Arkadi Futer (Arkadi Naumovitch Futer) was a
Russian violinist and teacher born (in Moscow) on September 6, 1932. He is known for his impressive recording of
Wieniawski’s first violin concerto in F sharp minor, but he is also known for
having spent a large part of his career in Spain. For some time, he was concertmaster of
Vladimir Spivakov’s Moscow Virtuosi, which was founded in 1979. I do not know if he was the initial
concertmaster – he probably was. The
Moscow Virtuosi later resided in Spain for nine years (1990-1999.) When the Moscow Virtuosi left Spain, Futer
stayed behind. He then became
concertmaster of the Oviedo Symphony Orchestra.
He was 67 years old. (Oviedo is
the small capital city of the principality of Asturias, located in northern Spain,
next to the Bay of Biscay.) Prior to his
association with the Moscow Virtuosi, Futer was concertmaster of the Moscow Philharmonic,
the Moscow Radio Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Film Industry of the
USSR. He was also a member of at least
two string quartets. Futer began his
studies at age 7 in Kiev, in the years of 1939 or 1940, I don’t know which. His first teacher was Nina Dulova. In 1943, he returned to Moscow with his
family. He was 11 years old. He entered the Tchaikovsky Conservatory at
age 18. Yuri Yankelevitch was one of his
teachers. He later graduated from the
conservatory with top honors. He was
named Artist of the Russian Republic in 1998.
Futer died (in Gijon, Asturias, Spain) on September 5, 2011, at (almost)
age 79. His granddaughter, Vera Futer,
is now a professor at the University of Oviedo.
Here is an audio file of Futer’s Wieniawski recording.
Vladimir Spivakov (Vladimir Teodorovich Spivakov) is a Russian violinist, conductor, and teacher born on September 12, 1944 (Heifetz was 43 years old.) He is best known as the Director of the Moscow Virtuosi, a Russian chamber orchestra. However, he was also the conductor of the Russian National Orchestra (1999-2002 – this is a privately-owned orchestra founded by pianist Mikhail Pletnev.) and has guest-conducted numerous orchestras outside of Russia, including the Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, the Houston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the London Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He first formally studied at Moscow’s Central School of Music, under Lubov Siegal. After that, he continued his studies with Veniamin Sher at the music school of the Leningrad Conservatory (1956-1960), and with Yuri Yankelevich at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating in 1967. It is not common knowledge that he also studied with David Oistrakh. By age 13, he had already won first prize in a conducting competition in Moscow. Conducting he studied with Israel Gusman in Russia and later on with Leonard Bernstein and Lorin Maazel in the U.S. For a while, he used Bernstein’s baton to conduct all his concerts - the baton was a 1984 gift from Bernstein. He might still be using it. While still in school (in Russia) and after graduation, Spivakov won prizes in several competitions, including the Thibaud in Paris (1965), Paganini in Genoa (1967), the Montreal (1969), and the Tchaikovsky in Moscow (second place after Gidon Kremer, 1970.) By 1970, he was an established concertizing violinist in Russia and Europe. He first played in New York (USA) in 1975 (in recital) and 1976 (two recitals in Carnegie Hall.) He toured with the Moscow State Orchestra in 1977. In that same year, he made his debut with the London Symphony. On January 11, 1979, Spivakov made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in New York, playing Haydn’s first violin concerto; however, he had already played with the Philharmonic in Leningrad, Russia (on September 8, 1976 with Leinsdorf conducting.) Henceforth, Spivakov visited the U.S. regularly and played with the orchestras of Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and San Francisco, among others, under various well-known conductors. In the summer of 1979 he made his U.S. debut as a conductor with the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois (about 20 miles North of Chicago.) In that same year, he founded the Moscow Virtuosi, with which he has until now appeared both as violinist and conductor all over the world. The Moscow Virtuosi was originally made up of Russia's international prize winners but did not enjoy official recognition – and public funding that goes with it – until 1983. In 1989 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Colmar International Festival in France, which has become one of Europe's leading music festivals, though I had not heard of it until now. He then (1989) emigrated to Spain where he remained for a few years and where the Moscow Virtuosi had been granted (by someone in the aristocracy) a five-year residency in Madrid. It is stated in some sources that he also taught at the Madrid Conservatory though I doubt he spent much time there. Spivakov is also known as a humanitarian and social figure. In May 1994 (some sources say 1993) he established the Vladimir Spivakov International Charitable Foundation to support young talented musicians, painters, and dancers, and to help orphans in Russia, providing medical care for critically ill children and wheelchairs for disabled young people. He has worked on behalf of victims of the Stalin regime (1933-1953) and children who suffered from the nuclear power plant accident in Chernobyl. He has received some of the highest honors available to civilian Russian citizens. He is also the founder of the European Sakharov Foundation. Vladimir Spivakov has made more than 40 recordings of a variety of works for the BMG/RCA Red Seal label and there are several videos of his playing on YouTube. Also for RCA Red Seal, he has recorded the violin concertos of Brahms, Prokofiev, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky. In 2003, at the suggestion of then Russian President Vladimir Putin, Spivakov formed the National Philharmonic of Russia of which he is now Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. Just as William Primrose has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, Spivakov had, on September 12, 1994, a real star named after him by the Russian International Observatory. I don’t know where that star is located. His teacher (Yankelevich) bequeathed to him a Francesco Gobetti violin (1716) which Spivakov used until 1997. After 1997, Spivakov has used a Stradivarius violin (1712) provided for life by his friends.
