Chausson can refer to:

• Chausson (recreational vehicle), a French manufacturer of recreational vehicles
• Chausson (martial arts), a French martial art
• Ernest Chausson, a French composer
• Anne-Caroline Chausson, a French BMX and mountain bike racer

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This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Discussion about the problems with the sole source used may be found on the talk page. (February 2010)

Ernest Chausson, cabinet card photo by P. Frois, Biarritz (France), ca. 1885, Bibliothèque nationale de France

Amédée-Ernest Chausson (20 January 1855 – 10 June 1899) was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.

Life[link]

Ernest Chausson was born in Paris into a prosperous bourgeois family. His father made his fortune assisting Baron Haussmann in the redevelopment of Paris in the 1850s.

To please his father, Chausson studied law and was appointed a barrister for the Court of Appeals; but in truth, he had little or no interest in the law. He frequented the Paris salons, where he met celebrities such as Henri Fantin-Latour, Odilon Redon, and Vincent d'Indy. Before definitively deciding on his career, he dabbled in writing and drawing.

In October 1879, at the age of 25, he began attending the composition classes of the opera composer Jules Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire. Chausson had already composed some piano pieces and songs. Nevertheless, the earliest manuscripts that have been preserved are those corrected by Massenet.

During 1882 and 1883, Chausson, who enjoyed travel, visited Bayreuth to hear the operas of Wagner. On the first of these journeys, Chausson went with d'Indy for the premiere of Wagner's Parsifal, and on the second trip he went with his new spouse Jeanne Escudier, whose sister Madeleine was married to art collector Henry Lerolle.

The tomb of Ernest Chausson at
Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.

From 1886 until his death in 1899, Chausson was secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique. In his own home (22 Boulevard de Courcelles, near Parc Monceau), he received a great many eminent artists, including the composers Henri Duparc, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, and Isaac Albéniz, the poet Mallarmé, the Russian novelist Turgenev, and the impressionist painter Monet. Chausson also assembled an important collection of paintings.

When only 44 years old, Chausson died in Limay, Yvelines, as a result of a freak accident. While the whole affair remains somewhat mysterious, it appears that he lost control of the bicycle he was riding on a downhill slope, ran straight into a brick wall, and perished instantly. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. A small park called Place Ernest-Chausson in the 17th arrondissement of Paris is named in his honor.

Music[link]

Ernest Chausson, photograph by Guy & Mockel, Paris, ca. 1897, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

The creative work of Chausson is commonly divided into three periods. In the first, which was dominated by Massenet, the composer exhibits primarily fluid and elegant melodies. The second period, dating from 1886, is marked by a more dramatic character, deriving partly from Chausson's contacts with the artistic milieux in which he moved. From his father's death in 1894 dates the beginning of his third period, during which he was especially influenced by his reading of the symbolist poets and Russian literature, particularly Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, and Tolstoy.

Chausson's work is deeply individual, but it does reflect some technical influences of both Wagner and his other musical hero Franck. Stylistic traces of Massenet and even Brahms can be detected sometimes. In general, Chausson's compositional idiom bridges the gap between the ripe Romanticism of Massenet and Franck and the more introverted Impressionism of Debussy.

Several delicate and admirable songs came from Chausson's pen. He completed one opera, Le roi Arthus (King Arthur). His orchestral output was small, but significant. It includes the Symphony in B-flat, his sole symphony, Poème for violin and orchestra, an important piece in the violin repertoire; and the dramatic, and haunting, song-cycle Poème de l'amour et de la mer.

