David Grimal is a French violinist, conductor, and teacher born on
February 9, 1973. He is best known as
the Artistic Director (and Conductor) of the French group Les Dissonances. Ironically, Les Dissonances plays without a
conductor and performs challenging repertoire (such as the Rite of Spring)
which no other conductor-less orchestra would dare. Grimal leads from the first chair. Regarding Les Dissonances, Grimal has stated: “We work together in the sense of community of
mind, a gathering of very strong positive energy and joy.” Regarding the violin itself, he has said:
“What interests me is the invisible - that something which makes the dancer
take flight and causes his gesture to be eternal.” The
Dissonances musicians are from different parts of France and Europe – from various
other ensembles – almost none are permanent members. The orchestra plays in many different cities
and venues. Understandably, Grimal frequently
plays the violin concerto repertoire with this orchestra. When he does, he never actually conducts, as
all other conductor/violinists do - he just lets the orchestra play by itself
(and it is fully capable of doing so.) His
style of playing, although virtuosic and brilliant, is relaxed, unassuming, and
unpretentious. His repertoire includes
the Schumann concerto, which is now gaining in popularity. Grimal began lessons at age five but I do not
know the name of his first teacher.
First teachers are usually not famous pedagogues or even famous
violinists – sometimes they are immediate family members. At the Paris Conservatory Grimal won first
prizes in violin and chamber music at age 20 (1993.) He later studied with the enigmatic Philippe
Hirschhorn, most likely in the Netherlands, where Hirschhorn was then teaching. He also briefly studied with other violinists
after he graduated. In 1996, he received
the European Culture Prize. He was 23
years old. Needless to say, he has
played in most of the world’s great halls with high-profile conductors and
orchestras. However, other than live
recordings, his discography (on various labels) is not extensive. Nonetheless, the few studio (commercial) recordings
he has done have received national and international awards and
recognition. A great many composers have
written works for him. In 2004 Grimal
founded Les Dissonances. In 2008, he
became artist in residence at the Dijon Opera.
(Dijon is about 200 miles southeast of Paris and is the birthplace of
Rameau.) Grimal has taught at the
Advanced School of Music in Saarbrucken (Germany) for some time although I
don’t know how long he has been there.
(Saarbrucken is about 180 miles north of Dijon and 200 miles east of
Paris. It is very close to the French
border with Germany.) Additionally, he
plays at many music festivals around Europe and has frequently held
masterclasses wherever he performs. His
violin is the Roederer Stradivarius from 1710, previously owned by Turkish
violinist Ayla Erduran. He also plays a
modern violin made for him by French luthier Jacques Fustier. You can listen to the finale from Brahms’
Third Symphony here. Here is Grimal
playing Mozart’s fifth concerto – first movement.
Renaud
Capucon is a French violinist born (in Chambery) on January 27, 1976. He was discovered by conductor Claudio Abbado,
who was instrumental in encouraging his career, just as Arturo Toscanini
discovered Vasa Prihoda, Thomas Beecham discovered Albert Sammons, and Edouard
Colonne discovered Jacques Thibaud.
Capucon began studying the violin at age 4 at the music conservatory in
Chambery. He studied, between ages 12
and 19, with American violinist Veda Reynolds (in Europe.) At 14, he entered the National Conservatory
of Music and Dance in Paris from which he graduated at age 17. His main teacher there was Gerard Poulet. One of his other teachers was Thomas Brandis
(in Berlin.) Capucon briefly played in
the European Union Youth Orchestra and then was invited by Claudio Abbado to
serve as concertmaster (1998-2000) of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra (which
Abbado founded and conducted regularly.)
Capucon simultaneously began playing as a soloist and chamber musician and
quickly rose to stardom. He first soloed
with the Berlin Philharmonic on November 15, 2002, playing the Korngold
Concerto. He was 26 years old. His career has taken him around the world and
he has already performed with all of the major orchestras and played as soloist
or in recital in the best-known concert halls.
The only exception is the New York Philharmonic, with which I could not find
any record of an appearance. I cannot
guess as to the reason, but it does happen now and then – an instance of a
major artist who has never appeared with one or another of the major orchestras
or this or that major conductor. Although
he has over 20 CDs in his discography, his most important recording – as far as
I am concerned - is probably his recording of the Schumann concerto, a gem
which was unknown and un-played for many decades thanks to Joseph Joachim’s
negative opinion of it. Here is a
YouTube video of his performance of this concerto with the Chamber Orchestra of
Europe. As do most of today’s
violinists, Capucon plays lots of chamber music in recital and at quite a few
music festivals far and wide, including the Verbier, Lucerne, San Sebastian, Edinburgh,
and Tanglewood. Capucon has recorded for
the DG, Decca, EMI, TDK, and Virgin Classics labels. On May 25, 2009, Capucon was filmed playing
in the midst of metro commuters in Paris (line 6 of the metro but I don’t know
which station), unrecognized and unacknowledged by the passing crowd. Joshua Bell did a similar thing on January
12, 2007 in Washington D.C. with similar results. This reminds me of the doctor’s mother (or
father) who used the van Gogh portrait of their son (Dr. Felix Rey) to plug a
hole in their chicken coup. They had no
clue the painting was (or would later be) valuable. After
the piece was sold and discovered (20 years later), it was eventually brought
to a museum where it was appraised at several millions. Location can, and frequently does, make all
the difference in the world. Among Capucon’s
violins have been a Vuillaume, a Guadagnini, and the 1737 Panette Guarnerius,
previously owned by Isaac Stern.
