Rusanda Panfili is a Moldovan-Romanian violinist, actress, dancer,
singer, teacher, and arranger born (in Chisinau, Moldova – Chisinau is about 80
miles Northwest of Odessa, Ukraine) on November 1, 1988. She is known for her extreme versatility and
ease in performing in very different styles (genres) and for being one of very
few contemporary violinists who arrange music for their own performance and
their own style. Many violinists from
the past (to name a few: Cesar Thomson, Eugene Ormandy, Maud Powell, Paul
Kochanski, Arthur Hartmann, Elias Breeskin, Nathan Milstein, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha
Heifetz) used to do just that but the current generation has forgotten that
tradition. An indication of her diverse
interests in music can be understood by knowing that she has collaborated with
artists ranging from Aleksey Igudesman to Vadim Repin and everyone in
between. Panfili is also one of very (very)
few living violinists fluent in five languages – German, Russian, English,
Romanian, and Spanish. Panfili began her
violin studies with her mother at age 3 in Bucharest, Romania, where her family
had relocated after living in Moldova for a number of years. Though there were quite a few teachers
involved in her early training (at the George Enescu Music School in Bucharest),
her mother (who had studied violin but was not a professional violinist) remained
her main tutor and inspiration. At age
11, Panfili began studying in Vienna, Austria at the well-known Vienna
Conservatory with Alexander Arenkow, a pupil of David Oistrach. (None other than Dimitri Shostakovich worked
with Arenkow on his late string quartets - Arenkow was the leader of the Glinka
String Quartet.) Three years later, she
transferred to the University of Music and Performing Arts (in the same city)
to begin studying with Christian Altenburger.
She was 14 years old. By that
time, Panfili had already made her professional debut, at age 12. She had also already won a major violin
competition in Italy, at age 10, the age at which it can be said she began her
professional life. By her late teens,
she had already toured Europe, Russia, Japan, and Latin America. She has stated that she likes uniqueness – if
you see one of her YouTube videos, you will understand perfectly what that
means. Among the works in her extensive repertoire
is Piazolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, a work full of extraordinary
difficulties for the soloist as well as the orchestra. Here is one of many YouTube videos with
Panfili in a performance of Sarasate’s Gypsy Airs. In addition to her solo career, Panfili leads
a group of musicians known as Panfili and Friends which has its own schedule of
concerts. Panfili’s violin is one
constructed (in 1927) by the French maker Rene Cunne (better known as Renato
Conni.) The photo is courtesy of StefanPanfili, photographer of (mostly) European Artists and Musicians.
Boris Brovtsyn is a Russian violinist and teacher born (in Moscow) in
1977. He is known for his amazing
technique and the use of rubato – in the style of many virtuoso violinists of
another generation – violinists such as Mischa Elman, Fritz Kreisler, Jacques Thibaud,
Ida Haendel, Nathan Milstein, and Ivry Gitlis.
He began playing the violin at age 4.
At age 6, he made his public debut at the famous Bolshoi Theatre. His grandfather, a pupil of the famous
pedagogue, Abram Yampolski (teacher of Leonid Kogan) was his first
teacher. At age 7 (1984), Brovtsyn
entered the Central Music School in Moscow and graduated ten years later. Then he entered the Tchaikovsky (Moscow)
Conservatory where he studied with Maya Glezarova. From there he graduated in 1999. He had already made his U.S. debut in 1995
and his U.K debut in 1998. He had
already played for the Pope in 1993. He
studied further at the Guildhall School of Music in London where he won the
Gold Medal in 2004. His main teacher
there was David Takeno. His career has
taken him to places all over the world, but especially Europe. As do practically all concert violinists, he
plays at music festivals all over the world.
Brovtsyn plays an 1862 Vuillaume violin.
Here is a performance of his on YouTube – the Mendelssohn concerto in e
minor with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He gets a tremendous ovation and is obliged to
play a very nice encore by Ysaye.
