated in 1867, at age 17 and almost immediately was engaged as concertmaster of the Breslau Opera Orchestra in Wroclaw, Poland – Wroclaw is one and the same as Breslau.  It is about 120 miles northeast of Prague.  Sitt stayed for six years and then served as concertmaster of an orchestra in Chemnitz (Germany) for another six years.  Chemnitz is about 60 miles northwest of Prague and 35 miles south of Leipzig, Germany.  Sitt enjoyed a very brief career as a touring virtuoso and served as conductor of several orchestras in Europe – I don’t know which orchestras – including some in France and Austria.  In 1883 (some sources say 1884) he began his teaching career at the Leipzig Conservatory.  It was here that he was invited to be part of the Brodsky Quartet as a violist, with Ottokar Novacek on second, Adolph Brodsky on first, and Leopold Grutzmacher on cello.  He left the conservatory in 1921.  He had been there almost forty years.  From 1885 to 1903 he conducted the Bach Society Chorale in Leipzig.  His violin studies – although not as well-known as the Kreutzer or DeBeriot or Rode books - are still in use today.  He was one of the first to systematize the study of scales – in thirds, sixths, octaves and tenths.  He composed six violin concertos, two cello concertos, three viola concertos, many concert pieces for violin, viola, or cello, and a few chamber music works.  One of his piano trios is available here.  He probably played a very fine violin but I don’t know what that was.  Sitt died on March 10, 1922, at age 71. 

Andor Toth

Andor Toth was a Hungarian (many would say American) violinist, pianist, conductor, and teacher born (in New York City) on June 16, 1925.  He is remembered for a career which encompassed diverse fields in music – Broadway shows, chamber music, orchestral playing, concertizing, and teaching.  He began violin lessons at age 8.  Before long, he ended up going to Juilliard (New York) and joined the NBC Symphony in 1943, under the ill-tempered conductor, Arturo Toscanini, at age 18.  He only stayed a year.  At Juilliard, his teachers were Hans Letz and Ivan Galamian.  Toth played for U.S. troops in Europe during the war, although as a civilian.  Afterward, Toth was associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra.  Joseph Gingold was the concertmaster at that time.  Toth then went to Houston to be associate conductor of the Houston Symphony.  From 1955 to 1960, Toth taught at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Ohio, USA.)  He was a Broadway show conductor (New York) for a year after that – 1960-1961.  From 1961 to 1989, he taught at various schools, including the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, California State University, the University of Colorado, New College of Florida, University of Texas, Oberlin (again), San Francisco Conservatory, Stanford University, the University of Arizona, and the University of Houston.  He retired in 1998.  During his teaching career, Toth organized or played in various chamber ensembles, including the Oberlin String Quartet, the Alma Trio, the New Hungarian String Quartet, the Takacs String Quartet, and the Stanford String Quartet.  As a soloist, he appeared with various orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, of which he was concertmaster in 1969.  His students include David Zinman and Charles Barber.  Toth died (in Los Angeles) on November 28, 2006, at age 81. 

Lorand Fenyves

Lorand Fenyves was a Hungarian violinist and teacher born (in Budapest) on February 20, 1918.  He is known for having spent much of his career in Canada and is credited with helping establish an entire generation of musicians in that country.  His teachers in Hungary included Jeno Hubay and Zoltan Kodaly, internationally known violinist and composer, respectively.  Though he made his professional debut at age 13, he graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy in 1934, at age 16.  Two years later, having been recruited by Bronislaw Huberman, he left Europe for Israel to become a founding member of the Palestine Symphony (Israel Philharmonic.)  He soon became its concertmaster.  He was 18 years old.  In 1940, he helped found the Israel Conservatory and Academy of Music in Tel Aviv.  He also organized the Israel String Quartet, originally known as the Fenyves String Quartet.  He moved to Switzerland in 1957 (at age 39) where he was concertmaster of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and violin professor at the Geneva Conservatory.  He visited Canada in the summer of 1963.  The following year, he accepted a one-year position at the University of Toronto.  He actually remained there until his retirement in 1983.  In 2003, the University gave a recital in honor of his 85th birthday – a common thing for universities to do for their revered music professors.  After his retirement from the University of Toronto, Fenyves began teaching (in 1985) at the University of Western Ontario.  Nevertheless, he also gave masterclasses at music centers around the world and performed as violin soloist with well-known conductors and orchestras numerous times.  You can listen to Fenyves play a Bach Sonata in this YouTube audio file, recorded when he was about 70 years old.  Among his pupils are Tasmin Little, Elissa Lee, Scott St John, and Lynn Kuo.  Fenyves died (in Zurich, Switzerland) on March 23, 2004, at age 86.  The 1720 (circa 1720) Stradivarius violin which he owned – now known as the Fenyves Strad – was sold at auction in 2006 for about $1,500,000 USD.  Fenyves had purchased it in 1961.  

