Daniel Kurganov

Daniel Kurganov (Daniel Alexandrovich Kurganov) is an American violinist, violist, pedagogue, musicologist, producer, and entrepreneur, born (in Minsk, Belarus, in the former USSR) on November 29, 1986.  (Minsk is a city located about 100 miles southeast of Vilnius, Lithuania – the birthplace of Jascha Heifetz – and 450 miles southwest of Moscow.)  He is well known for (almost certainly) being the only concert violinist in history to have begun his violin studies after the age of 12.  He is also very well known for (indisputably) having the most comprehensive violin tutorial YouTube Channel, which addresses every conceivable issue having to do with technique and interpretation – bowing, shifting, legato, vibrato, articulation, scales, phrasing, intonation, etc..  Kurganov has over 47,000 subscribers on YouTube and his channel is still growing.  On other social media, he has a strong presence as well.  As if that weren’t enough, he delves into related subjects which are fascinating for professionals and non-professionals alike.  One of his popular videos features him playing the da Vinci Stradivarius violin previously owned by Toscha Seidel, which was recently sold for more than 15 million dollars.  In fact, Kurganov began his YouTube channel posting (from his collection) old 78 RPM recordings by Seidel.  His teaching and recording projects have been highlighted in The Strad, the most respected classical music periodical in the world.  He maintains a private teaching studio in the Boston (USA) area but also teaches virtually via Zoom.  He can spend anywhere between 10 seconds (!!!) and more than an hour assessing a prospective student.  His family had moved from Minsk to the Chicago area when he was still a child and he further relocated from Chicago to Boston in 2011.  Besides being a violinist (and violist), he has something else in common with Nicolo Paganini – he began his instrumental studies with piano and guitar.  Kurganov switched to violin at age 16.  His first teacher was Alla Danichkina in Chicago.  Up to that point, Danichkina had been Kurganov’s piano teacher but she happened to also be a violinist so the transition was uninterrupted.  Having overcome prodigious obstacles, he made his professional violin debut not in a concert hall but in a Russian restaurant in the Chicago area, playing violin duos with his violin teacher in 2003 at the age of 17 – many concert artists are half way through their solo careers by that age.  This brings us to another special coincidence: Josef Gingold, Albert Sammons, Alfredo Campoli, Joseph Roisman, Manuel Quiroga, Jacques Thibaud, Theodore Thomas, Vasa Prihoda, Geza Legocky, and Louis Krasner also played in hotels, restaurants, and nightclubs prior to establishing their classical careers. (That is a little-known fact.)  Among his other teachers is Rudolf Koelman (in Switzerland), protégé of Jascha Heifetz.  Although Kurganov is widely respected for his achievements and artistry, he has also faced professional bias due to his late start.  (The world of classical violin is extremely competitive but a quick look at one of his videos – or his CDs - will quickly dissuade anyone from that biased point of view.)  Quite interestingly, it was only his colleagues who tried to persuade him to give up (since he was starting so late); his teachers never advised him to drop out.  Kurganov has concertized in the U.S, Europe, and the Far East.  He also plays duo recitals with pianist Constantine Finehouse as well as in a piano trio.  Although he will spontaneously alter a phrase in the midst of a live performance, in the tradition of Szigeti and Heifetz, Kurganov is a rigorous and meticulous violinist.  In that regard, he might be considered to be the opposite of violinists like Ivry Gitlis, Gilles Apap, and Sergei Stadler, whose approach is rather impetuous, giving the impression that their performances could become unhinged at any moment.  Kurganov’s repertoire includes many technically demanding contemporary works but he has said that contemporary composers need to not “make the violin seem overqualified for the job.”  Reviews of his performances speak for themselves.  Outside of the violin and pedagogic world, Kurganov’s other interests include chess (which almost 100% of concert violinists play) and photography - as a photographer, he is still entertaining the idea of having a solo exhibition.  Kurganov has also designed a shoulder rest which may soon reach the market.  As we all know, history has a way of repeating itself - after one unique concert in Switzerland, Kurganov was paid in gold (after playing for nobility, Mozart used to be paid with jewels or snuff boxes, Elias Breeskin received a valuable ring, and Bronislaw Huberman received a violin as payment.)  Kurganov has played and had access to priceless violins throughout his career (violins by old masters like Stradivari and Guarneri) but his current violin is a modern violin by Andrew Ryan.  He has stated that three artists with whom he would like to spend time conversing are J.S. Bach, Glenn Gould, and Daniil Shafran (an interesting choice.)