Hagai Shaham is an Israeli violinist and teacher born (in Haifa) on July
8, 1966. For reasons I know nothing
about, he has never left Israel as his home base, as have so many other concert
violinists – Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Guy Braunstein, Jonathan Berick,
Lydia Mordkovitch, Vadim Gluzman, and Ivry Gitlis, to name a few. He is also known for recordings of
little-known works by Joseph Achron.
Shaham is often asked whether he is closely related to American
violinist Gil Shaham – he is not. Shaham
began his violin studies at age 6. He
later studied (from age 12) with Ilona Feher (1901-1988) in Tel Aviv - it has been said that
he was her last student. He also studied
with Emanuel Borok (the highest-paid concertmaster in the world), Elisha Kagan,
and Arnold Steinhardt. Shaham has taught
at USC (in the US - 2007), the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and Tel Aviv
University, among other places. He has
also given numerous master classes throughout the world. His recording labels have included Decca,
Chandos, Hyperion, Naxos, Nimbus, and Biddulph. His
Achron recordings are on the Hyperion label – some of these works have never
before been available to the general public.
It has been said that he found these forgotten works (in manuscript
form) at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
These recordings have been highly praised. One reviewer stated that “through the richness of his tone, superior vibrato
usage, expressiveness of phrasing and top-drawer facility, he fulfills his
potential in striking fashion. It is a
treat to hear such tonally satisfying violin playing when commonplace sound,
even among accomplished artists, is so prevalent." Another has stated that he has “an impressive
a technique as anyone except Heifetz…” In 2009, he formed a piano trio with Arnon Erez (piano) and Raphael Wallfisch. Since then, the trio has toured regularly but mostly in Europe. Here
is a YouTube video of him playing a well-known piece by Jeno Hubay.
Vladimir Cosma is a Romanian violinist, composer, and conductor born (in
Bucharest) on April 13, 1940. He is one
of several musicians who began their careers as violinists and digressed to
other (musical) endeavors. In France, he is
well-known as a prolific film composer although he is a composer of classical
(concert) works as well. Perhaps he can
be compared to Victor Young, American violinist-composer. There is scant information about Cosma’s
career as a violinist other than that he began his violin studies while still
quite young and he graduated from the Bucharest Conservatory of Music and then
moved on to the Paris Conservatory in 1963.
In Paris, he also studied with Nadia Boulanger, the famous French
teacher. Up until about 1968 (between
1964 and 1967 approximately), he played in orchestras and toured as a concert violinist. After that, he focused on composition and
(necessarily) on conducting. He credits
a meeting with French composer Michel Legrand with his entry into the world of
soundtrack composing. He was 28 years
old by then. It has been said that one
of his grandmothers (I don’t know which one) studied with the famous piano
player, Ferruccio Busoni. According to
one (usually-reliable) source, Cosma is the composer of more than 300 scores
for films and television programs. Another
source puts the number at 150. He has
conducted a number of orchestras outside of the recording studios though mostly in France. The French government has bestowed several
honors on him as he is considered a national artistic treasure. Several of his scores have also been awarded the French equivalent of an Academy Award. As you can see from the
photo, Cosma has never entirely given up the violin. Whether he has or has ever had any pupils is
something I do not know. He is on record saying that melody is the most important thing in a composition. In an
interview, Cosma was quoted as follows: “In a few centuries, we shall see what
will come of the serial experiments and of these [atonal] composers. I think that all this decadence of the
Viennese romantic music is an end and not a beginning as, for such a long time,
Boulez and the promoters of new music wanted to make us believe.” Here is a YouTube audio file of one of his film works featuring the Berlin Philharmonic - I don't think I need to identify the violin soloist because you will immediately recognize it is the inimitable Ivry Gitlis.