Chausson is believed to be the first composer to use the celesta. He employed that instrument in December 1888 in his incidental music, written for a small orchestra, for La tempête, a French translation by Maurice Bouchor of Shakespeare's The Tempest.^[1]

Not at all prolific, Chausson left behind only 39 opus-numbered pieces. Musical creation for him always proved to be a long, painful struggle. However, the quality and originality of his compositions are consistently high, and they continue to make occasional appearances on programs of leading singers, chamber music ensembles and orchestras.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Charles Oulmont (1935), Musique de l'amour. I. Ernest Chausson et "la bande à Franck," coll. "Temps et visages" nouvelle série, Desclée de Brouwer et Cie.
• Jean Gallois (1994), Ernest Chausson, Paris: Fayard.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ernest Chausson

• Free scores by Ernest Chausson in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Ernest Chausson at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Ernest Chausson in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Hymne védique Chorus accompanied by orchestra, op. 9 Vocal Score (Paris: Hamelle, 1886) From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
• Mélodies pour chant et piano, op. 2 (Paris: J. Hamelle, 1890) From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
• Les Vêpres du Commun des saint, op. 31 (Paris: Editions de la Schola Cantorum, 1907) From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
• Recording of Piano Trio in G minor Op. 3

Jascha Heifetz (/ˈhaɪfɪts/; February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1901 – December 10, 1987) was a violinist, born in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.^[1][2][3][4]

Photo by Yousuf Karsh

Early life[link]

Heifetz was born into a Litvak family in Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire.^[5] His father, Reuven Heifetz, son of Elie, was a local violin teacher and served as the concertmaster of the Vilnius Theatre Orchestra for one season before the theatre closed down. Jascha took up the violin when he was three years old and his father was his first teacher. At five he started lessons with Ilya D. Malkin, a former pupil of Leopold Auer. He was a child prodigy, making his public debut at seven, in Kovno (now Kaunas, Lithuania) playing the Violin Concerto in E minor by Felix Mendelssohn. In 1910 he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to study under Leopold Auer himself.

He played in Germany and Scandinavia, and met Fritz Kreisler for the first time in a Berlin private house together with other noted violinists in attendance. Kreisler, after accompanying the 12-year-old Heifetz at the piano in a performance of the Mendelssohn concerto, said to all present, "We may as well break our fiddles across our knees." Heifetz visited much of Europe while still in his teens. In April 1911, Heifetz performed in an outdoor concert in St. Petersburg before 25,000 spectators; there was such a sensational reaction that police officers needed to protect the young violinist after the concert. In 1914, Heifetz performed with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Arthur Nikisch. The conductor was very impressed, saying he had never heard such an excellent violinist.^[6]

Career[link]

Heifetz and his family left Russia in 1917, traveling by rail to the Russian far east and thence by ship to the United States, arriving in San Francisco.

On October 27, 1917, Heifetz played for the first time in the United States, at Carnegie Hall in New York, and became an immediate sensation.^[7] Fellow violinist Mischa Elman in the audience asked "Do you think it's hot in here?", whereupon the pianist Leopold Godowsky, in the next seat, imperturbably replied, "Not for pianists."^[8] The reviews by the New York critics were rapturous.

In 1917, Heifetz was elected as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music, by the fraternity's Alpha chapter at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. As he was aged 16 at the time, he was perhaps the youngest person ever elected to membership in the organization. Heifetz remained in the country and became an American citizen in 1925. When he told admirer Groucho Marx he had been earning his living as a musician since the age of seven, Groucho answered, "And I suppose before that you were just a bum."

Technique and timbre[link]

Heifetz is considered to be one of the finest violinists of all time. Heifetz's technical command of his instrument – his physical ability to play the violin with stunning precision – is regarded by many critics as unequaled. That physical control enabled Heifetz to produce a distinctive tone quality, intense and shimmering, that came to be regarded as his trademark. Yet, from time to time his near-perfect technique and conservative stage demeanor caused some critics to accuse him of being overly mechanical, even cold. Virgil Thomson called Heifetz's style of playing "silk underwear music", a term he did not intend as a compliment. Other critics argue that he infused his playing with feeling and reverence for the composers' intentions. His style of playing was highly influential in defining the way modern violinists approach the instrument. His use of rapid vibrato, emotionally charged portamento, fast tempos, and superb bow control coalesced to create a highly distinctive sound that make Heifetz's playing instantly recognizable to aficionados. The violinist Itzhak Perlman, who himself is noted for his rich warm tone and expressive use of portamento, describes Heifetz's tone as like "a tornado" because of its emotional intensity. Perlman also said that Heifetz preferred to be recorded relatively close to the microphone; as a result, one would perceive a somewhat different tone quality when listening to Heifetz during a concert hall performance as opposed to a recording.^[9]