 

Vladimir Cosma

Vladimir Cosma is a Romanian violinist, composer, and conductor born (in Bucharest) on April 13, 1940.  He is one of several musicians who began their careers as violinists and digressed to other (musical) endeavors.  In France, he is well-known as a prolific film composer although he is a composer of classical (concert) works as well.  Perhaps he can be compared to Victor Young, American violinist-composer.  There is scant information about Cosma’s career as a violinist other than that he began his violin studies while still quite young and he graduated from the Bucharest Conservatory of Music and then moved on to the Paris Conservatory in 1963.  In Paris, he also studied with Nadia Boulanger, the famous French teacher.  Up until about 1968 (between 1964 and 1967 approximately), he played in orchestras and toured as a concert violinist.  After that, he focused on composition and (necessarily) on conducting.  He credits a meeting with French composer Michel Legrand with his entry into the world of soundtrack composing.  He was 28 years old by then.  It has been said that one of his grandmothers (I don’t know which one) studied with the famous piano player, Ferruccio Busoni.  According to one (usually-reliable) source, Cosma is the composer of more than 300 scores for films and television programs.  Another source puts the number at 150.  He has conducted a number of orchestras outside of the recording studios though mostly in France.  The French government has bestowed several honors on him as he is considered a national artistic treasure.  Several of his scores have also been awarded the French equivalent of an Academy Award.  As you can see from the photo, Cosma has never entirely given up the violin.  Whether he has or has ever had any pupils is something I do not know.  He is on record saying that melody is the most important thing in a composition.  In an interview, Cosma was quoted as follows: “In a few centuries, we shall see what will come of the serial experiments and of these [atonal] composers.  I think that all this decadence of the Viennese romantic music is an end and not a beginning as, for such a long time, Boulez and the promoters of new music wanted to make us believe.” Here is a YouTube audio file of one of his film works featuring the Berlin Philharmonic - I don't think I need to identify the violin soloist because you will immediately recognize it is the inimitable Ivry Gitlis.  

Isabelle Faust

Isabelle Faust is a German violinist and teacher born (in Esslingen, Germany – near Stuttgart) on March 19, 1972.  Faust is a supremely gifted artist known for her thorough involvement in both, the early music and contemporary styles of playing, possessed of a markedly identifiable sound who nevertheless maintains an unorthodox view of marketing – she just plays and lets the chips fall where they may.  As one writer puts it, she has an admirable and “refreshingly devil-may-care” attitude.  I do not usually exercise the privilege of writing subjectively on this blog but there are exceptions.  To quote further, Faust delights in “the pure process of producing what I think the composer wants to hear.”  She began her violin studies at age five.  By age 11, she was playing second violin in a string quartet she helped organize.  She kept playing in this quartet until age 15.  She had up to then been studying with Christoph Poppen.  During the summer she would study with Denes Zsigmondy, a Hungarian pedagogue who helped her navigate the (Bela) Bartok violin sonatas.  However, she gives most of the credit for her training to Poppen, with whom she studied between 1988 and 1994 at the Advanced School for Music in Detmold (Germany) (Musikhochschule Detmold.)  Detmold is located about 120 miles north of Frankfurt.   None other than Johannes Brahms spent time working there.  As do also many other modern concert violinists, Faust plays contemporary music – music which I consider sub-standard and (for the most part) intensely dislike - as often as she can. Many contemporary composers have written works for her or dedicated works to her – I won’t bother to list them since I don’t care for their work.  Faust’s technique is truly fabulous and not over-stated – her considerable technical prowess is not worn on her sleeve, so to speak. What intrigues me is her sound.  It has been written that rather than “merely mastering her instrument and its repertoire, experiencing and deeply exploring music [is what] lies at the heart of her work.”  The New York Times wrote that "her sound has passion, grit and electricity but also a disarming warmth and sweetness that can unveil the music’s hidden strains of lyricism."  Faust won the Leopold Mozart violin competition (Augsburg, Austria) in 1987 (at age 15) and the Paganini competition (Genoa, Italy) in 1993.  I have heard that the winner of the Paganini competition has the right to play a recital on Paganini’s famed Cannone Guarnerius violin but there is no mention of her doing that.  The Dvorak concerto was one of the first major concertos she recorded (2003.)  Her recording of the Beethoven concerto was released in 2007.  Faust has also recorded the violin sonatas of Bartok, Beethoven, Szymanowski, Janacek, and Bach.  She performs extensively at chamber music festivals around the world and, of course, has worked with almost all of the major orchestras and conductors.  She made her U.S. debut in 1995 with the Utah Symphony.  She was 23 years old.  Her first appearance with the New York Philharmonic did not take place until March 20, 2013 - she played both Bach concertos on that occasion.  Her current violin is the Sleeping Beauty Stradivarius of 1704.  As far as I could ascertain, before Faust obtained it, this Stradivarius had never been played by a concert violinist.  In fact, it is one of very few Stradivarius violins with its original neck intact.  Supposedly, it lay dormant in a bank vault, in its original violin case, for decades, and was named Sleeping Beauty for that very reason.  The original label reads 1720 or 1729 but violin "experts" have decided that the year of construction is closer to 1704.  Claude Lebet  - an obscure luthier - found it in 1991.  Faust has also played a JB Guadagnini of 1761.  She is shown here playing the Beethoven Triple Concerto with two of her colleagues and the Orchestra of the 18^th Century (the Netherlands.)  It is a magnificent live performance from 2010.  This early music orchestra (founded in 1981) is very rare in that it does not audition its members.  Its conductor is Frans Bruggen.  If you prefer hearing a much shorter piece, she splendidly plays the Bach g minor concerto in this YouTube audio file.  