Ossy
Renardy (Oskar Reiss) was an Austrian violinist born (in Vienna) on April 26,
1920. He had the unenviable distinction
of having died at a very young age. Many
critics (and writers) have said he had a very brilliant career ahead of him –
one to rival Bronislaw Huberman, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Ruggiero
Ricci, Mischa Elman, and other top violinists of that time. I don’t know if Paganini ever played his
Caprices in public or whether, if he did, he ever played all 24 in a single
concert. Renardy did. He may have been the very first to do
it. On January 8, 1938, at his Town Hall
debut in New York, he played Dvorak’s Sonatina, Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnol, and
Pietro Nardini’s e minor concerto (a very popular work at the time – Pinchas
Zukerman has recorded it) in the first half of the program. He then played all 24 Paganini Caprices on
the second half. He was 19 years
old. The following year, he recorded the
Caprices (the version with piano accompaniment), becoming the first violinist
to record all 24 Caprices on a single disc (actually, they were issued on two
discs.) Seven years later, Ricci put out
his first version of all 24 Caprices – without the piano accompaniment – and he
later went on to record the Caprices a total of four times – the last version
in 1988. Renardy re-recorded the
Caprices which again included the piano accompaniment (with a different
accompanist) the year he died. Renardy
studied with a now-forgotten Russian violin teacher, Theodore Pashkus
(1905-1970), but at what age he began is something I don’t know. Pashkus and his wife were successful
pedagogues until about 1970. I don’t
know if they ever taught at a conservatory or university. Their pupils included Yehudi Menuhin and Ivry
Gitlis and their instructional books are still in print. In any case, Renardy is said to have been
entirely self-taught (which is possible but hard to believe) prior to meeting
Pashkus and made sufficient progress to make his first public appearance at age
11. In October of 1933, he joined a
variety show in Merano, Italy. (Merano
is about 120 miles southwest of Salzburg, Austria, or about 250 miles from
Vienna.) It was then that he changed his
name. Another well-known violinist who
changed his name was Mischa Mischakoff – three times. In Merano, Renardy played Paganini’s first
concerto at the Merano Casino and then took off to tour Italy. He was still only 13 years old. After that, he played in his native Vienna
and toured France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Italy. Interestingly, no mention is made in any
source I checked about his having toured Germany or Austria. He left the European mainland for England in
1937. He came to the U.S. the same year. He was 17 years old. First, he embarked on a tour of a few
central states and then made his New York debut, described above, in 1938. As did many other violinists, Renardy played
hundreds of concerts for the U.S. armed services during the Second World War
(1941-1945.) As far as I know, he never
played in an orchestra. In 1947, he
began touring once again, playing with most major orchestras in the U.S., Europe,
and Israel. He was 27 years old. In June of 1948, he recorded the Brahms
concerto with the Royal Concertgebouw and Charles Munch. Although he recorded about 35 works
altogether, he did not record another concerto after this. Here is an audio file of Renardy playing a
very familiar work by Wieniawski. His
Guarnerius violin - the Carrodus Guarnerius del Gesu of 1743 – is now being
played by Richard Tognetti, concertmaster of the Australian Chamber
Orchestra. This violin is not to be
confused with other Guarnerius violins bearing the same or a very similar name. It is said to be one of the best four or five
violins (by any maker) in the world. I
do not know how Renardy acquired the violin (in 1949.) Supposedly, it remained un-played for 54 years
- between December, 1953 and January, 2007.
On December 3, 1953, in the afternoon, Renardy died in an automobile
accident while traveling with his accompanist, George Robert, to give a concert
in Colorado (USA.) He was 33 years
old. George Robert and the Guarnerius survived. Hermilo Novelo (pupil of Louis Persinger and
concertmaster of the National Symphony of Mexico) also died in an automobile
accident and his accompanist (Violina Stoyanova) was with him at the time as
well. His violin survived but went
missing after the accident. Stoyanova
did not survive.
