Virtual violin museum. Arthur ShtilmanFamous and great violin virtuosos of the 20th century Famous violinists
Black Violin, Lindsey Stirling, David Garrett, Damien Escobar, Vanessa May, Alexander Rybak and other violinists popularizing the classical violin
Is the violin only for the Philharmonic? But no! Today we will tell you about 10 violinists, in whose hands this classic instrument becomes a tool for creating the most fashionable music in the world in the styles of R&B, funk, hip-hop, dubstep, Brit-rock, and acoustic fusion. If you hear a violinist who does not play classical music, then in the American style it is called crossover violin. You can be smart and don’t say thank you! Better yet, read and listen!
Black Violin– Q Marcus and Kevin Sylvester from the USA did not want to become violinists as children, however, life constantly led them to music class. That's how they met at Dillard High School of Performing Arts, and later their common instrument teacher helped create Black Violin. The group got its name in honor of the latest album by jazz violinist Staff Smith, who had a great influence on the guys. Black Violin plays many styles, but they are called hip-hoppers due to the offset rhythms and beats in the tracks. In 2004, the group entered the Billboard hit parade by recording a track with Alicia Kiss. They also collaborated with Linkin Park, Kanye West, Tom Petty, Lupe Fiasco, Aerosmith and played at one of the inauguration balls of US President Barack Obama.
American violinist Lindsey Stirling Since childhood, I wanted to dance as much as music. All her life she has been proving to the world that sweeping batmans do not interfere with playing the violin. Judge for yourself. The violinist, who performs classical and R&B, also works in the genres of EDM and dubstep, and constantly participates in the talent shows America’s Got Talent and Dance Showdown. Lindsey Stirling found real fame on YouTube, where in 2012 the Crystallize video took 8th place in terms of views, and in 2013, a cover of Radioactive, jointly with Pentatonix, won the Answer of the Year nomination at the first YouTube Music Awards ceremony.
German David Garrett perhaps the most famous Western non-classical male violinist in Ukraine. His priorities are the synthesis of classical works with jazz, rock and folk compositions. The musician was born in Germany, as a child he had a lot of fame in Europe as a promising classical performer, but he moved to the USA and entered Juilliard School. There he began creating his own arrangements, replaying famous rock compositions and performing with his own band.
Garrett also played on the same stage with opera singers Jonas Kaufman and Andrea Bocelli, Deep Purple guitarist Steve Maurice and American R&B singer Nicole Scherzinger. From 2007 to 2017 he recorded 13 studio albums. Happens often in Kyiv! Do not miss!
Damien Escobar from the USA he first took up the violin at the age of 8, and at 10 he was already accepted into the prestigious art school Juilliard School. During Barack Obama's first inauguration, Escobar shared the stage with Jon Bon Jovi, Shakira and Beyoncé.
His second solo disc Boundless within 24 hours hit the top ten of the Billboard Classical Crossover Charts and the first lines of the R&B/Soul section in iTunes. Today the musician creates tracks at the intersection of classical, R&B, hip-hop and pop music. This style is called crossover violin. Some time ago, the performer presented his new program in Kyiv.
Vanessa Mae- a violinist from Great Britain, who is famous not only for stage success, but also for high-profile Olympic scandals, since from 2002 to 2014 she tried to perform in Salt Lake City under the flag of the Thai team and even performed in alpine skiing disciplines at the Olympics in Sochi, but was disqualified for falsifying the results.
Studied at the Royal College of Music. In the mid-1990s, her second studio album, The violin player, climbed the charts in more than 20 countries, and she was nominated for a BRIT Award for Best British Act, but did not receive it. For my musical career she recorded a dozen and a half studio albums and released many singles in the “violin techno-acoustic fusion” style.
Edwin Marton, although he lives in Hungary, originally from Ukraine (Transcarpathian region), this violinist and composer studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, an Emmy Award winner, after winning national competition, the Hungarian government entrusted him with playing the 1697 Stradivarius violin. He wrote a lot of music for figure skaters' programs and performed at Eurovision in 2008 together with Dima Bilan and Evgeni Plushenko.
Israeli violinist Miri Ben-Ari lives in the USA. You could hear her violin, for example, in the album Intense by Armin Van Buuren. The artist has been nominated for a Grammy more than once, including for creating her own unique style at the intersection of jazz, R&B, hip-hop and classical music.
Lebanese Ara Malikyan lives in Spain. The area of his creative experiments is the combination of folk music with classical forms. For example flamenco and Bach.
A Norwegian violinist and singer of Belarusian origin Alexandra Rybak, whom many know from his participation in Eurovision, has many more milestones in his career. For example, he received an educational scholarship as a talented violinist, at a fairly young age he already played in the Norwegian musical by M. Harket, the vocalist of the group A-ha, performed with an orchestra and the song Fairytale in front of the laureates Nobel Prize, and at Eurovision he broke all records for points scored (387, instead of the previous record 292).
In Eurovision 2018 he took 15th place with the song “That’s How You Write A Song”.
Career of a Ukrainian violinist Denis Boeva, like many performers, began at 4 years old. He graduated from the Cherkassy Music College, the Kyiv Conservatory. P.I. Tchaikovsky, studied at the Nuremberg Conservatory, toured the USA with an ensemble of Ukrainian folk music. Rock began playing in the band The Brothers Karamazov. Today his violin sounds in the tracks of Valery Meladze, VIA group GRA, Ivan Dorn, and many other pop artists. He records music for the Inter TV channel, takes part in STB projects, and appears in videos for pop artists and films.
