Heimo Haitto was a Finnish violinist, teacher, conductor, writer, and
actor born (in Viipuri, Finland) on May 22, 1925. He is Finland’s most famous violinist, although
he is now (unjustly) forgotten. Haitto was a
notorious, unconventional classical musician, in the style of Nicolo Paganini,
Arthur Hartman, Elias Breeskin, and Eugene Fodor. He was a gambler and loved drinking, although
it has been said he was not an alcoholic.
He deliberately turned his concertizing career off a couple of
times. For a time, he actually lived the
life of a vagabond, being literally homeless, traveling by train, in boxcars. However, notwithstanding all of the turmoil,
idiosyncrasies, romantic excesses, and bohemian lifestyle, he was a brilliant
violinist and a genuine artist. I think it can be said he had an extraordinary zest for life. YouTube
now contains some of his performances. As
Pinchas Zukerman has done, Haitto married a cellist (Beverly LeBeck, pupil of
Pablo Casals) and, later on, an actress (Marja-Liisa Nisula.) He married a third time in the mid 1970s. Haitto’s playing style reminds me somewhat of
Ivry Gitlis. Haitto wrote his memoirs in
the early 1970s (Heimo Haitto Maailmalla - published in 1976) but I don’t think there’s an English translation available. He also published a book on his violin playing experiences in 1994 - Viuluniakka Kulkurina. Although his father worked for the railroad,
he was also a violinist and gave Haitto his first lessons, beginning at age
5. At age 9, Haitto’s father took him to
the Vyborg Music Academy and left him entirely in the care of professor Boris
Sirpo (1893-1967.) (Vyborg and Viipuri
are one and the same city.) Under
Sirpo’s tough and rigid supervision, Haitto practiced almost constantly. At age 13, Haitto made his public debut in
Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic and Sirpo on the podium. He also appeared in his first
movie – Soldier’s Bride – playing the part of a boy violinist. In that same year he won an international
violin competition sponsored by the British Council of Music in London and soon after briefly toured the Scandinavian
countries. In that year also, due to the
Russian-Finnish war, Sirpo brought Haitto to the U.S. to tour on behalf of the
Red Cross. In fact, Haitto's Guarnerius had been destroyed in an air raid. By then, Haitto had already been studying
rigorously under Sirpo’s very strict tutelage for five years. According to some sources, Haitto was not
allowed to have contact with his family during those years. Arriving in the U.S. in February of 1940, Haitto appeared with the
Philadelphia Orchestra in April of that year, playing the Paganini D major concerto. That was
his U.S. debut. He also soloed with many
other American orchestras. He played in
Carnegie Hall under John Barbirolli as well.
Eventually, accompanied by Sirpo, he settled in Portland, Oregon in
1942. Most European artists arriving in
the U.S in those years chose to begin their American careers from home bases in
New York, Philadelphia, Boston, or even Chicago, but not Haitto. In 1943, Haitto was released by his strict
teacher and set out on his own. He then settled
in Los Angeles. There, he played in the
Los Angeles Philharmonic (September/1952 to May/1954) and in Hollywood studio orchestras but appeared far
and wide as a soloist as well. He was 18
years old. He also appeared in another
movie: There is Magic in Music. That's the same movie that violinist Patricia Travers appeared in as a very young teenager. One
source says he enlisted in the military but another says he was not accepted