In creating his sound, Heifetz was very particular about his choice of strings. He used a silver wound Tricolore gut g-string, plain gut unvarnished D and A strings, and a Goldbrokat steel E string medium including clear Hill brand rosin sparingly. Heifetz believed that playing on gut strings was important in rendering an individual sound.

Early recordings[link]

Jascha Heifetz around 1920

Heifetz made his first recordings in Russia during 1910–11, while still a student of Leopold Auer. The existence of these recordings was not widely known until after Heifetz's death, when several sides (most notably François Schubert's L'Abeille) were reissued on an LP included as a supplement to The Strad magazine.

Shortly after his Carnegie Hall debut on November 7, 1917, Heifetz made his first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company; he would remain with Victor and its successor, RCA Victor, for most of his career. For several years, in the 1930s, Heifetz recorded primarily for HMV in the UK because RCA cut back on classical recordings during the Great Depression; these discs were issued in the US by RCA Victor. Heifetz often enjoyed playing chamber music. Various critics have blamed his limited success in chamber ensembles to the fact that his artistic personality tended to overwhelm his colleagues. Some notable collaborations include his 1941 recordings of piano trios by Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms with cellist Emanuel Feuermann and pianist Arthur Rubinstein as well as a later collaboration with Rubinstein and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, with whom he recorded trios by Maurice Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and Felix Mendelssohn. Both formations were sometimes referred to as the Million Dollar Trio.

He recorded the Beethoven Violin Concerto in 1940 with the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini, and again in stereo in 1955 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch. A live performance from April 9, 1944, of Heifetz playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, again with Toscanini and the NBC Symphony, has also been released.

He performed and recorded Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Violin Concerto, at a time when many classical musicians avoided Korngold's music because they did not consider him a "serious" composer after he wrote many film scores for Warner Brothers.

Wartime[link]

Heifetz commissioned a number of pieces, perhaps most notably the Violin Concerto by William Walton. He also arranged a number of pieces, such as Hora Staccato by Grigoraş Dinicu, a Romanian whom Heifetz is rumoured to have called the greatest violinist he had ever heard. Heifetz also played and composed for the piano;^[7] he performed mess hall jazz for soldiers at Allied camps across Europe during the Second World War, and under the alias Jim Hoyl he wrote a hit song, "When You Make Love to Me (Don't Make Believe)", which was sung by Bing Crosby.

Decca recordings[link]

From 1944 to 1946, largely a result of the American Federation of Musicians recording ban (which actually began in 1942), Heifetz went to American Decca Records to make recordings because Decca settled with the union in 1943, well before RCA Victor resolved their dispute with the musicians. He recorded primarily short pieces, including his own arrangements of music by George Gershwin and Stephen Foster; these were pieces he often played as encores in his recitals. He was accompanied on the piano by Emanuel Bay or Milton Kaye. Among the more uncommon discs featured one of Decca's most popular artists, Bing Crosby, in the "Lullaby" from Benjamin Godard's opera Jocelyn and Where My Caravan Has Rested (arranged by Heifetz and Crosby) by Hermann Lohr (1872–1943); Decca's studio orchestra was conducted by Victor Young in the July 27, 1946, session. Recorded mostly in small studios, the digitally remastered performances (issued by MCA) have remarkably clear, high fidelity sound. However, Heifetz soon returned to RCA Victor, where he continued to make recordings until the early 1970s.^[10]

Later recordings[link]

Returning to RCA Victor in 1946, Heifetz continued to make a number of 78-rpm discs for the company, including solo, chamber, and orchestral recordings.