Denis Boev's solo program consists of covers in the styles of rock, folk rock, funk, pop, as well as works by modern Ukrainian composers. He sees one of his stage tasks as collaboration with modern Ukrainian composers, whose works do not belong to the style of pop music. For his next concert on May 29, you can buy tickets at all ticket offices in Kyiv.
Review: Daria Litvinova
Leader - Stradivarius?
The most famous violins are not only the most expensive or the best sounding. The rating of instruments also includes violins, which have become famous due to their unique design.
Is it worth asking the question, what are the most famous violins that sing in the hands of modern performers? Surely there will be only one answer - Stradivarius violins. As a last resort, they will be able to remember about Amati’s tools. Is it really?
Top 5 from the end
If we list the top violins, then 5-6th place is occupied not by works of ancient masters, but by modern instruments - electric violins made for the talented musician Stoppprd Linzi, who ordered them. The violins have a special sound and... a unique design, which explains the price - 2.2 million dollars. Each instrument contains 50,000 Swarovski crystals!
The next place in the ranking is occupied by the violin played by Niccolò Paganini himself. It came out from the hands of Guarneri del Gesù, an Italian master, in 1742. It was on this violin that Paganini performed his legendary concert, during which all his strings broke. For a long time they thought that this was just a beautiful legend. But it turned out that the violin exists! And a private buyer, who did not want publicity, purchased it for his collection for $5 million.
The Guarneri violin, created in 1741, takes an honorable third place. Currently, experts value this unique instrument at $7 million. But its owner, a Russian entrepreneur, once bought it for half the price.
Second place went to Stradivarius violins, one of which was sold for $9.8 million. The great master gave a name to all his children - that’s what he called the instruments - and his dearest daughter is called Lady Blunt. This instrument was made, one might even say performed, in 1721.
And in first place in the ranking is again the Guarneri violin - Vietan. It was brought to light by the brilliant violinist Niccolo Paganini. It is considered the most valuable not only in monetary terms, but also in sound. The price of the instrument is 18 million dollars. It is owned by the Belgian Eugene Ysaye.
Although Stradivarius violins take second place in the ratings, most modern performers prefer them. The instruments have a completely unique sound, and each Stradivarius violin can be identified by its voice. In total, the master made more than 1,100 instruments. Less than half have survived to this day.
Remembering the most famous violin makers and the most famous violins, one cannot help but recall the instruments made by the Russian serf master Ivan Andreevich Batov. Once upon a time, Nicollo Paganini’s rival, Karel Lipiński, played Batov’s instrument.
Batov restored many of the Stradivarius violins, which are now heard in the hands of Russian performers. Rumor has it that one of these instruments is ranked ninth in the world violin rankings. Its cost is 1.2 million dollars.
But you can still see that the majority of famous violins are violins of Italian masters. And it is very pleasant that among the wonderful instruments there are those that passed through the hands of a Russian restorer.
Music accompanies a person throughout his life and plays a vital role in this very life. It has been scientifically proven that, in addition to aesthetic pleasure, listening to classical compositions promotes the regeneration of brain cells, although previously it was believed that they were not restored. In addition, as a result of numerous experiments, it was possible to find out that music affects the structure of water, so it is not at all surprising that it lifts the mood and helps cope with depression. Especially it concerns classical music, played on the violin. Today we’ll talk about the people with whose help we can hear musical masterpieces - about violinists who bring music to the masses with their creativity. Who are they - the best violinists in the world?
10 Itzhak Perlman
Best violinist by number of awards
This truly brilliant musician, conductor and teacher was born in Israel in the first post-war year into a family of Jewish migrants who had left the Ukrainian city of Ternopil. I fell in love with the sound of the violin after hearing a concert of symphonic music. He received his education first in Tel Aviv, then at the famous Juilliard School (USA). Took lessons from Dorothy DeLay and Ivan Galamyan.
Itzhak Perlman is a talented violinist, awarded many awards, in particular, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a high award for his great contribution to the development of American music; he is a 5-time Grammy Award winner.
9
American Hilary Khan was included in the list of the best violinists in the world because she can rightfully be considered the most hardworking musician. Throughout her life (the girl was born in 1979), she performed more than 8 hundred concerts, the first of which was at the age of 10! Khan was twice awarded the Grammy Award, she performs in 30 countries around the world, and in each of them the performances of the talented violinist gather an army of thousands of fans. It should be noted that throughout her entire career, the girl has never changed her violin - from her first performance to this day she has been playing an instrument custom-made by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume.
8
Leader in the number of concerts in various parts of the world
The talented musician was born in the Netherlands in 1978 and made her debut with the Scottish Youth Orchestra, playing a Brahms concerto. Janine is the recipient of many high awards in the world of music, in particular, she was awarded a personal award from the Ministry of Culture of the Netherlands, the Edison Prize and the honorary ECHO-Classic Prize, the BBC Radio Prize as an artist of the new generation. The violinist performs compositions by most of the world's brilliant composers; she is distinguished by her light, emphatically delicate and restrained manner of playing.
7
Best classical music performer in Russia
Our compatriot Victoria Mullova was also included in the list of the best violinists in the world. The woman was born in 1959, graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, and studied with the famous Leonid Kogan. In 1980, as part of the Soviet delegation, she was sent to Finland for the Sibelius International Violin Competition. Having won it, the girl, together with her lover, crossed the border between Finland and Sweden by train, spent a day in a hotel, and then asked for asylum in the United States. Only in this way could an aspiring musician break through the Iron Curtain and announce his talent to the world.
Victoria now lives in the UK and tours with concerts around the globe. Known for her original interpretations of compositions by Miles, Bach and Ellington.
