Longevity

I have been curious lately about the longevity - life span -  of concert violinists.  It seems most of them age rather well and die in old age.  Some have died young, of course, but, among the ones I surveyed here, half reached 80 years of age or more and the other half at least reached age 72.  I did a random check of twenty violinists born in the Twentieth Century (on this blog) and found the average age at death was 81.  The one lasting the longest died at age 99.  Curiously, among female concert violinists, a great number of them (comparatively) died young.  The ratio is, of course, skewed because, over time, there have been fewer women violinists than men.  Katya Tsukanova died at 17, Ginette Neveu died at 30; Arma Senkrah died at 36; Alma Rose' at 37; Eda Kersey at 40; Jitka Suranska at 40; Edith Volkaert at 42; Alma Moodie at 44; Maud Powell at 52; Ida Levin at 53; Johanna Martzy at 54; and Camilla Urso at age 59.  With time, that disproportion will correct itself since there appear to now be more female concert violinists than male.  Among the men who have died young are: Josef Hassid (26), Gregory Cardi (28), Eitan Silkoff (29), Nico Richter (29), Julian Sitkovetsky (32), Francois Prume (33), Ottokar Novacek (33), Ossy Renardy (33), Dmitri Kogan (38), Noel Pointer (39), Michael Rabin (40), Lucien Martin (42), Ferenc Vecsey (42), Andrei Korsakov (44), Henryk Wieniawski (44), Benjamin Godard (45), Tor Aulin (47), Joseph Ghys (47), Paul Kochanski (47), Carl Rosa (47), Christian Ferras (49), Karl Halir (50), Philippe Hirschhorn (50), Alfred Dubois (50), Chevalier De Saint George (53), Nicolai Berezowsky (53), Lucien Capet (55), Joseph Achron (56), Eddie South (57), Stuff Smith (58), Desmond Bradley (58), Leonid Kogan (58), Nicolo Paganini (58), Julian Olevsky (59), Grigoras Dinicu (59), and Vasa Prihoda (59).  On the other hand, Olga Rudge lived to age 100 and Roman Totenberg to age 101.  

Eugene Fodor and Fate

Eugene Fodor died young, at age sixty, on a Saturday in late February, 2011.  Perhaps he wanted it this way – the end of what was to have been a great life, from beginning to end.  Eugene Fodor was a great violinist who somehow lost control of himself and his career.  You can read about it here among many other places.  With his credentials, he could have gone anywhere and he did, but only for a time.  Many doors were closed on him for reasons which are not completely understandable – was he black-listed, did his agents let him down, did he antagonize conductors or orchestra managers, did composers not want him playing their works, or was he just simply irresponsible and difficult and not able to cope with the pressures of concert life?  Only those close to him know.  Ever so slowly, though his playing remained brilliant, his engagements got less frequent and less sparkling.  Margalit Fox, in her magnificent New York Times obituary, quotes Susan Davis (Fodor’s widow): “Last year, in despair over his career, he stopped playing the violin entirely.  It was too painful for him.  He felt like his career had been ripped from him, and he didn’t have the great venues to play in anymore. and it just crushed him.”  Ripped from him by whom?  Fate?  The same Fate that brought Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Bizet, Van Gogh, Franz Clement, Joseph Hassid, Guila Bustabo, Toscha Seidel, and Michael Rabin down?  Mozart would have to be the prime example of someone whose unimaginable genius and earthly rewards were as far apart as could be, whose economic status did not come even a little close to matching what he gave the world.  His must have been a frustration beyond imagining.  It’s as if Fate says “this far and no farther.”  Did Fodor have enemies?  Why were the big, important orchestras not calling him?  Only those closest to him know the answer.  Fodor had drug and alcohol addiction problems on and off.  Apparently, even close friends and family could not intervene for his benefit.  Should they blame themselves for not doing more?  Why?  There have been other concert violinists with the same problems and they did not just give up.  Their careers did not suffer.  Henryk Szeryng comes to mind – it is common knowledge that he drank quite heavily, even right before concerts.  It is rumored that Nigel Kennedy has had drug problems, too, and he seems to be doing just fine.  Other concert artists have gone into decline, accepted it, and just moved on, playing music festivals far and wide, founding chamber orchestras, taking up conducting, taking up full-time teaching, starting private academies and so on.  (They are too numerous to mention.  It happens, even in the natural course of getting old.)  For some reason, Fodor could not bring himself to do any of those things.  Only those closest to him know why.  According to some sources, he got ill last summer and seemingly, just decided to die. 