Victor Aitay

Victor Aitay was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, and conductor born (in Budapest) Hungary on April 14, 1921.  He is remembered as one of the long-time concertmasters of the Chicago Symphony.  As did many of the older players in American orchestras, he came to the U.S. from Europe in the early part of the twentieth century.  He first studied with his father then entered the Franz Liszt Academy at the age of 7.  After graduation, he became concertmaster of the Hungarian Royal Opera and the Budapest Philharmonic.  He did extensive solo playing throughout Europe as well.  In 1941, he was fired, arrested by the Nazis, and sent to a concentration camp.  In 1943, he escaped, made his way back to Budapest and was saved by Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat, who provided asylum at the Swedish Embassy.  He was 22 years old.  In 1945, he was given his old job back but soon resigned and left for Vienna.  He then founded the Aitay String Quartet with Janos Starker but work was hard to find.  In 1946, from Vienna, he (with his wife and child) made his way to the U.S.  He was 25 years old.  Arriving in New York with the clothes on his back and his violin, he soon auditioned for his European countryman, Fritz Reiner.  From 1946 to 1948, he played in the Pittsburgh Symphony – Fritz Reiner was the orchestra conductor at that time.  Some sources say Aitay was there one year and others say he was there two years.  From 1948 until 1954, he played in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.  While there, he also did some orchestral recording work with Leopold Stokowski, almost always playing as principal second violin.  He was associate concertmaster of the Met orchestra from 1952 until he left to join the Chicago Symphony as assistant concertmaster.  In 1965, after 11 years, he was appointed associate concertmaster and (finally) concertmaster in 1967 – from 1963 to 1967, Steven Staryk was the CSO’s concertmaster.  Aitay was 46 years old.  As do all great concertmasters with their respective orchestras, he appeared as soloist with his orchestra a number of times.  One such occasion took place on January 29, 1981, when he played Bartok's first concerto with Georg Solti on the podium.  Aitay was concertmaster until 1986 but served as concertmaster emeritus until 2003.  He was 82 years old when he retired.  He had been in the orchestra almost fifty years.  There are very few commercial recordings by Aitay as a soloist (I found only one) although he recorded with the Chicago Symphony countless times as a member of the string section.  He was also first violinist with the Chicago Symphony String Quartet.  His violin – in addition to a Vuillaume and a Guadagnini – was the Baron von der Leyen Stradivarius of (circa) 1705 - please see comments below for further information.  The Stradivarius was sold for $2,600,000 in April of this year.  Victor Aitay died on July 24, 2012, at age 91. *

