Friday, April 03, 2009
Dead violinists society: Zimbalist!
I've never seen any film of Efrem Zimbalist before. Here he is playing the variations from Beethoven's Kreutzer sonata, filmed in 1926. Like Heifetz and Seidel, he was a Russian-born student of Leopold Auer; like them, his sound inhabits a world that is entirely its own, and the tone here comes through with astonishing power, beauty and sensuality, despite having been recorded 84 years ago. Glorious. Hope you love it as much as I do!
There's now so much amazing old-school violin stuff on Youtube that it could keep us happy on JDCMB for a year at least!
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6 comments:
What a beautiful performance! What wonderful music making! Not only Zimbalist but Mr Bauer who appeared to be playing without a score. I looked him up and here is what I found:
Harold Bauer (April 28, 1873 - March 12, 1951) was a noted pianist who began his musical career as a violinist.
Harold Bauer was born in London, his father a German violinist and his mother an English woman. He took up the study of the violin under the direction of his father and Adolf Pollitzer. He made his debut as a violinist in London in 1883, and for nine years toured England. In 1892, however, he went to Paris and studied the piano under Ignacy Paderewski for a year, though still maintaining his interest in the violin.
During 1893-94 he travelled all through Russia, giving piano recitals and concerts, after which he returned to Paris. Further recitals in the French capital brought him renown, and he almost immediately received engagements in France, Germany and Spain. His reputation was rapidly enhanced by these performances, and his field of operation extended through the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, England, Scandinavia and the United States.
On 18 December 1908, he gave the world premiere performance of Debussy's piano suite Children's Corner in Paris.
Bauer settled in the United States, and was a founder of the Beethoven Association.
In later life, he became the principal piano teacher at the well known Manhattan School of Music, and was known for his master classes. Today, the Harold Bauer Award is given to select, promising pianists at the school. From 1941 until his death, Bauer taught winter master classes at the University of Miami.
~ so there you go! A class act!
Thanks for posting Jessica. It made my evening!
Brendan, thanks so much for that. I can't believe I neglected to comment on Harold Bauer, of all people. I have, somewhere, a recording of him playing Bach in the 1920s - an interpretation of such pure, genuine, musical joy that it threw into radically new perspective every recording I've heard that has been made in the intervening years.
He played Bach like pure music. No point-proving. No terror. No ideology or defiance thereof. Just...wonderful music.
You are most welcome Jessica. Watching this marvellous old film brought tears to my eyes.
When I think of the rather bland, perfectly manicured, technically pristine performances of some of today's young players and then listen (and observe) these two masters, it makes me wonder what we have lost. I hung onto every note of their performance, even though I know the piece as well as the alphabet.
Imagine if these two were giving a Wigmore recital tonight. You wouldn't want to go home would you? Mr Bauer's contribution is just as astonishing, perhaps the more so because he trained as a violinist. Playing from memory with such utter security, he lived and breathed this music and was completely as one with Zimbalist. This is rare indeed and probably a vanished art today.
How I wish young performers would listen to old recordings. But whenever I ask those that I meet if they ever heard of Kreisler, Schabel, Moisewitsch...countless others, and the great singers too, I am met with blank stares. Music colleges do not encourage students to listen to old records.
A famous young musician actually came up to me after my Tote Stadt presentation in the ROH in January, after I played Tauber singing the final scene, to ask me WHO Richard Tauber was?! I will not name him to spare his blushes but I was profoundly shocked. Where the hell had he been?
Anyway, thank goodness for Vitaphone, Warner Brothers and the enlightened Sam Warner who commissioned these little films back in 1926, thereby preserving their artistry for all generations to come.
All the more reason to show these precious videos here! And yet...I interview a lot of excellent younger musicians these days, not least in the International Piano Series pre-concert talks, and often, when I ask them about their favourite musicians, they talk about 'golden age' recordings. The other day I put the question to Kirill Gerstein - whose playing is seriously superb - and he said: "Dead or alive?" Jonathan Biss is another.
When I was first in music journalism 20 years ago, working on The Strad, every violinist seemed to say the same thing: "Of course, my idol is Heifetz. But, you know, nobody today has any individuality..." Hmm. Was that because they were all Heifetz-worshipping?! Now there's a much wider variety of response, more emphasis on individual sound, approaches as different as Leonidas Kavakos and Nikolaj Znaider; and I knew I'd found a kindred spirit in Philippe Graffin when I asked him the favourite musicians question and the first one he mentioned was TOSCHA SEIDEL.
Oh good! Does this mean that we are going to finally see a return of slidy violins?
Seriously though, I must be talking to the wrong youngsters up here. I am encouraged by what you say as I was starting to feel despondent for the future.
Znaider is wonderful Did you hear his new CD of the Korngold & Brahms concerti yet? Oddly, it has not received any reviews so far.
If you're interested in Znaider, you should have a look at my latest film with him - just released as a LSO Discovery video podcast. It's essentially a guide to the violin, and especially Znaider's violin - Kreisler's del Gesu - plus Znaider playing Bach exclusively for us.
Hope you enjoy it!
http://lso.co.uk/videopodcasts
Tommy
http://onemoretake.blogspot.com
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