RCA Victor began releasing long-playing recordings in 1950, including concertos taken from 78-rpm masters. The company began to make new high fidelity recordings with Heifetz, primarily with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Charles Munch and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner. Beginning in early 1954, most of RCA's classical sessions were also taped on three-track tape machines. These were eventually issued in the "Living Stereo" series, which began in 1958. RCA later reissued the recordings on a series of CDs. While many earlier Heifetz recordings used close miking, which led to a dry sound, the post 1954 RCA concerto recordings have somewhat more distant and effective miking, creating a more effective concert ambience that shows Heifetz's tone to excellent advantage. In 2000, RCA released a double CD compilation entitled Jascha Heifetz – The Supreme which gives a sampling of Heifetz's major recordings, including the 1955 recording of Brahms's Violin Concerto with Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; the 1957 recording of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto (with the same forces); the 1959 recording of Sibelius's Violin Concerto with Walter Hendl and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; the 1961 recording of Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy with Sir Malcolm Sargent and the New Symphony Orchestra of London; the 1963 recording of Glazunov's A minor Concerto with Walter Hendl and the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra (drawn from New York musicians); the 1965 recording of George Gershwin's Three Preludes (transcribed by Heifetz) with pianist Brooks Smith; and the 1970 recording of Bach's unaccompanied Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in D minor.

Third Israel tour[link]

Heifetz in Be'er Sheba, Israel, 1953

On his third tour to Israel in 1953, Heifetz included in his recitals the Violin Sonata by Richard Strauss. At the time, Strauss was considered by many to be a Nazi composer, and his works were unofficially banned in Israel along with those of Richard Wagner. Despite the fact that the Holocaust had occurred less than ten years earlier and a last-minute plea from the Israeli Minister of Education, the defiant Heifetz argued, "The music is above these factors ... I will not change my program. I have the right to decide on my repertoire." Throughout his tour the performance of the Strauss sonata was followed by dead silence.

Heifetz was attacked after his recital in Jerusalem outside his hotel by a young man who struck Heifetz's violin case, Heifetz resorting to using his right hand to protect his priceless violins from the crowbar. As the attacker started to flee, Heifetz alerted his companions, who were armed, "Shoot that man, he tried to kill me." The attacker escaped and was never found. The attack has since been attributed to the Kingdom of Israel terrorist group.^[11][12] The incident made headlines in the press and Heifetz defiantly announced that he would not stop playing the Strauss. Threats continued to come, however, and he omitted the Strauss from his next recital without explanation. His last concert was cancelled after his swollen right hand began to hurt. He left Israel and did not return until 1970.

Russian defector[link]

Soviet musicians considered Heifetz and his teacher Leopold Auer as traitors to their home country for emigrating to the US, and Heifetz especially because of his very young age. Meanwhile, musicians who remained, such as David Oistrakh, were seen as patriots. Heifetz greatly criticized the Soviet regime; he condemned the International Tchaikovsky Competition for being biased against Western competitors. During the Carl Flesch Competition in London, Oistrakh tried to persuade Erick Friedman, Heifetz's star student, to enter the Tchaikovsky Competition, of which he was the principal juror. Hearing of this, Heifetz strongly advised against it, warning Friedman, "You will see what will happen there." Consequently, the competition received international outrage after Friedman, already a seasoned performer and recording artist for RCA, who had performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, among many others, placed sixth behind players who had yet to establish themselves. Joseph Szigeti later informed Heifetz himself that he had given his student top scores.

Later life[link]

After an only partially successful operation on his right shoulder in 1972, Heifetz ceased giving concerts and making records. Although his prowess as a performer remained intact and he continued to play privately until the end, his bow arm was affected and he could never again hold the bow as high as before.