Jacob Grun

Jacob Grun (Jakob Maurice Grun) was a Hungarian violinist and teacher born (in Budapest) on March 13, 1837.  When Grun was born, Brahms was 4 years old, Felix Mendelssohn was 28 years old (and already very famous), and Paganini was 54 and would live four more years.  Today, Grun is known as a teacher who had several critically important and famous pupils. He is also known as a very capable concertmaster who spent most of his life and career in Austria.  He first studied with someone named Gustav Ellinger in his hometown.  Later on, his most important teacher was Joseph Bohm at the Vienna Conservatory.  From 1858 to 1861 he played in the Grand Duke’s Royal Band in Weimar.  He was 21 years old.  Then he played in the Royal Band at Hanover (The Queen’s Orchestra) from 1861 to 1865.  Joseph Joachim was the concertmaster of the Hanover orchestra at the time.  Because Grun was not granted a position in the prestigious Court Chamber Orchestra (which would have entitled him to a pension), Joachim resigned his position as concertmaster in protest (together with Grun) in February of 1865.  Grun then embarked on a long concertizing tour of Germany, England, Holland, and Hungary.  Officially, Grun did not qualify for a position in the Chamber Orchestra because he was Jewish.  Joachim, the Chamber Orchestra’s concertmaster, was also Jewish but his situation was viewed somewhat differently because he (like Mendelssohn) had converted to Christianity.  Three years later (1868), Grun was appointed concertmaster of the Vienna Opera Orchestra (aka Vienna Court Opera, very closely tied to the Vienna Philharmonic.)  He was 31 years old.  His Jewishness apparently played no part in that appointment.  In 1877, he began teaching at the Vienna Conservatory, retiring in 1909.  He was 72 years old when he retired from teaching and playing in the Vienna Opera.  It has been said that he was very kind-hearted with his beginning pupils.  Among his students are Carl Flesch, Oskar Back, Oscar Morini, Franz Kneisel, Erica Morini, Peter Stojanovic, and Rosa Hochmann.  He played a 1714 Stradivarius which bears his name and which was later owned by Franz Kneisel.  Grun died in obscurity (in Vienna) on October 1, 1916 at age 79.  The First World War had already begun, Claude Debussy had composed Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Richard Strauss had composed Don Juan, Igor Stravinsky had written his Rite of Spring, and Serge Prokofiev was already 25 years old.  

Arthur Hartmann

Arthur Hartmann (Arthur Hartman or Arthur Martinus Hartmann) was a Hungarian (some would say American) violinist, teacher, composer, and writer, born (in Philadelphia) on July 23, 1881.  He was a rather enigmatic, romantic, and restless figure in the world of music during the turn of the twentieth century.  He is best known today for having transcribed a work by Claude Debussy which almost all concert violinists play – The Girl with the Flaxen Hair - a piece which Jascha Heifetz made famous and recorded at least four times, the first time when he was 26 years old.  Hartmann was a child prodigy and first performed in Philadelphia when he was six years old (1887.)  His first teacher was his father.  Later, he studied with Henry Hahn and Martin van Gelder.  In 1891-92, he studied in New York at the New York College of Music.  He toured Europe very successfully from 1892 to 1894.  He was 11 years old.  From 1894 to 1897, he played in America wherever his father could find him opportunities.  He then studied with Charles Loeffler in Boston for two years, beginning in 1897.  His patron in Boston was a wealthy merchant: Arthur Curran.  From 1899 to 1903, he studied in Europe – I do not know where (perhaps Berlin) or with whom.  Although he appears to have begun his career quite strongly, he suffered reversals which put him in very precarious financial circumstances a number of times.  The year 1929 was especially difficult – he suffered from very poor health, his wife and children left him, and he could not work at all for many months.  His concertizing was done in fits and starts but it has been said his performances were acclaimed.  He appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1906.  He was 25 years old.  On November 13, 1908, he played Saint Saens’ third concerto with the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall.  Again, on March 2, 1913, he played a Mozart concerto with the philharmonic.  On February 5, 1914, he gave a recital in Paris with Claude Debussy at the piano.  A recording of some of his music – by violinist Solomia Soroka - came out in 2009 which finally illuminated some of his work.  He seems to have been a prolific writer and a very enthusiastic promoter of new music and miscellaneous projects.  He was prone to wear fancy Spanish hats and a cape.  He also knew – in the style of Tivadar Nachez - almost every major figure in music and regularly corresponded with them – Claude Debussy, Edvard Grieg, Bela Bartok, Richard Strauss, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg, Aaron Copland, Christian Sinding, Alexander Glazunov, Zoltan Kodaly, Efrem Zimbalist, Tivadar Nachez, Leopold Auer, Joseph Joachim, Eugene Ysaye, Walter Damrosch, Carl Flesch, Frank Bridge, Fritz Kreisler, Maud Powell, Emil Sauret, Albert Spalding, Joseph Szigeti, Edward MacDowell, and Otakar Sevcik were among them.  However, he was no dilettante; he was on the founding faculty of the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, New York) in 1921 – he had initially been recruited in 1918.  He left Eastman in 1922 to concertize in Germany.  On October 21, 1922, he played both, the Tchaikovsky and the Saint Saens B minor concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic – something that no violinist today would attempt or even contemplate doing.  He was 41 years old.  He returned to the U.S. in 1923 and taught privately in New York.  In 1925 he formed his own quartet – the Hartmann Quartet – which made its debut in New York on November 16, 1925.  It was very favorably received.  It went on a U.S. tour in 1928 but was disbanded in 1929, despite the success it was experiencing.  Hartmann began having difficulties with his health in 1929.  For a decade, life was hard for him.  He would play and teach sporadically.  In 1931, he was forced to sell one of his violins, a Maggini, in order to make ends meet.  From 1931 to 1933, he had a studio in Toronto, Canada, though he continued living in New York.  On December 16 and 17, 1932, he played the Tchaikovsky concerto with the Syracuse (New York) Symphony.  He was 51 years old.  Up to that point, he may easily have already given over a thousand performances – Ruggiero Ricci gave over five thousand performances during a 75-year career.  One source states that Hartmann was a composer of a substantial body of symphonic music, choral works, and chamber music but that may be an exaggeration.  He did write over 200 transcriptions for violin, several works for orchestra, a few for string quartet, and some vocal music.  A great abundance of his music was published, especially that written for violin.  Timar, a symphonic poem, is an example of a work which was initially very well-received and then forgotten.  Every piece he wrote was performed and favorably received.  As far as I know, all of this music is now out of print.  Hartmann was also an authority on J.S. Bach’s violin works, but especially his famous Chaconne, about which he wrote a lengthy analysis.  However, just as Joseph Achron is known for his Hebrew Melody, Hartmann is known for his Debussy transcription – The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.  After 1932, Hartmann dedicated the rest of his life (more than twenty years) mostly to writing and composition.  A small book written by Hartmann – Claude Debussy as I Knew Him and Other Writings –  though never completed, came out (with extensive notes) in 2010.  It is probably the best writing on Debussy in existence.  Among Hartmann’s violins was a 1735 Stradivarius which he acquired in 1901 and which was later played by Mischa Elman - it eventually ended up in the hands of a collector in Pennsylvania: Raymond Pitcairn, great uncle of violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn.  Between 1905 and 1925, Hartmann also owned a 1752 Guadagnini.  It’s anyone’s guess where that violin ended up.  He may have acquired it from Franz Kneisel, though that’s only a wild conjecture on my part.  As far as I know, Hartmann never recorded anything commercially.  He died in obscurity (in New York City), on March 30, 1956, at age 75.  

