Jacques Israelievitch

Jacques Israelievitch is a French violinist and teacher born on May 6, 1948. He is one of Canada's leading chamber music players and was the first to record all of Kreutzer’s 42 Etudes, a recording which has won abundant praise. Israelievitch graduated from the Le Mans Conservatory at age 11, the youngest graduate ever. Later on, his teachers were Henryk Szeryng and Josef Gingold, among others. He has been a concertmaster with the Chicago Symphony, the St Louis Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony (1988-2008.) He is currently on the faculty of the University of Toronto, but has also taught at Indiana University.

Ani Kavafian

Ani Kavafian is an Armenian violinist and teacher born on May 10, 1948. She first came to the U.S. from Turkey in 1956. She began violin lessons at age 9. Among her teachers were Mischa Mischakoff and Ivan Galamian (Juilliard). Her Carnegie Hall debut took place in 1969. In 1973, she debuted in Paris. Since 1979, she has been much involved in chamber music performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (New York). She has also served as concertmaster with the Seattle Symphony and is currently the New Haven Symphony’s concertmaster (Connecticut.) Kavafian has taught at the Manhattan School of Music, the Mannes School of Music, and the Sarasota Music Festival but (commercial) solo recordings are very, very few. Her sister Ida Kavafian, with whom she frequently performs, is also a well-known musician.

Wolfgang Schneiderhan

Wolfgang Schneiderhan (Wolfgang Eduard Schneiderhan) was an Austrian violinist and teacher born on May 28, 1915 (Heifetz was 14 years old.) He began his violin studies with his mother at age 3. Four years later, he began studies first with Otakar Sevcik then Julius Winkler. By age 11, he had made his public debut with the Mendelssohn Concerto (the one in e minor) in Denmark. While still very young, he lived and worked in England for a while (1929 to 1932). He returned to Vienna to serve as concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony (1933 to 1937) and then concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic (1937 to 1951.) He also continued to concertize and record as a soloist. From 1948, Schneiderhan was also heavily involved in chamber music performance (before it had become the popular thing for soloists to do), having formed a quartet in that year. He is remembered for his recordings of the Beethoven Sonatas (with Wlihelm Kempff as accompanist-1952), all of Mozart’s concertos for violin, and the Beethoven violin concerto. He held teaching posts in various parts of Europe, but mainly Vienna. Schneiderhan had a much older brother (Walter) who was a very well-known violinist in Austria. Wolfgang Schneiderhan died in Vienna in May of 2002, almost 87 years old.

Giovanni Viotti

Giovanni Battista Viotti was an Italian violinist, composer, and conductor born on May 23 (or May 12) 1755 (one year before Mozart was born.) He took lessons from Gaetano Pugnani (pupil of Giovanni Somis) and later even toured with him until he made his Paris debut in 1782, where he was an immediate success. In fact, by all accounts, Viotti was the most brilliant violinist the public had ever heard until Paganini came along.  Partly due to the French Revolution, he moved to London in 1792, where he enjoyed acclaim, playing for royalty and directing various musical enterprises. He played many concerts alongside Johann Peter Salomon, another highly acclaimed violinist and impresario in London at the time.  Unfortunately, Viotti was forced to leave England after France and England became engaged in hostilities. He then retired from playing to run some kind of wine business which ultimately did not do very well. From 1819 to 1821, he ran the Royal Academy of Music in Paris. His pupils included Rode and Baillot who were instrumental in establishing a French school of violin playing, whatever that means.  It has been said that Viotti was very particular about who would be admitted into his violin class but never charged his students for lessons.  Viotti wrote 29 violin concertos, now seldom played. Nevertheless, Viotti's violin concerto number 22 in A minor was very much admired by Brahms. It has even been said that Joachim admired this Viotti concerto more than the Mendelssohn or Brahms concertos.  Viotti also wrote chamber music and a few songs plus a violin study book which remained unpublished until Habeneck incorporated a portion of it in his own method book many years later.  A famous (and beautiful) Stradivarius violin from 1709 is named after him. Viotti died (in London) on March 3, 1824, at age 68 (about three years before Beethoven.)

Henri Vieuxtemps

Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps (Henri Vieuxtemps) was a Belgian violinist, composer, and teacher born on February 17, 1820 (Beethoven was about 49 years old). He first studied with his father and gave his first concert at age 6. When soon afterward he started touring, he met the famous De Beriot in Brussels and began taking lessons from him. He travelled to Paris in 1829 to continue studying with De Beriot. In 1830, back in Brussels, he studied on his own. In 1833, he toured Germany and was praised by Louis Spohr and Robert Schumann. When Vieuxtemps debuted in London in 1834, Paganini himself attended the concert. Having established himself in Paris, he continued to tour extensively but also began composing seriously (at which he was very successful) in 1835. Between 1846 and 1851, he made Russia his home and in fact founded the violin school at the St Petersburg Conservatory, later made famous by Leopold Auer. By 1871, he was back in Brussels teaching at the Conservatory. Eugene Ysaye was one of his pupils there. His compositions include seven violin concertos (number 5 being the most frequently played), two cello concertos and some chamber music. All of his violin concertos have been recorded and are presently available. Vieuxtemps died in June of 1881, at age 61. 

Vegh

Sandor Vegh was a Hungarian violinist and conductor born on May 17, 1912 (Heifetz was 11 years old.) He made his reputation as one of the great chamber music players of the twentieth century. He began studying the piano at the age of six and by age 12 entered the Budapest Conservatory where he studied violin with Jeno Hubay and composition with Zoltan Kodaly. Although he graduated in 1930, he had started his solo career in 1927. Not much later, he joined the Hungarian Trio and by 1934, had founded the Hungarian String Quartet. In 1940, he left the quartet to found his own – the Vegh String Quartet, which was active until the early 1970s. Vegh had been a professor at the Franz Lizst Academy since 1940 but left when his quartet left Hungary in 1946 to work in other European cities. Vegh also taught at the Basle Conservatory (and other music schools, including the Mozarteum) from 1953 to 1997. From 1962, he worked closely with Pablo Casals and his popular festivals. I imagine he made quite a number of recordings, though I’ve never heard any. Vegh died in January, 1997.

My Heifetz Theory

So, what made the great Heifetz so great and distinct? Everyone knows that there have been other very great virtuosos on the scene – Milstein, Kogan, Oistrakh, Gitlis, Rabin, just to name a very few. But almost universally, Heifetz is recognized as being above and beyond this group. Why? He had a unique style, a unique sound, and prodigious technique for sure, but so do the others. It has been said that his intonation was flawless though it wasn’t. Was it just the seriousness of his playing? My theory is that this intrinsic seriousness was part and parcel of the sound. It was communicated via his tone. Somehow, that sound always told you that something special was happening. Every time I hear someone with a similar tone, I pay attention. I take note. I know there are players out there right now who rival Heifetz’ technique, but that’s as far as they get. They do not have the sound. The secret was in his tone - but, how to describe that sound? If we could say it in words, there would be no need to listen. Still, all in all, my favorite fiddler isn’t Heifetz – it’s Ivry Gitlis.