Rudolf Koelman (left) with Jascha Heifetz, 1979

Heifetz taught the violin extensively, holding master classes first at UCLA, then at the University of Southern California, where the faculty included renowned cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and violist William Primrose. For a few years in the 1980s he also held classes in his private studio at home in Beverly Hills. His teaching studio can be seen today in the main building of the Colburn School, where it is now used for masterclasses and serves as an inspiration to the students there. During his teaching career Heifetz taught, among others, Erick Friedman, Elaine Skorodin,^[13] Pierre Amoyal, Rudolf Koelman, Endre Granat, Eugene Fodor, Paul Rosenthal, and Ayke Agus.

It was rumored that Heifetz was such a strict disciplinarian that the main gate of his Beverly Hills home was closed exactly at the time his classes were to begin in order to shut out students who arrived late. Heifetz died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California in December 1987.

Heifetz owned the 1714 Dolphin Stradivarius, the 1731 "Piel" Stradivarius, the 1736 Carlo Tononi, and the 1742 ex David Guarneri del Gesù, the last of which he preferred and kept until his death. The Dolphin Strad is currently owned by the Nippon Music Foundation. The Heifetz Tononi violin used at his 1917 Carnegie Hall debut was left in his will to Sherry Kloss, Master-Teaching Assistant to Heifetz, with "one of my four good bows" (Violinist/author Kloss wrote "Jascha Heifetz Through My Eyes" and is a co-founder of the Jascha Heifetz Society). The famed Guarneri is now in the San Francisco Legion of Honor Museum, as instructed by Heifetz in his will, and may only be taken out and played "on special occasions" by deserving players. The instrument has recently been on loan to San Francisco Symphony's concertmaster Alexander Barantschik, who featured it in concertos with Andrei Gorbatenko and the San Francisco Academy Orchestra in 2006.^[14] In 1989, Heifetz received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Family life[link]

Heifetz was married in 1928 to the silent motion picture actress Florence Vidor, ex-wife of King Vidor, whose seven year old daughter, Suzanne, Heifetz adopted. The couple had two more children, Josefa (born 1930) and Robert (1932–2001) before divorcing in 1945. In 1947, Heifetz took a sabbatical during which he married Frances Spiegelberg, with whom he had another son, Joseph (known as Jay). The second marriage ended in divorce in 1962.

Heifetz's son Jay is a professional photographer. He was formerly head of marketing for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Hollywood Bowl, and the Chief Financial Officer of Paramount Pictures' Worldwide Video Division. He lives and works in Fremantle, Western Australia. Heifetz's daughter, Josefa Heifetz Byrne, is a lexicographer, the author of the Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words.^[15]

Heifetz's grandson Danny Heifetz is an accomplished drummer/percussionist and has played with Mr. Bungle, Dieselhed, Secret Chiefs 3 and Link Wray.

His extended family was active in Los Angeles progressive political circles in addition to music.

Heifetz had a difficult personality, and has even been described as "misanthropic". He tended to drive away the very people who could have been his most trusted allies. His own childhood had been difficult; his father was an extremely stern man who, even after Jascha had become the family's sole breadwinner, would still roundly criticise every performance.^[16]

Notable Instruments[link]

• Dolphin 1714 Stradivarius
• Heifetz-Piel 1731 Stradivarius
• Antonio Stradivari 1734
• Carlo Tononi 1736
• ex-David 1742 Guarneri

Filmography[link]

Heifetz in They Shall Have Music

Heifetz played a featured role in the movie They Shall Have Music (1939) directed by Archie Mayo and written by John Howard Lawson and Irmgard von Cube. He played himself, stepping in to save a music school for poor children from foreclosure. He later appeared in the 1947 film, Carnegie Hall, performing an abridged version of the first movement of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto, with the orchestra led by Fritz Reiner, and consoling the star of the picture, who had watched his performance. Heifetz later recorded the complete Tchaikovsky concerto with Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as one of RCA Victor's "Living Stereo" discs.^[17] In 1951, he appeared in the film Of Men and Music. In 1962. he appeared in a televised series of his master classes, and, in 1971, Heifetz on Television aired, an hour-long color special that featured the violinist performing a series of short works, the "Scottish Fantasy" by Max Bruch, and the Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 by Bach. Heifetz even conducted the orchestra, as the surviving video recording documents.

