Shlomo Mintz is a Russian violinist, violist, teacher, and conductor born on October 30, 1957 (Heifetz was 56 years old.) (Mintz was born on the same day as Leonidas Kavakos, although ten years earlier.) He is known for a career which encompasses a very wide range of activities – solo appearances, teaching, chamber music, recording, recitals, judging, philanthropic sponsorships, and conducting. He began his violin studies in Israel with the famous and beautiful Hungarian violinist Ilona Feher at age two. He studied with her until 1973. At age 11 (April 23, 1969), he made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic playing Mendelssohn's concerto (Uri Segal conducting.) Soon afterwards, as Itzhak Perlman fell ill, he substituted for him (again with the Israel Philharmonic), playing the first concerto of Paganini. Many concert musicians have launched their careers in exactly this same fashion. He made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of sixteen with the Pittsburgh Symphony playing the Bruch g minor concerto. He then began his studies with Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard although his career was already well on its way. In 1997, he played Paganini’s famous Cannone violin (Guarneri del Gesu, 1742) - a replica of which I will soon have in my hands (thanks to luthier Daniel Houck) - during a concert in Maastricht (the Netherlands) with the Limburg Symphony. From the age of eighteen, Shlomo Mintz added the role of conductor to his artistic life and has since conducted many orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Philharmonic (England), the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Japan), the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic. On April 6, 1992, Mintz made his New York conducting debut, conducting the Israel Chamber Orchestra on that occasion. In March 1994 he was named Principal Guest Conductor of the Maastricht Symphony Orchestra (The Netherlands). In 2008 Mintz was named Principal Guest Conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic. Shlomo Mintz gives master classes worldwide and has been a member of the jury of several international violin competitions. His discography does not include the Tchaikovsky concerto nor the concertos of Bach or Paganini. Otherwise, it is fairly extensive. It has been reported that Mintz has recorded all of Vivaldi’s violin concertos in a single collection but I seriously doubt that – Vivaldi wrote about 230 violin concertos. I would have to see the collection to believe it. There are many videos of his on YouTube. As far as I know, Mintz still plays a Guarneri del Gesu (1700) and a Carlo Testore viola built in 1696.
The New Russian Quartet is the resident string quartet of the Moscow Conservatory. Established in January, 2008, it is already one of the world's best string quartets. Its members are also all graduates of the Conservatory. It is more or less the equivalent of the Juilliard Quartet in the U.S. Julia Igonina is the quartet's first violinist, Elena Kharitonova plays second violin, Alexander Galkovsky is the violist, and Alexey Steblev is the cellist. Except for Julia Igonina, who is actually a brilliant concert violinist, they are all seasoned chamber music players. As their website indicates, the name of the ensemble implies that the musicians remain faithful to the Russian performing tradition as they also explore uncharted areas in chamber music. Their core repertoire consists of the standard literature by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Bartok and all the rest but they also perform contemporary works composed specifically for them. They have collaborated with such outstanding artists as Jessie Norman, Vladimir Spivakov, Alexander Rudin, Yuri Bashmet, and Shlomo Mintz (playing viola.) The New Russian Quartet frequently performs in Russia’s best concert venues and participates in music festivals throughout Europe and Asia. As far as I know, they have not yet toured the U.S. The members of the quartet perform on Italian instruments from the Russian State's collection. They also have many superlative videos on YouTube.
Ilona Feher was a Hungarian violinist and teacher born on December 1, 1901 (Heifetz was born the same year.) She is remembered as a teacher rather than as a violinist. Many biographical writings mention her striking beauty. She studied with Jeno Hubay at the Franz Liszt Academy (Budapest) and began concertizing at an early age, until the Second World War interrupted her career. For a number of years after the end of the war, she played exclusively in Eastern Europe. In 1949, she moved to Israel, where she lived and taught for the rest of her life - nonetheless, she gave master classes all over the world as well. Shlomo Mintz is among her well-known pupils. I do not know if she ever did any recording - commercial or live. I'm estimating that Feher died on January 1, 1988, at age 87.
Leonidas Kavakos is a Greek violinist born on October 30, 1967 (Perlman was 31 years old.) Kavakos is well known for his performances of the works of Nicolo Paganini. He began studying violin at age five and continued his studies at the Greek National Conservatory with Stelios Kafantaris. Later on, a scholarship enabled him to attend master classes with Joseph Gingold at Indiana University. He made his debut in Athens in 1984. In 1985, he won the International Sibelius Competition in Helsinki, where he was the youngest contestant. He also took a first prize at the Paganini violin competition in 1988. By then, he had made his U.S. debut (1986.) Since then, he has been concertizing all over the world and regularly plays in, organizes, and conducts at major festivals. In addition to the standard repertoire, which is part of his extensive discography, he has recorded both versions (on one CD) of the Sibelius violin concerto (on the BIS label.) His technique is second to none - YouTube has many videos of him. As far as I know, he still plays the Falmouth Stradivarius (1692.)