Ida Haendel is a Polish (some would say English) violinist born on December 15, 1928 (Heifetz was 27 years old.) She took up the violin before she turned four and as a seven-year-old was admitted to the Warsaw Conservatory. Her first teacher was Esther Greenbaum. She later studied with Carl Flesch and George Enescu in Paris. In 1937 (age nine), she made her London debut. Her career was interrupted by World War Two but in 1946, having re-started her career, she was the first artist to appear with the Israel Philharmonic. In 1952, at age 24, she moved to Canada and remained there until 1989, when she settled in Miami. Her autobiography, WOMAN WITH VIOLIN, was published in 1970. The portrait on the cover of her autobiography was painted by her father. She famously said "You cannot play with inspiration when the conductor is an imbecile." Since 1946, she has toured extensively and has also recorded most of the standard repertoire on various labels. Some of her performances can be seen on YouTube. With Ruggiero Ricci, Camilla Wicks, Albert Markov, Zvi Zeitlin, Abram Shtern, and Ivry Gitlis, she is one of the few living legends of the violin - violinists of the Heifetz era.
Hilary Hahn is an American violinist and writer born on November 27, 1979 (Perlman was 33 years old.) She began violin lessons at age four. One of her first teachers was Klara Berkovitch (Baltimore), with whom she studied for five years (1984-1989.) At age ten, Hahn entered the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Jascha Brodsky for seven years, learning most of the standard violin repertory - the same 30 concertos that everyone else plays. Hahn also later studied with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir, among others. She began concertizing in 1991 (at age 12) but did not make her Carnegie Hall debut until 1996, by then already an established artist. Her graduation from Curtis came in 1999 though her bachelor of music degree belies the fact that she is one of the best (and most expensive) violinists on the world's classical music scene. Hahn's technique is characterized by extreme precision and an even, clear, lean tone. Her sound has few distinguishing features - it is very similar to that produced by a dozen other great violinists on the current concert stage. Her interpretations are subtle, well-defined, controlled, and cautious, not given to an abundance of emotion or idiosyncrasy. Her approach is similar to Anna-Sophie Mutter's in that there is a decided lack of bravado or go-for-broke risk-taking - the opposite approach as takes Leila Josefowicz or Arabella Steinbacher or Ivry Gitlis. Hahn reminds me of a quote from E.N. Bilbie's book: She has "little to say and so much to say it with." Her discography is already extensive and is easily accessible on the internet. In addition to having her own website (where she posts journal entries on a regular basis), she has a profile page on MySpace. One can also see and hear videos of her playing on YouTube. Unfortunately, not all of those videos are professionally produced.
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.
Ivry Gitlis is a Russian violinist, composer, actor, writer, and teacher born on August 22, 1922 (Heifetz was 21 years old.) He received his first violin at the age of five and gave his first concert at age ten. After graduating from the Paris Conservatory, he studied with Carl Flesch, Georges Enesco and Jacques Thibaud, among others – almost the same teachers under whom Henryk Szeryng studied a few years before him. After the Second World War, he made his European debut at the Royal Albert Hall. In 1951, he made his debut in Paris – which was later to become his main residence - and has since gone on to give concerts all over the world. His first recording, Alban Berg’s violin concerto, won the Grand Prix du Disque (Grand Record Prize) in France. Subsequent recordings, many of which until their recent re-releases had become sought-after collectors’ items, have included the concertos of Paganini, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Stravinsky, Bruch, Sibelius, Wieniawski, and Bartok. Gitlis is also a renowned pedagogue giving master classes all over Europe and beyond, regularly spending summers at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and in France where he has created memorable festivals. In 2001 he was one of the featured commentators in Bruno Monsaingeon’s film, “The Art of the Violin”. Tony Palmer’s 2004 film on Ivry Gitlis was premiered at the Prague Spring Music Festival where it was lauded by the Oscar-winning director Andrea Anderman as "the best artist's profile I have ever seen". And, most recently, he was honored in 2004 as part of the Festival devoted to great violinists of the 20th century, at the Louvre Museum in Paris. Gitlis has lived in Paris since the end of the sixties. His immense impact on the art of violin playing cannot be measured and his unique personality and extraordinary, deeply felt interpretations, many of which can be seen or heard on YouTube are a testament to the great man and artist. The depth of his expressive powers can hardly be exaggerated. You can judge for yourself here and here. He plays the "Swan Song" Stradivarius of 1737 (the year of Stradivari’s death.)
