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.
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Back in 1989 or 1990, a couple of violinists from the New York Philharmonic (Richard and Fiona Simon) took the IRS to court over some deductions which had been disallowed. That case, which they won in U.S. Tax Court in 1994, firmly established that a violinist is lawfully entitled to depreciate the cost of his instrument (over a number of years), be it a humble Roth, a copy of a Strad, or a Guarnerius, even if the instrument is actually appreciating in value. In any number of metropolitan orchestras around the country, a typical violinist can spend $5 or $10 thousand on a violin. In a major orchestra, the norm is closer to $100,000. In a world class orchestra, perhaps $200,000 violins are not all that rare. (I know five violinists in our own orchestra who own very pricy violins.) Of course, if you’re a concert violinist, you don’t own your violin, you borrow it. But if you can afford to, it would be wise to buy a new, expensive violin every five years or so just to be able to take the allowable depreciation against your earnings. When you hear that so-and-so recently fell in love with a new Guadagnini or a new Stradivarius (or what-have-you) and just had to have it, this might be part of the reason.
Ole Bull (Ole Bornemann Bull) was a Norwegian violinist and composer born on this day (February 5) in 1810 (Beethoven was 40 years old). At the early age of 9, he was a soloist with the Bergen Music Society. He studied briefly with Louis Spohr, although he disliked him. Ole Bull was not one to do things formally or by the book but he became a very successful performer and knew many of the outstanding musicians of his day, some of whom admired him greatly. Perhaps he was a lot like Franz Clement, the violinist who commissioned Beethoven's violin concerto. In 1829, Bull played in Copenhagen and Kassel and in 1831 he travelled to Paris. He was 21 years old. He is said to have killed a man in a duel. He concertized a great deal in England, Ireland, and America, making quite a bit of money. The great fortune he made was badly invested several times but he always recovered by taking up the violin and touring again. His second wife was young enough to be his granddaughter, but the marriage was a happy one. Eugene Ysaye was like Ole Bull in this respect - in his old age, he married a woman 44 years younger than he was. Bull's first concert in America took place on November 25, 1843. He was 33 years old. His first violin seems to have been a 1734 Guarnerius. He later acquired a 1690 Stradivarius and a 1687 Stradivarius which now bears his name. That violin was later played by Paul Kochanski then still later by Iso Briselli. A 1647 Amati and a 1610 Gasparo Bertolotti may have been Ole Bull's last instruments. Bertolotti (aka Da Salo) was one of the earliest known violin makers. It appears Ole Bull went backwards in the age of his violins - the older he got, the older his violins, too. Bull died on August 18, 1880, at age 71. One of his violin concertos can be heard here. It is surely one of the most bombastic works for violin ever written and gives an indication to his performing style.
