Antonio Brosa was a Spanish violinist and teacher born (in La Canonja,
Spain) on June 27, 1894. He is best
known for having premiered Benjamin Britten’s violin concerto. The premiere took place in New York on March
28, 1940 with the New York Philharmonic - John Barbirolli conducted. Brosa was also known for being fluent in 5
languages. It is not unusual at all for
violinists (and conductors) to be fluent in two or three languages but five is
rather unusual. It has been said that
Henryk Szeryng was fluent in seven. According
to one usually-reliable source, Brosa was also the first to record the Britten
concerto – in April, 1952 or September, 1953.
That recording – as far as I know – is not commercially available. The concerto was at first not very successful
but by 2005, there were more than twenty recordings already produced. He began his violin studies with his father
at age 4. At age 10, he made his public
debut in Barcelona. Brosa later studied
in Brussels with Mathieu Crickboom. His
training there must have taken place in the early part of the twentieth
century. He made his debut in London in
1919. He was 25 years old. In 1924 (one source says 1925), Brosa founded
the Brosa String Quartet. The quartet
was disbanded in 1939. His first tour of
the U.S. occurred in 1930. From 1940 to
1942, he was first violinist with the Pro Arte Quartet as well. He later also taught at the Royal College in
London and concertized until his retirement in 1971. Brosa played the 1727 (or 1730) Vesuvius
Stradivarius (now in a Cremona museum) as well as a Giovanni Paolo Maggini
violin from the year 1600 (approximately) which had previously been owned by
Ole Bull. Here is an audio file of a
Brosa recording of the slow movement of the Mendelssohn e minor concerto. Brosa died (in Barcelona) on March 23, 1979,
at age 84.
Jose Luis Garcia (Jose Luis Garcia Asensio) was
a Spanish violinist born (in Madrid) on February 25, 1944. He is best known for being the concertmaster
of the English Chamber Orchestra for about 25 years. Just as the names Ferdinand David, Raymond Gniewek, Glenn Dicterow, Norman Carol, and Richard Burgin unfailingly bring up the names of their respective orchestras (the Gewandhaus, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony, respectively), Garcia's biography is inextricably linked to the history of the ECO. He spent nearly his entire career in England. His first studies were with his father
beginning at age 6. If he studied with
anyone else in Spain, I do not know who that was. In 1960, he received first prize at the
Sarasate competition in Pamplona. He was
16 years old. Thereafter (in 1961) he traveled to
London to study with Antonio Brosa at the Royal College of Music. He appeared in
concert in a Vivaldi concerto (for four violins in B minor) at a Proms concert (in
1963) at age 19 with the BBC Symphony.
Malcolm Sargent was on the podium. Two years later, in 1965, he joined the pit orchestra of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. In 1967, he toured South America with the English Chamber Orchestra (playing Principal Second Violin.) However, by then, he had already (intermittently) played several concerts with the orchestra. In 1968, he was appointed associate concertmaster of the orchestra. He was 24 years old. In 1970, he made his second debut as a
soloist at another Proms concert. On that
occasion, he played Michael Tippett’s Fantasia Concertante (on a theme by
Corelli) with the English Chamber Orchestra, of which, as previously mentioned,
he was then Associate Concertmaster. The
composer was on the podium. By that
time, Garcia was already teaching at the Royal College of Music, where he had
begun teaching at age 22, being the youngest to ever get a teaching appointment at that school. (Garcia taught at the Royal College of Music until 1982 - a total of fifteen or sixteen years.) At age 23, he
led the string section for one of the Beatles’ most famous albums. With the English Chamber Orchestra, Garcia
would also conduct and perform as soloist.
He eventually toured almost every country in the world. Although he recorded as a soloist, he far
more frequently recorded as an orchestral leader with the ECO. His best-known solo recording is probably
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. He also recorded
Mozart’s five concertos and the Bach Double Concerto with the ECO. The recordings are easily found on the internet. It has been said that the English Chamber
Orchestra is the most recorded chamber orchestra in the world, having recorded
more than 1,500 individual works, even though multiple recordings of the same
works (the Mozart piano concertos, for instance) are probably included in that number. (Although the orchestra generates quite a bit
of revenue on its own, the orchestra also has an outstanding Patron - the
Prince of Wales.) Garcia never wavered
from his romantic interpretations of baroque works, unlike other British chamber
ensembles (the English Concert, the Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the
Age of Enlightenment, English Baroque Soloists, etc.) which embraced the period
instrument (authentic performance practice) musical movements beginning in the late
1960s. It is quite interesting that in
1983-1984 Garcia offered his services to the musical establishment in Spain to
conduct master classes free-of-charge (in Spain) but never got a call in response. Later on – between 1992 and 1999 – he taught
at the Queen Sofia School of Music in Madrid and conducted the school’s
orchestra with which he also toured extensively. Garcia studied conducting with Sergiu
Celibidache. Among the orchestras he guest
conducted (outside of England and Spain) are the National Symphony (Washington,
D.C.), the Detroit Symphony, and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. He also guest conducted the Ft Worth (Texas,
USA) Chamber Orchestra many times, beginning with a concert going back to
October of 1977. His last concert with
that orchestra was probably in October of 1992.
As does another famous concertmaster in the U.S. (from the Boston
Symphony), Garcia loved golf. He was
also one of the very few musicians (and possibly the only violinist anywhere)
who owned a Rolls Royce automobile. Garcia played the (Fritz) Hirt Stradivarius from 1704, also known as the Prince (Serge) Obolensky Strad and now known as the Hirt-Garcia Strad. Among
the many other violins he played was a modern violin constructed by American
luthier Terry Borman. (Among the many players
who also play Borman violins are Pinchas Zukerman, Jaime Laredo, Pamela Frank,
and Joseph Silverstein.) The Strad is presently owned by a private collector but is on loan to American violinist Esther Yoo. If there are
any videos of Garcia's myriad solo concerts out there, they have not yet been uploaded to
YouTube. Garcia died on August 11, 2011,
at age 67. (Photo is courtesy of the English Chamber Orchestra)