6
Record holder for number of concerts
American violinist, born in 1980 in Philadelphia, where her parents moved from Korea. She studied at the Juilliard School, took lessons from the representative of our ranking, Itzhak Perlman, and other talented teachers. The girl gave her first concert at the age of 9, and then the world saw her first album musical compositions in her performance. The winner of honorary music awards gives at least 150 concerts a year. Using simple mathematical calculations, it can be determined that every 2 days a girl goes on the big stage and delights the audience with her talent.
5
Musician of tragic fate
Next on our list is one of the best violinists in the world, whose biography could be the basis for a dramatic film. A famous Austrian musician and composer of the 19th century, he wrote truly masterpieces and was famous for his special, easily recognizable style of playing. Born in 1875, in 1887 he received his first high prize and confidently declared his talent. Throughout his life, Kreisler wrote unique music. Just before his death, he had an accident and, as a result of his injuries, lost his hearing and lost the ability to hear what he devoted himself to.
4
A violinist with a mysterious fate
Not just talented - a brilliant violinist, whose music cannot be copied or repeated. History has preserved testimonies of eyewitnesses present at the concerts of the great Master. They claimed that during Niccolo's performance they saw a demonic shadow behind him and felt extraordinary lightness. Despite his less-than-ideal appearance (many call the composer ugly), he was incredibly popular among the fair sex. After Paganini’s death, he was accused of heresy; the musician’s body was buried only 65 years after his death.
3
The best musician of our time
The top three best violinists in the world are opened by a Greek musician, winner of the prestigious Leonie Sonning Music Prize 2017. Born in Athens in 1967, he graduated from the Athens and Greek Conservatories, and studied at Indiana University (teacher Joseph Gingold). Now Leonidas is working on a solo album and dreams of performing all the works of the best composers in the history of mankind.
2
One of the most outstanding violinists of all times. He was born in Genoa. His father, noticing that his son had musical abilities, decided to make him a musician. At the age of six he was apprenticed to Giacomo Costa. Already at the age of eight, Paganini composed his first sonata, and at nine he took part in a concert in Genoa. At the age of thirteen, his father took him on a concert tour through the cities of Northern Italy, where he acquired many fans. Having reached the age of sixteen, Niccolo leaves for Pisa, where enormous success awaits him. During his lifetime, his name was covered in legends. What was striking about him was his appearance, his manners, and his examples of acting. But everything paled before the electrifying effect of the sounds of his violin on the audience. His playing shocked and bewitched listeners. But vigorous concert activity coupled with frantic dedication on the stage completely destroyed his body. He loses his voice and is seriously ill. In 1834, his last concerts took place in Turin. He died in Nice. The artist bequeathed his instrument to Genoa. Since 1954 violin competitions are held there, and the winner gets the right to play Paganini’s violin. Many Russian performers have received this honor.
Violinists - virtuosos
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
An outstanding composer, violinist, conductor and teacher.
He was born in Venice in the family of the violinist of the Chapel of St. Mark's Cathedral - Giovanni Baptista Vivaldi. His first teacher in playing the violin was his father, then he apprenticed with the musician Legrenzi.
He soon became famous as a virtuoso, and therefore in 1703 he was invited as a teacher at the Pietà Women's Conservatory. Some time later he became the conductor of the orchestra, and from 1713 its director.
In 1718 - 1722, Vivaldi served at the Mantuan court, and then made a long concert tour through various European countries, surprising listeners everywhere with his virtuoso playing. Last years He spent his life in Vienna, where he died in 1741.
The musician, famous during his lifetime, was quickly forgotten. His music was remembered only in the 20th century, when it received new and very wide recognition. Characteristics His music is characterized by the brightness of musical themes, lyricism, and variety of violin technique.
His remarkable works have enormous worldwide fame.
David Fedorovich Oistrakh (1908-1974)
Russian violinist and teacher. Born in Odessa on September 17, 1908, from the age of five he studied violin with the famous teacher P.S. Stolyarsky and graduated from the Odessa Music and Drama Institute in his class. From 1928 he lived in Moscow. Oistrakh's violin intonation was distinguished by exceptional purity, and his interpretations by classical clarity and completeness. The musician's repertoire included, along with the music of classical and romantic composers, quite a lot modern works, especially domestic authors: Oistrakh was the first performer of the violin concertos dedicated to him by N.Ya. Myaskovsky, A.I. Khachaturian, and the First Sonata for Violin and Piano by S.S. Prokofiev; long years of friendship connected him with D.D. Shostakovich (the first performer of the composer’s First Violin Concerto and First Violin Sonata).
Leonid Borisovich Kogan (1924-1982)
Leonid Kogan was born in Dnepropetrovsk on November 14, 1924. He was not yet thirteen years old when Moscow started talking about him. At the age of sixteen, on March 16, 1941, he brilliantly played the Brahms Violin Concerto. In 1943, Kogan entered the Moscow Conservatory, and upon graduation was retained in graduate school. And immediately amazed the musicians with the most masterly performance of the most difficult works of Paganini, who for many years became Kogan’s favorite author. Even the hardships of the war years could not hinder the violinist’s persistent work to the point of obsession and the brilliant flowering of his talent.
In 1947, Kogan participated in the Prague international competition and won first prize there. His regular concert activity begins. A brilliant victory at the Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition in Brussels was clear evidence that Kogan was entering a period of creative maturity.
On December 11-15, the violinist’s last concerts took place in Vienna, where he performed Beethoven’s Concerto.