because he was foreign-born. In actuality, he desired to be a parachutist in the Marine Corps but his enlistment was declined, even though he had a letter of recommendation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Instead, he was made a part of the Army Special Services. That's how he ended up in New York. Among the group that was in that Special Services Unit with Haitto were Ruggiero Ricci, Red Skelton, Mickey Rooney, and Eddie Fisher. In New York, he studied privately with Ivan Galamian, famous teacher at Juilliard. Haitto and Isaac Stern became friends there during this time - Stern was studying with Louis Persinger. With five other violinists, Haitto performed Paganini's 24 Caprices, each Caprice being alternately played by each violinist until all five played together at the end. Later, in Los Angeles, Haitto became friends with Jascha Heifetz and was a guest at Heifetz' house many times. Haitto had married Beverly LeBeck in New York in the spring of 1945. He
was 20 years old. His
new wife later (like him) became a cellist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic - 1949-1950 and, again, 1954-1955. Evidently, they did not play in the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the same time. Brilliant as he was, Haitto was dismissed
from the orchestra due to excessive absences and other problems. It has been reported that he loved to go to
Las Vegas and gambled heavily. During
the 1950s, he concertized and became the conductor of an orchestra in Salem,
Oregon. Haitto and Beverly moved to Seattle after Beverly left the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He eventually became the concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony and also conducted a youth orchestra at the Cornish School of Arts in Seattle. The third photo (circa 1955) shows Beverly and Haitto in the kitchen of the home of a close friend in Seattle. The photo is courtesy of Mr Ed Vainio, now a resident of Montana (USA), in whose parents' home the photo was taken. Haitto visited Finland in 1948 and again in 1956. He moved to Mexico City and
lived there (with Beverly LeBeck) between 1960 and 1962, serving as
concertmaster of an orchestra, but I don’t know which orchestra. At the time, there were four professional
orchestras in the city. In 1962, Beverly LeBeck began playing in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (New York.) Haitto spent the years between 1963 and 1965 in Finland. After divorcing
LeBeck, he married Marja-Liisa Nisula (the actress) in 1964 but divorced her 2
years later. From 1965 to about 1976, he
was a vagabond (in the U.S.) and even spent some time in jail.
In 1976, Haitto returned to Finland permanently and began to practice again. He was 51 years old. He also remarried (Eva Vastari this time) in that year and, six months later, he was ready to play again. Vastari had been a journalist. In childhood he had played a Guarnerius violin but in adulthood I don’t know what he played. He actually built two (red) violins which he used for performances and recordings. Those violins now hang in Haitto's favorite restaurant in Helsinki - Tin Tin Tango. Vastari and Haitto
formed a duo. She read poetry and he
played. He also did some teaching and
lecturing at the Lahti Conservatory and other schools. They finally settled in
Marbella, Spain. The photo shows him
playing dominoes there. Haitto fell ill
in 1995 and died on June 10, 1999, at age 74.
Haitto made several commercial recordings which are still available, though they
are not easy to find; however, his recording of the Sibelius concerto (along with Six Humoresques which Sibelius wrote as Opus 87 and Opus 89) can be found here. Finlandia Classics has also released Haitto's recording of the Paganini concerto (number 1) and the Vieuxtemps concerto (number 4) - that release can be found here. He also recorded for Finnish National Radio (YLE) broadcasts - those recordings might not be available. You can hear his
unique style of playing here and here. Most of Heimo Haitto's video and audio files can be found on this Channel - it is Tuomas Haitto's YouTube channel - Tuomas Haitto is Heimo Haitto's nephew.