The most recent film featuring Heifetz, Jascha Heifetz: God's Fiddler, premiered on April 16, 2011 at the Colburn School of Music. It is "The only film biography of the world's most renowned violinist, featuring family home movies in Los Angeles and all over the world."^[4]

In popular culture[link]

• In season 5 episode 11 of Mad About You Fran tells Jamie that Ryan's violin teacher says he is a regular Jasha Heifetz.
• Heifetz was often mentioned by Jack Benny in his long-running radio program. Benny often cited his violin playing as being on par with Heifetz.
• Heifetz is referenced in The Muppet Show (1977) where Rowlf the Dog opposite George Burns mentions "Oh listen, I can play any key. I'm another Jascha Heifetz", to which George replies, "Jascha Heifetz played the violin." Rowlf then replies, "Nobody will know the difference, George".
• Heifetz is later mentioned in The Muppet Movie (1979) when Rowlf the Dog, after being praised by Kermit the Frog for playing an impressive piece of music on the piano, shrugged modestly and replied, "I'm no Heifetz, but I get by."
• Heifetz is mentioned by Woody Allen in Broadway Danny Rose (1984). As one of Danny Rose's clients plays a glass harmonica Danny remarks "She's the Jascha Heifetz of her instrument!"
• In Season 3, Episode 5 of The Golden Girls, "Nothing Left To Fear But Fear Itself" (1987), Sophia Petrillo (played by Estelle Getty) makes reference to Jascha Heifetz in sarcastic retort, when her daughter Dorothy (Bea Arthur) asks an obvious question: "Ma, are you going to tell a story?" Sophia: "Please! Does Heifetz rosin a bow?"
• He was mentioned by the character, Data, on the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Ensigns of Command" (1989) as one of the violinists he studied prior to his concert in Ten-Forward aboard the USS Enterprise.
• From Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending (2002): "If there's a brownout, Heifetz will still be on key, but your guitarist won't be."
• The character of Yasha the violinist in Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock is a reference to Jascha Heifetz.
• In the book The Jordan Rules, then-Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson made a reference to Heifetz by saying that, just as the musician was the featured performer no matter where he played in a performance, Michael Jordan would be the center of the Bulls' triangle offense, even when its design provided greater offensive opportunities for Jordan's teammates.
• Heifetz is one of the subjects of George Gershwin's 1922 song "Mischa, Jascha, Toscha, Sascha" recorded by the Funnyboners.^[18]

See also[link]

• Lithuanian Jews
• Strauss and the Nazis

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jascha Heifetz

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jascha Heifetz

Wikisource has the text of a 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article about Jascha Heifetz.

• Jascha Heifetz official website
• Jascha Heifetz fan website
• Prominent People – Jascha Heifetz
• Jascha Heifetz at Sony BMG Masterworks
• NPR Classical Music: Heifetz at War: Behind the Scenes, Near the Front
• "The Violinist of the Century" – 3-part series on AdventuresInMusic.biz
• Jascha Heifetz at Find a Grave
•  "Heifetz, Jascha". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. 

Vadim Repin, 2008

Vadim Repin (Vadim Viktorovich Repin, Вадим Викторович Репин [vɐˈdim ˈviktɐrvitʃ ˈrepin],^[1] born in Novosibirsk, Western Siberia, 31 August 1971) is a Belgian (naturalized) Russian violinist who currently lives in Austria.

Yehudi Menuhin once said that "Vadim Repin is simply the best and most perfect violinist that I have ever had the chance to hear."^[2]

Education[link]

Vadim Repin began to play the violin at the age of 5. He went on to study with Zakhar Bron, the famous violin teacher. At only eleven, he won the gold medal in all age categories in the Wienawski Competition and gave his recital débuts in Moscow and St Petersburg. In 1985 at fourteen he made his débuts in Tokyo, München, Berlin, Helsinki; a year later in Carnegie Hall.