The second half of the 19th century turned out to be a time of brilliant flowering of Russian violin performing culture. Violin performance reached a high professional level during this period; wonderful St. Petersburg and Moscow violin schools appeared. Distinctive feature their focus is on serious classical music. In relation to the performing style, one can trace the ability to reveal the idea of a work, the art of “artistic transformation”, as a result of the establishment of realistic aesthetics in Russian musical culture.
Arcangelo Corelli- Italian violinist and composer of Baroque music. He achieved perfection as a performer and wrote many works. His work inspired such masters as Antonio Vivaldi and Giuseppe Tartini.
Giuseppe Tartini- violinist and composer of the Baroque era, born and worked in Italy. In addition to composing and performing works for the violin, he was interested in music theory and made a number of improvements in the design of the violin and bow.
Ivan Evstafievich Khandoshkin- Russian violinist and composer. The student of the famous Giuseppe Tartini was hardly inferior in skill to his teacher. He was the first violin teacher at the Russian Academy of Arts.
Giovanni Battista Viotti- Italian violinist and composer, student of Gaetano Pugnani. His works for violin, of which about 30 have come down to us, are distinguished by their touching and lyrical melody.
Leopold Semyonovich Auer- Russian violinist, conductor, teacher and composer. Born in Hungary, worked and created in Russia, died in Germany, buried in the USA. Student of Joseph Joachim and teacher of Jascha Heifetz. One of the founders of the "Russian violin school".
Virtuosos of our time
Vladimir Spivakov
Vladimir Spivakov- famous violinist and conductor.
In 1979, V. Spivakov, with a group of like-minded musicians, created the chamber orchestra “Moscow Virtuosi” and became its chief conductor and soloist. The Moscow Virtuosi orchestra has toured almost all major cities of Russia, Europe, the USA and Japan, and took part in the most famous international music festivals.
David Garrett
David Garrett is a legendary, world-famous contemporary American violinist of German origin. David is called one of the most successful artists of classical music.
In 2008, his name was included in the Guinness Book of Records. He was able to play “Flight of the Bumblebee” (comp. Rimsky-Korsakov) in 66.5 seconds, and two months later he broke his own record, playing “Bumblebee” in exactly 65 seconds.
Dmitry Kogan
From the compiler
Any anthology, poetry or prose, any collection of essays about great musicians, composers or actors, always bears the stamp of taste of the author or compiler of this anthology. IN Soviet time Some literary anthologies suffered (as did their authors and compilers) enormous and sometimes dangerous difficulties. It is enough to recall the history of only two literary collections: “Literary Moscow”, was published only twice and was subjected to devastating criticism along with the authors published there, and another literary collection, “Tarussky Pages”, if I remember correctly, was published only once!
Books dedicated to music and musicians also bore the stamp of strict censorship and the indispensable “political correctness” of those years. Often, authors who had already prepared their books for publication could not publish their works, since the people about whom these works were written had no “value” in the eyes of the authorities and were, as they put it then, “impractical” for publication in wide editions . All this is now well known.
It is less known that foreign compilers of anthologies very often also followed the “logic of state expediency.” Even violin art was also strictly censored. I remember a book published in Germany in 1943 on the history of violin performance, where such historical figures as Joseph Joachim, Ferdinand Laub, Fritz Kreisler were not mentioned at all. Among the “non-Aryans”, the Frenchman Jacques Thibault barely “slipped through”! The most important luminary of all times and peoples in that book was the German violinist Willi Burmeister! Who knows and remembers this name today, except children's teachers? music schools, where children play some adaptations of ancient composers by this now-forgotten violinist?
I recently received a book by the famous Austrian musicologist Kurt Blaukopf, “The Great Virtuosi,” published on German in the mid-1950s. Even he, living in a country of relative freedom of speech, could not resist the temptation of being influenced by the “political correctness of those years” in his selection of “great virtuosos”, devoting quite a lot of space to the then popular Soviet violinist Igor Bezrodny, completely bypassing the names of such young virtuosos as Yulian Sitkovetsky , Igor Oistrakh, Eduard Grach, Rafail Sobolevsky, Nelly Shkolnikova and even Leonid Kogan! and some others. Perhaps the fact was that until the summer of 1955, Austria was still under occupation by three coalition allies in World War II. But this is just a guess. Naturally, any author-compiler is guided by his own taste and preferences, and also partly by the fashion of the time. Thus, Kurt Blaukopf devoted a lot of space to the Soviet violinist Igor Bezrodny, famous since the late 1940s, a truly exceptionally talented artist and one of the most “promoted” among his classmates and colleagues who studied at the same time in the class of A.I. Yampolsky.
In 1951, a 3rd year student at the Moscow State Conservatory, Bezrodny, received the Stalin Prize for “outstanding achievements in concert and performing activities,” which caused great bewilderment among the oldest professors of the Conservatory. The choice of the Austrian musicologist seems even more strange today. Bezrodny was a brilliant artist, a very talented musician, but was never a “great virtuoso” - he never publicly performed works by Henri Vietun, Niccolo Paganini, Pablo de Sarasate. Only once did he record Variations on a Theme of Rossini's Othello by G. Ernst on Moscow radio. The author did not include in his collection such a world-famous virtuoso as Leonid Kogan! In his best years, Igor Bezrodny performed excellently the Concertos of Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Taneyev's Suite, Chausson's "Poem", and Ravel's "Gypsy". Then the music authorities wanted to see him replace David Oistrakh. He, of course, did not and could not become a “replacement”.