Georges Enesco was a virtuoso Romanian violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born on August 19, 1881 (Brahms was 48 years old.) He is best remembered for his two Romanian Rhapsodies for orchestra (1901-1902), although there are piano versions of these works as well. He composed quite a number of other pieces (symphonies and a lot of chamber music but no violin concertos) which are now seldom performed by anyone. He entered the Vienna Conservatory at age 7 where he studied with Robert Fuchs, among others. In 1895, he traveled to Paris to continue his studies. As a teacher, he is famous for having taught Ivry Gitlis, Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras, Ida Haendel, and Arthur Grumiaux, among many others. His conducting debut came in 1923 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Although he continued to conduct until very late in his life, he retired from playing at age sixty nine, due to physical ailments. In the U.S., he spent a season as conductor of the New York Philharmonic (1936-37), gave innumerable concerts, and taught (in New York) for about five years. He famously said that he was not so much interested in perfection as in emotionally reaching his audience. In 1939, he married a princess, a friend of Queen Marie of Romania. His recording legacy extends to not only conducting, but to recording on the violin and piano. He may very well have been the first to record the complete violin solo works of Bach. That recording was not treated kindly by some critics. In Enesco's case, he had the bad luck to reach his violinistic prime when recording technology was virtually nonexistent and to reach old age just as the recording industry was beginning to make progress (1950). An interesting story about Enesco has been told many times though I'm not certain if it is factual or not. It is said that Enesco once arranged a recital at the Salle Gaveau in Paris, as a favor to a good friend, who was the father of a young violin student who was not terribly gifted and who was not quite ready to play in public. However, nobody bought a ticket to the recital because the young violinist was completely unknown. The young boy's father persuaded Enesco to accompany the student on the piano so that the concert would sell out. Reluctantly, Enesco agreed and the concert was sold out quickly - Enesco was an accomplished pianist, as was Arthur Grumiaux. An excited audience gathered on the night of the concert. From the stage, before the concert began, Enesco asked the audience if someone might not volunteer to come up and turn pages for him. Alfred Cortot, the famous pianist, was in the audience and came up to turn pages for Enesco. The soloist was of a low quality so the following morning the critic of Le Figaro wrote: "There was a strange concert at the Salle Gaveau last night. The man whom we adore when he plays the violin played the piano. Another man whom we adore when he plays the piano turned the pages. But the man who should have turned the pages played the violin." Enesco died on May 4, 1955, at the age of 74.
So, what made the great Heifetz so great and distinct? Everyone knows that there have been other very great virtuosos on the scene – Milstein, Kogan, Oistrakh, Gitlis, Rabin, just to name a very few. But almost universally, Heifetz is recognized as being above and beyond this group. Why? He had a unique style, a unique sound, and prodigious technique for sure, but so do the others. It has been said that his intonation was flawless though it wasn’t. Was it just the seriousness of his playing? My theory is that this intrinsic seriousness was part and parcel of the sound. It was communicated via his tone. Somehow, that sound always told you that something special was happening. Every time I hear someone with a similar tone, I pay attention. I take note. I know there are players out there right now who rival Heifetz’ technique, but that’s as far as they get. They do not have the sound. The secret was in his tone - but, how to describe that sound? If we could say it in words, there would be no need to listen. Still, all in all, my favorite fiddler isn’t Heifetz – it’s Ivry Gitlis.