Jascha Heifetz quote

"I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons: First, to discourage the composer from writing any more and, secondly, to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven." - Jascha Heifetz, violinist  

I'm pretty sure Heifetz said this half-jestingly. The serious half is what bothers me, although I might have said this myself.  

Alan Gilbert

Alan Gilbert is an American violinist, conductor, and teacher, born (in New York) on February 23, 1967.  Although trained as a violinist from an early age, he pursued a conducting career while still very young – Daniel Barenboim did essentially the same thing.  His conducting pursuits took such a serious turn that the highest post he attained as a violinist was assistant concertmaster of the Santa Fe Opera Company (New Mexico) in 1993.  He was 26 years old.  Gilbert is much better known as the recently appointed conductor of the New York Philharmonic.  He joins Peter Oundjian, Neville Marriner, Jaap Van Zweden, Jean-Pascal Tortelier, David Zinman, Lorin Maazel, Eugene Ormandy, Pierre Monteux, Jacques Singer, Charles Munch, and Theodore Thomas, in a group of violinists who essentially almost entirely left the violin for the podium.  There is another group of contemporary violinists who also conduct but who continue to concertize assiduously – Jaime Laredo, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Salvatore Accardo, Joseph Silverstein, Joshua Bell, and Leonidas Kavakos are in this group.  Do violinists or pianists make better conductors?  I would not know.  According to at least one source, Gilbert made his violin debut with the New York Philharmonic in October of 2011.  The piece he chose was Bach’s two-violin concerto.  The same piece was chosen by Alma Rose' for her debut in 1926.  Gilbert has an affinity for modern music, music which is, for the most part, unintelligible, as far as I’m concerned.  Though Gilbert has already programmed a number of world premieres, it is doubtful that he will ever match Theodore Thomas’ record of 112 world premieres with the Chicago Symphony.  In any case, Gilbert’s premieres would be music which almost nobody wants to listen to a second time.  Thomas, by the way, conducted the New York Philharmonic for four years way back in 1887.  Gilbert began his violin studies as a child.  It was not difficult since his mother, his father, and his grandfather were (are) all professional violinists.  He later enrolled at Harvard University, the New England Conservatory of Music, the Curtis Institute, and Juilliard.  Beginning in 1994, Gilbert won a number of conducting prizes which helped further his conducting career.  Gilbert was assistant conductor with the Cleveland Orchestra from 1995 to 1997.  In January of 2000, he became conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he held until 2008.  From 2003 to 2006, he served as Music Director of the Santa Fe Opera.  He has also been Principal Guest Conductor of the NDR Symphony (Hamburg, Germany) since 2004.  In September of 2009, he began his tenure as Chief Conductor of the New York Philharmonic, although his appointment came in July of 2007.  He was 42 years old.  In September of 2011, he was appointed Director of Conducting and Orchestral studies at Juilliard.  As for his violin, I guess it is safely put away, though not forgotten.  I happened to hear the performance of the Bach double violin concerto and was impressed with Gilbert’s style as well as his technical accomplishments as a violin player.  Gilbert’s website features him as a conductor and chamber musician and there are several videos of performances on YouTube – one such is here with the Sibelius concerto.