So let’s take it for granted that all anthologies are compiled in accordance with the spirit of the time and the taste of the author, which, of course, makes the selection biased and sometimes biased. It should be noted in advance that the author was guided by the principle of publishing materials about the famous violinists of the last 20th century - long gone not only from the stage, but also from life. The history of young virtuosos of the 21st century (for example, Russian: Sergei Stadler, Vadim Repin, Alena Baeva, Nikita Borisoglebsky, Maxim Vengerov and Er.), presumably, will be written by researchers of a new generation.
1. Fritz Kreisler - the greatest violinist of the 20th century (“Virtuoso Concerto”)
Several years ago, an acquaintance sent me a short story by Hermann Hesse, “The Virtuoso Concert.” If you don't know anything about Herman Hesse, then the reader may think that he wrote this short story an immigrant from the “first Russian post-revolutionary wave” - the author felt so unhappy, somehow restless and, of course, strapped for money (perhaps after admitting that he was given a ticket to the concert?). This feeling was strengthened by the fact that the author had a clear dislike for wealth in general and for the wealthy audience who gathered for the concert of the famous virtuoso, in particular.
An acquaintance of mine sent me a story so that I could answer the question – who is this famous virtuoso, whose concert is dedicated to Hesse’s story. It was not difficult for me to immediately identify the name of this artist, who influenced all violinists in the world without exception - the most famous and unknown - all violinists of the 20th century. But not only violinists, but even such a great artist as composer-pianist S.V. Rachmaninov. I told all this to my friend who sent me this text. Later, the temptation arose to let my friends and acquaintances - musicians and non-musicians - read this story for the same purpose for which the story was sent to me. To some extent, the answer to this question was an indicator of knowledge about the performing arts and its peaks in the past century. But first, let's take a little look at this not-so-well-known story, published in 1928. Here are the main excerpts from it.
“Yesterday evening I was at a concert that was significantly different from the concerts that I am used to listening to in general. It was a concert of the world-famous secular violin virtuoso, an enterprise, therefore, not only musical, but also sports, and, above all, social...” “The program, however, promised for the most part real music... There were wonderful things in it: the Kreutzer Sonata, Bach's Chaconne, Tartini's Sonata... These wonderful essays filled two thirds of the concert. Then, however, towards the end the program changed. They were walking here musical pieces with beautiful, promising titles, lunar fantasies and Venetian nights of unknown authors, whose names pointed to peoples who had not yet advanced in music... In a word, the third part of the concert was very reminiscent of the programs posted in the music pavilions of fashionable resorts. And the ending consisted of several plays that the great virtuoso composed himself. With curiosity I went to this evening. In my youth I heard Sarasate and Joachim play the violin... and was delighted with their playing..."
“Long before I reached the concert hall, it became clear to me by many signs that today we are not talking about what my friends and I call music, not about some quiet and fantastic phenomenon in an unreal, nameless kingdom, but about a very real matter. The events of this evening... powerfully set in motion engines, horses, wallets, hairdressers and everything else in reality. What happened here... was very similar to other powerful manifestations of life - the stadium, the stock exchange, festivals.” “It was difficult in the neighboring concert hall streets to break through streams of rushing spectators, through lines of cars..." "And along the way... among hundreds of cars, all rushing, as one, to the concert hall, I received information about the great man, his fame attacked me, penetrated into my loneliness , and made me, who doesn’t go anywhere and doesn’t read newspapers, a surprised connoisseur of interesting details. “Tomorrow evening,” I heard, “he will already be playing in Hamburg.” Someone doubted: “In Hamburg? How will he get to Hamburg by tomorrow evening? "Nonsense! He will, of course, fly in an airplane. Maybe he even has his own airplane.” “And in the wardrobe... I learned from the lively conversations of my comrades that for that evening the great musician asked for and received fourteen thousand francs. Everyone mentioned this amount with reverence. Some truly believed that art was not only for the rich, but such a request was approved, and it turned out that most would be glad to receive tickets at a normal price, but that still they were all proud that they had paid so much. I was unable to understand the psychology of this contradiction, because my ticket was given to me as a gift.”
“Finally, we all entered the hall... Between the rows, in the corridors, in the next hall, on the stage, all the way to the piano, additional chairs were placed, there was not a single empty seat...” “The bell rang, it became quiet. And suddenly the great violinist walked out with a quick step, followed modestly by a young pianist-accompanist. We were all immediately delighted with him... he was a serious, handsome, lively and yet dignified man of glorious appearance and refined manners.” “We all really liked the Virtuoso. And when he began to play the slow movement of the Kreutzer Sonata, it immediately became clear that his world fame was deserved. This handsome man knew how to handle his violin wonderfully, he had the plasticity of the bow, the purity of his techniques, the strength and elasticity of the sound, a skill that you readily and joyfully submit to. He started the second part rather quickly, slightly forcing the tempo, but wonderfully. The first third of the program was exhausted by the Kreutzer Sonata; during the break, the man sitting in front of me was counting up to his neighbor how many thousands of francs the artist had already earned in that half hour. Bach's Chaconne followed, magnificently, but only in the third piece, the Tartini sonata, did the violinist show himself in all his brilliance. This piece, performed by him, was truly a miracle - amazingly difficult, amazingly played, and, moreover, very good, solid music. If the general public listened to Beethoven and Bach, perhaps only out of respect and only to please the violinist, then here they swayed and warmed up. The applause thundered, the virtuoso bowed very correctly and added a smile at the third or fourth entrance.