Andrew Sords is an
American violinist and teacher born (in Newark, Delaware) on June 4, 1985. As do violinists Hilary Hahn and Joshua Bell,
Sords writes a blog to keep his wide audience informed about things related to
his career; he also writes about his unique view of many other things as
well. I will say that his website is
worth visiting for the blog alone although you will see so much more. His repertoire includes two of my favorite
and (unfortunately) seldom-played concertos – Bruch’s second concerto in d
minor and the Schumann concerto. In
fact, I think the time will come when every concert violinist will take on both
of these neglected concertos and perform them as regularly as the Brahms and
Tchaikovsky. Incidentally, the Schumann
concerto was in danger of never surfacing thanks to a low opinion of it given
to Clara Schumann (Robert Schumann’s widow) by none other than Joseph
Joachim. Sords has a very active solo
concert and chamber music career which has taken him all over the globe. He has given concerts with over 100 (different)
orchestras, including the well-known major ones, and played the most important
venues in every continent. That may well
be a record for any violinist but even those numbers, of course, will continue
to increase. Sords began to study violin
privately at about age 6. His first
teacher was Liza Grossman. However, his
first instrumental studies were actually on piano, which he still plays. He thus joins a number of concert violinists who have been quite proficient as pianists - Fritz Kreisler, Louis Persinger, Jascha Heifetz, Arthur Grumiaux, Andor Toth, Arabella Steinbacher, and Julia Fischer just to name a few. Sords later studied at the Cleveland Institute
of Music and Southern Methodist University.
His main teachers were Linda Cerone (pupil of Ivan Galamian), David
Russell, and Chee-Yun (Kim Chee Yun – pupil of Dorothy DeLay.) As do violinists Maxim Vengerov and Tai
Murray, Sords enjoys and has a deep appreciation for dancing and has even
participated in the famous “Dancing With The Stars” show for a charity benefit. He was the first classical artist to do
so. That may seem unusual but French
violinist Jean-Marie LeClair was actually a professional dancer, choreographer,
and violinist in the early 1700s. Sords
is also unique in that he plays a modern violin constructed in 1912 by Belgian
violin maker Augustine Talisse, a violin maker I had never heard of until
now. Albert Markov, Tai Murray,
Christian Tetzlaff, Giora Schmidt, Judith Ingolfsson, Pip Clarke, Ilya Kaler,
and Alina Pogostkina are among the growing number of concert violinists who are
gravitating to modern instruments which, as you may know from reading this
blog, I also favor. Sords’ performances
are typically characterized by music critics as being “utterly radiant.” You can see his Facebook page here. His most recent audio release is the New Age
music CD with composer Sean Christopher.
Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer born on June 28, 1831 (Mendelssohn was 22 years old.) Because he was associated with so many important musicians (and pupils) during his lifetime, he is still regarded as one of the most influential violinists of all time. One of his early teachers was Stanislaus Serwaczynski, concertmaster of the opera orchestra in Pest, who also taught Henri Wieniawski. At age 8, he began studies at the Vienna Conservatory where he studied with Joseph Bohm, among others. After studying in Leipzig for a while, he made his London debut with the Beethoven violin concerto in 1844 (at age 13) which concert Mendelssohn conducted. Returning to Leipzig, he became assistant concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra - Ferdinand David was concertmaster. He was most likely playing in the orchestra when David premiered the Mendelssohn concerto on March 13, 1845. In 1848, he left Leipzig to join Franz Lizst in his new music endeavors (and his Weimar orchestra), serving as concertmaster. In 1852 (at age 21), he left Weimar (and Liszt’s New German School ideals) to work in Hanover (as concertmaster of the Hanover Court Orchestra), rejoining the old guard, which included Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Brahms. Fourteen years later, in 1866, Joachim moved to Berlin, where he founded the Royal Academy of Music and, in 1869, the Joachim String Quartet. He left the Hanover orchestra (at age 35) over a dispute concerning another player, Jacob Grun. On January 1, 1879, he premiered the Brahms concerto in Leipzig, with the composer conducting. On the same program was the Beethoven concerto. On January 13, 1883, he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, again playing the Beethoven concerto. He was 51 years old. One source states that Joachim made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic on March 17, 1899. That is probably quite incorrect because Joachim would have been 67 years old by then. Brahms himself related how, after Joachim played his concerto in Vienna on January 14, 1879, the audience applauded right after Joachim finished the cadenza. The same thing happened years later (1896) when Bronislaw Huberman played it in Vienna - Brahms was again present at that performance. It was probably a coincidence. In 1903 (at age 72), he became one of the first violinists to record. Joachim composed a number of works (including 3 violin concertos) which today remain obscure. His best known work is probably the Hungarian concerto in d minor. Though he inspired at least two concertos in the standard violin repertory – the Dvorak and the Schumann – he never played them in public. Thanks partly to his criticism of the work, the Schumann concerto (written in 1853) was not premiered until 1937. A number of cadenzas which he composed for several violin concertos are still in use. Joachim died on August 15, 1907, at age 76. Heifetz was about six years old. Among Joachim's many pupils is Max Pilzer.