Tivadar Nachez

Tivadar Nachéz was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, and composer born (in Budapest) on May 1, 1859.  He began his violin studies at age 5, then later studied with the concertmaster of the Budapest Opera, known to me only as Mr. Sabathiel.  He was never a virtuoso of the first rank but was nonetheless successful as a performer, arranger, and composer.  He lived in England most of his life and even became a naturalized English citizen.  While still a young boy, he was accompanied by Franz Liszt.  In Berlin, he studied for three years with Joseph Joachim - at the same time as Jeno Hubay - and privately in Paris with Belgian violinist Hubert Leonard.  He made formal debuts in Hamburg and London in 1881.  He was 22 years old.  He toured regularly - and made friends with all the important musicians of his day - for the rest of his life.  Even as early as 1889, critics who heard him expressed admiration for his musicianship but pointed out technical deficiencies in his playing.  An indication of his limitations as a violinist can be gathered from his opinion that Ernst’s arrangement of Schubert’s Erlkonig for solo violin was “so difficult, in fact, that it should not be played.”  He was quoted as saying that he often practiced between 8 and 10 hours a day.  He performed his second violin concerto with the London Philharmonic on April 17, 1907.  His best known works are probably his edition of one of Vivaldi’s concertos for two violins – the one in a minor, Opus 3, Number 8 – and his Gypsy Dances.  It has been said he used a Tourte bow previously owned by Heinrich Ernst.  He also owned several magnificent violins, including a 1716 Stradivarius which I was not able to find on any list of Stradivari violins.  Nachez died in Switzerland on May 29, 1930, at age 71.  