And in the third part of the concert, we, true music lovers and puritans of good music, became sad, because now the pleasure of the general public had begun, and what had failed good musicians Beethoven and Bach, and the extraordinary artist Tartini succeeded only halfway - this unknown exotic tango composer succeeded in the best possible way: thousands of people ignited, they melted and stopped resisting, they smiled enlightenedly, shedding tears, they moaned with delight and after each of these short entertaining plays burst into thunderous applause.” “And we, a few dissatisfied Puritans, defended ourselves internally, we fought heroically useless battles, we laughed irritably at the nonsense that was being played here, and yet we could not help but notice the brilliance of this bow, the charm of these sounds and not grin at some a charming, albeit vulgar, but magically played passage. Great magic happened. After all, we, dissatisfied Puritans, were captured, even for a moment, by a mighty wave, we, too, even for a moment, were seized by a sweet, lovely frenzy...” “Thousands of people were inflamed. They couldn't let this concert end. They clapped, shouted, stamped their feet. They forced the artist to appear again and again, to play beyond the program a second, third, fourth time. He did it gracefully and beautifully. He bowed and played an encore; the crowd listened standing, holding their breath, completely enchanted. They thought, these thousands, that now they had won, they thought that they had conquered the violinist, they thought that with their delight they could force him to come out and play again and again. And he, I believe, played for an encore exactly what he had agreed on in advance with the pianist, and, having performed the last part of his concert, not indicated in the program, but provided for, he disappeared and never returned. Nothing helped here, we had to leave, we had to wake up. During this entire evening there were two people in me... One was an old music lover with incorruptible taste, a puritan of good music. He was not only against the application of such skill to music of average quality, not only against these languid, entertaining pieces - he was against this entire audience, against rich people whom you would never see at a more serious concert...
And the other person in me was a boy, he listened to the victorious hero of the violin, merged with him, took off with him, dreamed... And how much I had to think about the artist himself, about this correct wizard! Was he at heart a musician who would be happy to play only Bach and Mozart and only after a long struggle learned not to impose anything on the public and give them what they themselves demand?.. Or maybe, for very deep reasons, he Based on experience, he lost faith in the value of real music and the possibility of understanding it in today's life, and beyond all music he first sought to return people to the origins of art, to the naked sensual beauty of sounds, to the naked power of primitive feelings? I haven't solved the riddle! I'm still thinking about it."
Here is a short story by Hermann Hesse. After reading it, many of us will feel that the author has concentrated in one story reflections on three important things in the performing culture of the 20th century: the spiritual value of certain compositions of the present and the past, the low tastes of the average listener, who made up the mass of the public, which to some extent , perhaps the great artist indulged and, finally, the place of money, that is, the intrusion of the financial world into the sacred spheres of true high performing art. Indeed, reflections on these topics never become outdated, they are as characteristic and relevant for today as for 1928 - an era separated from us not only by almost the past century, but also divided into periods of monstrous catastrophes and relative peace in history existence of humanity.
Let's return to the beginning and to the main question - who is this wizard of the bow who so amazed the author in his split consciousness of the visitor to such an extraordinary concert?
For fun, I asked this question, as already mentioned, to my acquaintances - musicians and non-musicians. One non-musician I know, having apparently mistakenly read the words “secular violinist” as “Soviet violinist,” said that this wizard... Gidon Kremer! When I asked why Kremer, I received a remarkable answer: “Well, he plays tango, and Kremer plays Piazzolla’s tango!” Of course, one could ask about what era this story belongs to, as you can see, the “airplane” is still a new means of transportation, and the author himself in his youth heard the play of Joachim and Sarasate, who passed away at the beginning of the 20th century. Consequently, the author (or his hero) was about forty years old at that time. But all this was not so important. My interlocutor knew Piazzolla, but did not know the dates of life and work of the greatest violinists of the nineteenth century, which is quite forgivable for a non-musician.
So, this short story is dedicated to the concert of Fritz Kreisler, which took place, as you might guess, somewhere in one of the cities of Romanesque Switzerland in the mid-20s of the 20th century. By this time, Kreisler's fame was truly worldwide. He was the first artist to visit Japan; before him, no major classical musician had graced the audience of the Land of the Rising Sun with a tour. In 1973, I was very surprised when I saw a portrait of Kreisler in a record store in Osaka. I then asked the seller if he knew who the man in the portrait was? Without hesitation, he answered, “Chreisler.” To be honest, I was amazed at such knowledge from a seemingly completely simple person. Kreisler is still revered in Japan today precisely because he believed in the Japanese public and its ability to understand and appreciate classical music.
He was also the first internationally renowned artist to visit China and Korea. Of course, in those years there were cities in China where significant numbers of Europeans lived, and yet China, Korea and Japan were not the meccas of classical music. But Kreisler visited all these countries. Kreisler was not only in the Middle East - in Palestine, although some of his colleagues, for example, Arthur Rubinstein, played there more than once. There were reasons for this. But more on that a little later.
Hesse's description of a "virtuoso concert" is of great interest even today for professional musicians. Some pieces from that program have come down to us in the form of sound recordings - for example, Beethoven's “Kreutzer Sonata”. Hesse's remark regarding the slightly fast tempo of the second movement of the Sonata is absolutely correct. It was Kreisler's style - the slow movements of all Beethoven's Sonatas (for piano and violin), which Kreisler for the first time in the world I recorded everything on gramophone records. They attract us in the slow movements with some indescribable “Schubertian” mood, that is, with the style of a Schubert song rather than philosophical reflection great master. Perhaps this feeling of Beethoven's lyrics came from the Viennese character of the artist himself - his charm, love of life, love for the Viennese "air", which made even Beethoven's lyrics sound new in his performance.