Bronisław Huberman was a Polish violinist, teacher, and writer born on December 19, 1882 (Brahms was 49 years old.) He is best known for founding the Israel Philharmonic and for his individualistic style of playing. He is also the only concert violinist who had the same violin stolen from him twice – the 1713 Gibson Stradivarius – in 1919 and again in 1936. As Jacques Thibaud before him, he had to spend a year rebuilding his technique after a plane crash (in 1937.) (Thibaud’s hand injuries were suffered while he served in the armed forces in the First World War. His later plane crash in 1953 was fatal.) He also married an actress, just as Pinchas Zukerman did much later – not the same actress, of course. (Jascha Heifetz and Ivry Gitlis also married actresses.) He also advocated a United Europe, but mostly in his writings and lectures (though he did confer with some high-ranking political leaders.). Later, he had a public disagreement with a German conductor over his refusal to play in Germany after 1932. Violin pedagogue Carl Flesch had an intense dislike for him, though I don’t know why. It may have been because he simply didn't like his style of playing. Huberman was known in his time for being nervous, intense, and having strong convictions about everything. Those qualitites were probably reflected in his playing as well. Huberman first studied with Mieczyslaw Michalowicz and Maurycy Rosen from the Warsaw Conservatory and with Isidor Lotto in Paris (the study with Lotto may have been in Warsaw as well.) He played a Spohr concerto in public at age 7. From age ten, 1892 until about 1896, he studied with Joseph Joachim in Berlin, although his lessons with Joachim were sporadic – Joachim was absent from Berlin quite often. Huberman later said that another teacher – Charles Gregorovitch (student of Wieniawski) - had taught him everything he (Huberman) knew. However, he also studied with Joachim’s assistant (Karl Markees), Hugo Heermann in Frankfurt, and Martin Marsick in Paris. By the time he was 12, he had already toured Holland and Belgium. When he played in London a little later on, he was not as successful as he had been elsewhere. Back in Germany, despite his growing reputation, there were few concerts to play and money became very scarce. He had become the sole provider for his family and things began to take a desperate turn. It has been stated that during this time (1894), in Paris, Count Andrzej Zamoyski presented the Gibson Stradivarius violin to him. (This particular Count Zamoyski was the son of Count Stanislaw Kostka Andrzej Zamoyski – there are several Counts from this family named Andrzej. Other sources have him receiving the violin from either Count Jan Florian Zamoyski, Count Maurycy Klemens Zamoyski, or the Austrian Emperor in that same year - 1894. However, a respected violin site - Cozio - has him acquiring the violin in 1911, not 1894. According to the Huberman Archives in Tel Aviv, Huberman himself bought the violin in 1911. Obviously, these discrepancies need to be reconciled and I am therefore pursuing a solution to this seemingly simple riddle.) In that year also, Adelina Patti, a singer who was well-known back then, invited Huberman to play with her on her farewell tour coming up in 1895. Though he only played at her last concert (January 22, 1895), things went well for Huberman and his family after that - the concert was a huge and critical success for them. He was still only 12 years old. The following January (1896) turned out to be a memorable one, too. Everyone agreed that he was brilliant and unencumbered in his interpretations. At one of his concerts in Vienna (January 29, 1896), he played the Brahms concerto. Brahms was present (among other great musicians), sitting in the balcony, and was incredibly impressed. The critics called him a genius. After 1896, he had no need for further lessons. In November of that year, he toured the U.S., making his debut at Carnegie Hall (New York) with the Mendelssohn concerto on November 21. He was 13 years old. It would be 25 years before he would return (1921). His playing was often described as very original, authoritative, and impetuous, but his tone was said to be somewhat un-beautiful, lacking finesse, sweetness, and warmth. In Europe, he had performed for royalty – including the Austrian Emperor - in the U.S., he played for wealthy patrons. In 1897 and 1898 he toured Russia. After that tour, he took three years off to rest and practice some more – perhaps also to help care for his sick father (who died in 1902.) Though he disliked recording, he did some of that in 1900. He later recorded (among other things, for Columbia Records) the Tchaikovsky concerto (1928-1929), becoming, according to some sources, the first violinist to do so. He toured Italy in 1903 and even played a recital on Paganini’s Cannone Guarnerius – a replica of which luthier Daniel Houck has constructed for me. Up to that time, only Camillo Sivori (Paganini’s pupil) had played the famous violin – Ruggiero Ricci, Eugene Fodor, Salvatore Accardo, Regina Carter, Dmitri Berlinsky, In Mo Yang, Maxim Vengerov, Gerard Poulet, and Leonid Kogan have also played the Cannone since then. He continued to tour extensively and very successfully – including South America - for the rest of his life. After 1932 he did not play in Germany. In 1937, he left Vienna for Switzerland. A year after the airplane accident (1937), he returned to the stage with a concert in Egypt. In 1939, he moved to New York but returned to Switzerland after the end of the Second World War. YouTube has many sound recordings of his on its site. Here is a sample of one of them. Huberman died on June 16, 1947 at age 64. It has been suggested that he died in his sleep. Joshua Bell now plays the twice-stolen Gibson Strad.