Joseph Bohm

Joseph Böhm (Josef Bohm) was a Hungarian violinist and composer born (in Budapest) on March 4, 1795.  He is best known for having been the Director of the Vienna Conservatory and the teacher of famous violinists; Joseph Joachim, Jeno Hubay, Jacob Grun, Heinrich Ernst, Eduard Remenyi, and Jacob Dont among them.  He is also considered the founder of something called the Viennese School of violin playing, whatever that means.  His first teacher was his father, concertmaster of the Pest Theatre Orchestra.  Later, he studied with Pierre Rode.  Bohm made his public debut in Vienna in 1816.  He was 21 years old.  He toured Europe as a soloist for several years.  In 1819, he became the first violin professor at the Vienna Conservatory.  Vienna was the musical capital of Europe at the time.  In 1821, Bohm established a string quartet.  He also became a member of the Court Orchestra - the Imperial band.  He continued to tour but retired from concertizing in 1827.  He retired from the Conservatory in 1848, but only because the Revolution caused it to close its doors.  He was 53 years old.  He continued to play in the Court Orchestra until 1868.  He was 73 years old by then.  He worked with Beethoven but how much time he spent in his company is unknown.  Beethoven never dedicated any works to him.  Bohm’s quartet sort of premiered Beethoven’s string quartet number 12 (opus 127, written in 1825), which turned out to be the first of Beethoven’s late quartets.  The actual premiere took place on March 6, 1825, under the direction of violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh.  That performance was a flop and Beethoven was very displeased.  Beethoven then asked Bohm to take charge of a second premiere which took place in late April, 1825.  That second premiere was, by all accounts, an unqualified success.  Beethoven was by this time completely and irrevocably deaf but he could tell how things went by watching the movement of the performers.  Bohm played none other than the Prince Khevenhuller Stradivarius of 1733 (from 1820 until the day he died – 56 years he had it.)  Upon his death, the violin went to his nephew (Louis Bohm) and eventually (in 1930) ended up in the hands of another famous violinist – Yehudi Menuhin.  Bohm died (in Vienna) on March 28, 1876, at age 81.  Beethoven had been dead 49 years.

Eugene Ormandy

Eugene Ormandy (Jeno Blau) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, and arranger born (in Budapest) on November 18, 1899.  Since he became a famous conductor, hardly anyone remembers that he played violin.  He enjoyed the longest tenure (unlikely to ever be surpassed) of any American conductor – 44 years with the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Nobody seems to know where the name “Ormandy” came from – he only adopted it after coming to the U.S. in 1921.  He began studying violin at the Royal Academy of Music (the Franz Liszt Academy) at age 5 then studied with Jeno Hubay (from age 9) for a number of years graduating at age 14, though some sources say at age 17.  Eddy Brown was a fellow student of his – in fact, when Brown and Ormandy competed in the Budapest Concerto Competition, Ormandy took second prize and Brown took first.  He then also studied Philosophy and received a degree in that subject in 1920.  For a time, Ormandy served as concertmaster of the Bluthner Orchestra in Germany and made recital and concert appearances as well.  In the U.S., he started out playing second violin in the Capitol Theatre Orchestra in New York City.  This was a rather large orchestra comprised of about 75 players of which Elias Breeskin, the notorious gambler and future father of Olga Breeskin, was concertmaster.  However, being a superlative violinist, Ormandy was soon promoted to concertmaster.  He was 22 years old.  Though he had been trained as a concert violinist, he never got a chance to concertize in this country since he quickly developed a taste for conducting.  Nevertheless, he recorded as a solo violinist between 1923 and 1929.  I do not know where those recordings can be found; perhaps among his archives at the University of Pennsylvania.  Among other conductors who entirely abandoned the instrument are Neville Marriner, David Zinman, Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch, Orlando Barera, Theodore Thomas, and Jaap Van Zweden.  Though he conducted the New York Philharmonic in 1929, Ormandy’s big break came on October 30, 1931, when he was asked to substitute in Philadelphia for an indisposed Toscanini – the ill-tempered Italian conductor.  Many a big career has been launched under similar circumstances.  It is known that Arthur Judson, another violinist who abandoned the violin (in favor of concert management), helped him to establish his career.  In 1931, he was appointed conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony and stayed until 1936.  That year (1936), he was appointed to his post in Philadelphia where he stayed for 44 years (1936-1980.)  He actually shared the post with Stokowski for the first two years.  Though he conducted many U.S. premieres, he never came close to Theodore Thomas’ record of 112 works premiered with the Chicago Symphony.  His most historic recording might be the three Rachmaninoff piano concertos he recorded with the composer at the keyboard.  His recorded legacy is very extensive and can be easily accessed on the Internet.  The Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy was the first to tour China (1973) and the first to appear on American Television (1948.)  He sometimes guest conducted other orchestras too - the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, and the Metropolitan Opera among them.  Ormandy died (in Philadelphia) on March 12, 1985, at age 85.  He died of pneumonia, just as did Theodore Thomas eighty years before him. 