Bach's “Chaconne” performed by Kreisler “came to us” only in the story of Henrik Schering, one of the outstanding violinists of the 20th century, who heard Kreisler in Paris somewhere in the early 30s. The young violinist was then completely amazed by the sound of the violin - it seemed to him that in many episodes not one violinist played, but three at once! This was his feeling from the very sound of the instrument in the hands of the great artist. Unfortunately, there is no recording of this work, just as there is no recording of the performance of Tartini’s Sonata “Devil’s Trills”, which Hesse spoke about. It should be added here that Hesse listened to this Sonata in processing Kreisler with his own cadence. That is precisely why this composition made such an impression in his performance both on the public and on Hesse himself.
Kreisler had an amazing trill, one of the greatest effects of violin playing. His incredibly fast, clearly articulated short trills always gave his playing a special charm. From the recordings of the Tartini Sonata left to us from the 20th century by other outstanding violinists, we can get a vague idea of Kreisler’s performance of this work. One of the best recordings in the world was made by David Oistrakh shortly after the war. It is, along with Ida Handel's recording of the Sonata, the pinnacle of the performing skill displayed in this work.
The main secret of the success of this play among the public and Hesse’s extraordinary impression of the “difficulties” of a virtuosic nature lies in a rather simple thing - this work, with the exception of two or three places, is not at all as difficult and “diabolical” as it is perceived by the audience. Apparent difficulties are nothing more than skillfully used violin-instrumental effects inherent in the very nature of the instrument. These effects are akin to similar effects in the works of Henryk Wieniawski (1835–1880). But you had to know about them and successfully identify them on your instrument! The wizards of the violin - Wieniawski and Kreisler, and before them Paganini - were their discoverers, skillfully using amazing harmonics, even double and triple, amazingly sounding passages of double notes, falling at a dizzying speed on the listener, unaware of their natural naturalness and a certain “convenience” for a virtuoso violinist.
In other words, the art of using violin effects creates in the listener a feeling of the extraordinary difficulty of the material being performed, which is in fact very natural and even almost “comfortable” for the violinist’s hands. In this regard, the works of the famous virtuoso Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (1812–1865), who during his lifetime, according to the European public, was a competitor of Niccolo Paganini himself, stand at a completely different pole! His compositions, transcriptions and fantasies on operatic themes do not seem too difficult, lack brilliant effects, but in fact they are hellishly difficult for performers. Some exception may be his famous Etude “Rose” - variations on the theme of the once popular song “The Last Rose of Summer” for solo violin. Perhaps it was precisely this quality of Ernst’s compositions that made most of them not only well forgotten, but, most likely, deservedly forgotten.
In this regard, I recall the Moscow concert of the Guide on Kremer mentioned here in the winter of 1977 in Great hall Moscow Conservatory, who performed Ernst’s “Variations on an original theme” in his program.” The variations lasted more than 15 minutes and established their reputation as a “deservedly forgotten work”, despite the excellent playing of the soloist.
“Virtuoso Concert” – not only literary essay, but also the most valuable evidence of a thoughtful and educated listener, endowed with excellent and strict taste. And yet, even such a demanding and picky listener in the end, despite his desperate efforts to resist the art of Fritz Kreisler, was captivated by the performance of the brilliant musician.
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Professor Karl Flesch, one of the world-famous violin teachers of the 20th century, vividly described in his memoirs his first visit to the Vienna Conservatory and meeting with the patriarch of the Vienna violin school, Joseph Helmesberger Sr. “He did not like two categories of children - Jews and short-sighted ones. I was both,” Flesch wrote. Helmesberger, however, greeted him and his mother very politely. They are offered to first go to the hall where, as the professor said, little Kreisler is rehearsing Sarasate’s Faust Fantasy with the orchestra. Kreisler's performance made an indelible impression on the boy Flash. But if Professor Helmesberger did not like Jews, then for some reason this did not apply to young Kreisler.
Fritz Kreisler studied with the professor’s son, Joseph Helmesberger Jr., nicknamed “Pepe.” He was, above all, a talented composer - the author of numerous operettas, and also worked as concertmaster of the Vienna Opera Orchestra, but was a reveler, a reveler, and often paid tribute to young ballerinas. After a short affair with one of the ballerinas and a meeting with her father, “Pepe” began to limp. Nevertheless, it was in his class that Fritz Kreisler, at the age of 10, brilliantly graduated from the Vienna Conservatory and soon left, accompanied by his mother, to Paris. There, in 1887, at the age of 12, he graduated with First Prize and a Gold Medal from the Paris Conservatory under Professor Joseph Lambert Massard (at one time the teacher of Henryk Wieniawski and Eugene Ysaï). Even then, Massar wrote a short letter to Kreisler’s father, which said: “I was the teacher of Wieniawski and many others, but little Fritz is the great among them.”
After this, young Kreisler, although not entirely smoothly and not immediately, gradually became a virtuoso concert dancer, by the age of eighteen (as described in the Riemann dictionary) “having traveled to many countries of the world, right up to Russia and Greece.” By the beginning of the 20th century, Kreisler had become one of the most famous and popular violinists in the world (with Joachim, Ysaï, Sarasat, Jan Kubelik, Ole Bull still alive). One of the critics wrote already in the 20s:
“Heifetz is by far the most accomplished violinist, but Kreisler is the most beloved.” Oddly enough, only three books have been written about him: by journalist Louis Lochner (a long-time American correspondent in Berlin), who was close friends with the artist and met with him very often, so his book “Fritz Kreisler” is actually an authorized biography. It was published in 1950 - in English, German and French (a copy of the book in German was sent to my professor D.M. Tsyganov in 1951. The book was delayed, fortunately not by the recipient himself, and was issued only in 1955- m year on a summons from special storage). The second book about Kreisler was written in Russian by Israel Yampolsky, who, coincidentally, was my first violin teacher. This book is mainly brief retelling Lochner's books with additions by the author. The third book was published in 1998 and was written by Emmy Biancolli, the daughter of the famous American music critic Louis Biancolli. It touches on some aspects of the life of the great violinist-composer, which are omitted in Lochner’s book. It was not by chance that they were bypassed - Kreisler’s wife Harriet strictly controlled Lochner’s work and was categorically against the publication of the chapter “Culture in Boots,” which talked about the beginning of the Nazi era in Germany. Harriet was a fan of the New Order and wanted to eliminate this chapter. But here the author - an intelligent and gentle man - firmly said that in this case there would be no book at all. This was no longer part of Harriet Kreisler's plans.