S-Z: Julia Sakharova, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Emanuel Salvador, Emile Sauret, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Pieter Schoeman, Julius Schulman, Erik Schumann, Robin Scott, Lynnette Seah, Toscha Seidel, Berl Senofsky, Gil Shaham, Hagai Shaham, Sayaka Shoji, Oscar Shumsky, Calvin Sieb, Joseph Silverstein, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Baiba Skride, Alexander Skwortsow, Felix Slatkin, Joel Smirnoff, Tamara Smirnova, Robert Soetens, Livia Sohn, Denise Soriano, Evgeny Sorkin, Josef Spacek, Nils-Erik Sparf, Vladimir Spivakov, Daniel Stabrawa, Simon Standage, Steven Staryk, Eva Stegeman, Arabella Steinbacher, Mark Steinberg, Oliver Steiner, Arnold Steinhardt, Isaac Stern, Malcolm Stewart, Lara St John, Petar Stojanovic, Emmy Storms, Josef Suk, Harold Sumberg, Akiko Suwanai, Christian Svarfvar, Joseph Swensen, Vilmos Szabadi, Antal Szalai, Henryk Szeryng, Joseph Szigeti, Kyoko Takezawa, Gerhard Taschner, David Taylor, Christian Tetzlaff, Jeff Thayer, Jacques Thibaud, Anna Tifu, Richard Tognetti, Ertan Torgul, Roman Totenberg, Caitlin Tully, Eleonora Turovsky, Uto Ughi, Eugene Ugorski, Elena Urioste, Elina Vahala, Mary VanOsdale, Adrian Varela, Tibor Varga, Sandor Vegh, Alexander Velinson, Maxim Vengerov, Zino Vinnikov, Kai Vogler, Ion Voicu, Edith Volckaert, Olena Vrublevska, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Reiko Watanabe, Camilla Wicks, Wanda Wilkomirska, Jasper Wood, Eric Wyrick, Toru Yasunaga, David Yonan, Eugene Ysaye, Thomas Zehetmair, Wang Zhijiong, Isaak Zhuk, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Yulia Ziskel, Nicolaj Znaider, Pinchas Zukerman, Jaap van Zweden.
Pinchas Zukerman is an Israeli violinist, conductor, and teacher born on July 16, 1948 (Heifetz was 47 years old.) In addition to currently leading the National Arts Centre Orchestra (since April, 1998) and the Zukerman Chamber Players (since 2003), he still concertizes regularly as a soloist. Both of his ensembles are based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. While Zukerman is a gifted player with a phenomenal technique and large, impressive sound, he is not a brilliant or even effortlessly virtuosic violinist. One can sense the charisma, but there is very little sparkle or charm in his performances. While still a young boy, Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals helped him come to the U.S. from Israel and Zukerman subsequently studied (from 1962) at Juilliard (New York) with Ivan Galamian, made his New York debut in 1963, and later on won first prizes at various competitions, in the style of many contemporary violinists (and other classical musicians.) In 1980 (at age 32), he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (Minnesota) and stayed for 7 or 8 years. From 1988 to 1998, Zukerman had no orchestra to call his own but guest conducted many different ensembles. He still continues to guest conduct around the world. Zukerman has been married to Eugenia Zukerman (flautist – 1968-1985), Tuesday Weld (actress – 1985-1998), and Amanda Forsyth (cellist - 2004), in that order. His discography is very extensive (over 100 recordings) and YouTube has many videos featuring him. One of his most favored videos is of the Halvorsen violin-viola arrangement of the Handel Passacaglia. On that video, he is joined by violinist Itzhak Perlman. He currently also teaches at the Manhattan School of Music. His usual performing violin is the Dushkin Guarnerius del Gesu (1742.)