Edith Lorand

Edith Lorand was a Hungarian violinist, singer, and conductor born (in Budapest) on December 17, 1898.  She is remembered for the great number of recordings she produced for German labels of the 1920s and 30s – Odeon, Parlophone, and Beka.  Her specialty was salon music of that era – it included opera music arrangements, dance music, popular songs, and light classical pieces.  That was during a time when live music was played at the more elegant hotels and restaurants all over Europe.  Up to a point, her biography reads somewhat like Alma Rose’s.  She studied to be a concert violinist but her ambition (and abilities) took her in a different direction.  Though her mother was an accomplished pianist, her father was not a musician.  Her first public performance was at a charity concert in Budapest at age six.  Lorand graduated from the Royal Music Academy in Budapest where she studied with Jeno Hubay.  She also later studied with Carl Flesch – either in Berlin or Vienna.  She made her debut in Vienna and Berlin in 1920.  She was 22 years old.  One source states that critics of the day compared her to Fritz Kreisler and Pablo Sarasate.  Lorand also became fluent in French, Italian, and English.  She made Berlin her home and base of operations until 1934.  After her debut, Lorand played as a concert soloist a few times and founded and recorded with a quartet and a trio (which included Gregor Piatigorsky, the cello player) but soon found her calling as conductor of a 15-piece all-male orchestra called the Edith Lorand Orchestra.  The orchestra, but especially Lorand, enjoyed great success throughout Europe.  They made regular radio broadcasts in Holland, Austria, Sweden, Germany, and England, and even appeared in movies.  The orchestra performed in the most important theatres as well, not just hotels.  It has been said that she became a symbol of female emancipation.  By the late 1920s, she was one of the top stars of the record industry.  In France, she was known as the Queen of the Waltz and in England as the Female Johann Strauss.  On April 1, 1930, she signed a three year recording contract with Lindstrom AG, which called for her to produce at least 144 tunes per year, averaging six two-sided records per month, with a fee of at least 36,000 Marks per year (about $107,000 in today’s dollars.)  Despite her great popularity and success, she had to flee Germany for Hungary in 1934.  In Hungary, she organized her All-Gypsy Orchestra which toured as far as the U.S.in 1935, where one of her concerts took place in Carnegie Hall.  In December 1937, she had to flee Hungary for the U.S., where she established herself in Woodstock, New York.  She was 39 years old.  Her orchestra in the U.S. (with different musicians, of course) was called the Viennese Orchestra.  Her success here did not come close to what she had in Europe but she managed, playing as far afield, in September of 1939, as the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, where composer Ingolf Dahl became her pianist for a short while.  She had a reputation for being demanding and autocratic.  In 1945, she was engaged to play in Vienna for an extended time but returned to the U.S. afterward.   In May 1960, she returned to Berlin, intending to resettle and restart her career.  However, on November 23, 1960, she died in New York, at age 61.  Many of her recordings are easily found on the internet and a very old video of her conducting a fast rendition of a famous waltz is available here.  Lorand played a 1744 Guarneri Del Gesu which later ended up (for 15 years) in the hands of Richard Burgin (of the Boston Symphony) and is now in Europe.  She must have taken very good care of that violin because it has been described as being in stunning condition and appearance.  A 1775 Guadagnini was also hers for a while.  That violin is now being played (though not owned) by Seattle violinist Maria Larionoff.