Sadistics

Compiling statistics can sometimes be enlightening. Numbers can tell us any number of things.  On this blog however, they are completely irrelevant because the micro biographies are written about violinists which are selected purely arbitrarily.  In any case, here are some numbers you might find interesting.  Oldest living violinist on this blog: Ruggiero Ricci, age 92 (born 7/18/1918) – Raymond Cohen is second (7/27/1919.)  Otto Joachim, Canadian violinist, would have been 100 in October of this year but he died in July, 2010.  Oldest deceased violinist: Arcangelo Corelli (born 1653.)  Youngest violinist is Emmy Storms, age 21.  Violinist with shortest career: Josef Hassid whose career lasted two years, if you count the recordings he made in 1939 as the beginning of his career, otherwise it lasted one year.  Violinist with longest career: Ruggiero Ricci, whose career ran for 70 years.  Violinist whose biography has had the greatest number of views: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (January, 2010); runner up: Albert Markov (November, 2010.)  Biography with the least number of views: Carl Rosa (March, 2009); runner up: Ion Voicu (October, 2009.)  Composer most often referenced: Ludwig Van Beethoven.  Violinist most often mentioned: Jascha Heifetz.  The nationalities with 10 or more representatives are: American (21), Austrian (10), English (20), French (15), German (16), Hungarian (10), Italian (24), Polish (11), and Russian (28.)  Month in which the greatest number of famous violinists were born: August.

Joseph Hassid

Josef Hassid (Michael Jozef Chasyd) was a Polish violinist born on December 28, 1923 (or December 9, 1922) in Koenigsberg, Poland (Heifetz was 22 years old.) He is famous for having had an incredibly short and tragic career (April, 1940 to March, 1941.) It has been said that he only played a total of 5 public concerts. Everyone agrees that he was a phenomenally gifted player - he was greatly admired by Thibaud, Huberman, Szigeti, and Kreisler, among many other musicians. Such was his talent that Kreisler said of him "A Menuhin comes around every 100 years but a Hassid once every 200." He received an honorary diploma at the 1935 Wieniawski competition (Ginette Neveu placed first and David Oistrakh second.) He was only 12 years old but he supposedly did not advance to the second round due to a memory lapse. Prior to Carl Flesch, his teachers were, in chronological order, his father, Alter Gutman, Wilhelm Krysztal, Micczyslaw Michalowitcz, and Irena Dubiska. He began studying with Carl Flesch at age 12. In 1937, while studying with Carl Flesch in Belgium, he fell in love with a young fellow-student, Elizabeth Lockhart. The romance was ended abruptly by the parents when it was discovered that there were religious differences. Hassid and his father moved to England in 1938 where he continued his studies with Flesch. Late in 1939, he made his first recording for EMI in London. It is posted on YouTube. In 1940, he recorded eight more times - he would never get to record again. On April 3, 1940, he played a recital at Wigmore Hall with pieces by Schubert, Corelli, Bach, and Paganini, among others - there were no concertos on the program. The recital was well-received. On April 25, 1940, he played the Tchaikovsky concerto with the London Philharmonic. Gregory Fitelberg was on the podium.  This time, the reviews were rather lukewarm.  He is said to have suffered a memory lapse during the performance. On January 5, 1941, he played the Beethoven concerto with Adrian Boult on the podium.  His next concert was on March 1, 1941, playing the Brahms concerto.  It was reported (in a newspaper review) that the performance was rather uneven. (Violinist Yfrah Neaman, who was present at the concert, reported that Hassid stopped twice during the performance and was actually escorted backstage after the second interruption. The newspapers did not mention that.) His last concert was on March 2, 1941, playing the Brahms concerto again. Louis Cohen was the conductor. Later that year, Hassid experienced a mental breakdown. He was admitted to a hospital on June 19, 1941, treated, and discharged but finally had to be committed to a mental asylum in 1943 due to recurring episodes of erratic behavior. He was 20 years old. He remained institutionalized for about seven years until a lobotomy done in 1950 sealed his fate. The cause of death may have been meningitis. He died on November 7, 1950, at age 26 (or 27.)