This essay does not pretend to introduce full biography brilliant violinist, but includes some rather little-known details, like an excerpt from an interview with Kreisler, published for the first time in Russian, concerning the performing process - the connection between music and real life and its highest purpose as an art form.
* * *
Friedrich-Max Kreisler was born on February 2, 1875 in Vienna in the family of the doctor Samuel (Solomon) Kreisler and his wife Anna (nee Rehes) in the 4th district of Vienna Wieden. Christopher Gluck lived in this area in the 18th century, and Johannes Brahms and Johann Strauss Jr. in the 19th century. The future Viennese mayor Karl Lueger was born and lived in Wieden, who already in 1897 founded the “Christian Socialist Party” - the prototype of the future National Socialist party. But while Dr. Kreisler’s children were growing up, no one had ever thought about such a neighborhood. In this area, in the current sense inhabited by the "middle class", Dr. Kreisler's family hardly lived up to this level. Firstly, the family had five children, two of whom died at an early age. Among the three remaining - Fritz, Hugo and their sister Ella - only the eldest Fritz was noted for longevity. Secondly, Dr. Kreisler was an impractical man, a humanist and an altruist. Often he did not take anything from poor patients, leaving them his money for medicine.
Kreisler's grandfather and father arrived in Vienna from Krakow, which was then part of Austria-Hungary. The grandfather was a street vendor, but eventually managed to educate his son, who became a doctor. A fairly common profession for a poor Viennese Jewish family. What we know about the life of the great musician's family comes from his own stories to Louis Lochner. What's amazing is what's in them never The words “Jew” and “Jewish” do not appear. The family was not only assimilated, but also completely distanced from Jewry.
Dr. Kreisler loved music, and in an amateur quartet, every week Saturdays gathered at his home, played the violin part. These meetings often created tension in the very modest budget of the doctor’s family, whose character was reminiscent of Russian zemstvo doctors of those years, well known to us from literature. Anna Kreisler, who suffered from myelitis, had to prepare at least a light snack for the beer that ended each weekly quartet meeting. Yet Dr. Kreisler was not an ordinary amateur violinist and doctor. His guests were Sigmund Freud, his chess partner; European surgical star Theodor Billroth, close friend of Johannes Brahms and composer Karl Goldmark. Here are the memories of Fritz Kreisler himself, which he told to Louis Lochner for his book: “Freud made a deep impression on me, although basically the subject of discussions with my father was beyond my understanding... He tried to treat my sick mother with hypnosis, but I never saw her after everything she walked normally... Freud was not yet famous then, but my father was interested in his theory of psychoanalysis, especially to explain a number of cases when he sometimes had to replace the permanent doctor in the police department.”
The family lived in one of the alleys of Wiedener Haupt-strasse in an apartment building, still occupying a 6-room apartment. In this area, such houses did not yet have hot water, and every week a special company brought a bath and hot water for the family. The doctor himself was satisfied with public baths. This practice existed in those years not only in Austria, but also in Germany and France.
“I knew music much earlier than I learned to read,” Kreisler told Lochner. “They gave me a toy violin, but not so toy that you couldn’t make sounds from it. And so, during a quartet meeting in our house, I began to play the Austrian National Anthem with the quartet. Soon all the ensemble members fell silent, and I alone finished playing the Austrian Anthem in the correct key. Everyone said that I was a “little miracle,” and my father bought me the smallest, but real violin.” As you can see, his father began to give him his first lessons, but soon Frizzi’s first real teacher was his father’s friend, the accompanist of the Ring Theater orchestra, Jacques Aubert. The little violinist made such incredibly rapid progress that the question arose about his admission to the Vienna Conservatory. The normal age for admission to the preparatory department was 10 years. Kreisler was still only seven (the official date of birth of the great artist, February 2, 1875, may still raise some doubts. Very often in those years, and even in the first decades of the 20th century, child prodigies were reduced in age by two or three years in order to slightly extend their careers “little miracle.” It is very possible that Kreisler was born in 1873, since on his first tour of America in 1888, some reviewers suggested that he was already 14–15 years old, rather than his “official” 13
The entrance exams for the preparatory department of the Vienna Conservatory in 1882 were completely different from the entrance exams that our generations faced in the 40s of the 20th century. True, in the late 50s and 60s it was already required to play a program of a number of simple pieces on the instrument, as well as pass an exam in basic music theory. And yet this did not compare with the highest demands of the Vienna Conservatory in 1882. Suffice it to say that already in the preparatory department it was necessary to study harmony and... composition! Little Kreisler's teacher was none other than the famous composer-symphonist Anton Bruckner! He taught his class not only the basics of harmony, but also the art of writing fugues - both on a given topic and on his own! Today this seems incredible, but these were the requirements at the Vienna Conservatory of those years.