Professional career[link]

At the age of 17, he became the youngest winner of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels, the world's premier violin competition. He was a member of the jury in the 2009 violin-session of this competition.^[3]

Vadim Repin has played under such leading conductors as Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, and Yehudi Menuhin. He has also played with Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Michael Tilson Thomas (with whom he made his United Kingdom debut at The Lichfield Festival in 1985), James Levine, Kurt Masur, Edo de Waart, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Riccardo Muti.

Repin has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra. He regularly collaborates with Nikolai Lugansky and Itamar Golan in recital; other chamber music partners include Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang and Mischa Maisky.

Vadim Repin has been a frequent guest at festivals such as the BBC Proms,^[4] Tanglewood, Gstaad and Verbier. In 2010 he played the premiere of James MacMillan Violin Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under Gergiev which was dedicated to him.^[5]

Repertoire and recordings[link]

Repin specializes in Russian music and French music, particularly the great Russian violin concertos, as well as 20th century and contemporary music. New music in his répertoire includes works by John Adams and Sofia Gubaidulina.

He has recorded violin concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Nikolai Myaskovsky. Repin has also made two CDs of violin and piano music works with Boris Berezovsky (pianist) and has recorded chamber music with pianists Martha Argerich and Mikhail Pletnev, violist Yuri Bashmet, and cellist Mischa Maisky. In 2010, Repin recorded an album of violin sonatas with pianist Nikolai Lugansky.

The majority of Repin's recordings through 2005 were on the Erato label. However, in 2005 Repin appeared on Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on a disc of chamber music by Sergei Taneyev alongside Mikhail Pletnev, Ilya Gringolts, Nobuko Imai, and Lynn Harrell; and in April 2006 Repin signed an exclusive recording contract with DG.

Instruments[link]

• 1984–1989 Stradivari 1720 ex-Wieniawski-Wieniawski, as a loan by the UdSSR State Library
• 1996 Repin played shortly the Guarnerius del Gesù 1737 Isaac Stern ex-Panette-Panette, a loan by David Fulton
• 1996–2005 Stradivari Ruby 1708,^[6] as a loan by the Stradivari Society in Chicago and previously played by Pablo de Sarasate
• 2005 Guarneri del Gesù 1742 Il Cannone ex Paganini as a loan by the Municipal Administration of Genua for the use in a concert in the city
• 2002-2009 Guarneri del Gesù Von Szerdahely 1736
• Since 2010 Vadim Repin plays a Guarneri del Gesù 1743 Bonjour

His preferred bows are by Nicolaus Kittel and Nicolas Maline.

Private life[link]

Vadim Repin married his first wife Caroline Diemunsch in 2001. His son Leonardo was born in 2006.^[7]

His current wife is Svetlana Zakharova, the principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet. They have a daughter.

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Vadim Repin Homepage, unofficial, but very comprehensive
• Discography
• Vadim Repin Biography (until 2004)
• Biography of Vadim Repin (English), Productions Internationales Albert Sarfati

Interviews[link]

• All Things Strings, Vadim Repin Cover Story, excerpts from Strings Magazine, April 2000
• Interview on Evene.fr (in French), November 2008

Reviews[link]

Vadim Repin (violin) and Nikolai Lugansky (piano):

• Crescendo, review about their recital on 20 November 2002 in Brussels
• Light-filled brilliance, review in English from Wienerzeitung, 27 November 2002

Vadim Repin (violin), Nikolai Lugansky (piano), Mischa Maisky (cello):

• La Palme d'or pour les trois Russes, Critique du récital de Vadim Repin, Nikolaï Lugansky et Misha Maïsky au Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 25 May 2005

References[link]

1. ^ Vadim Repin pronounced in Russian
2. ^ Russian Hommage with Vadim Repin on menuhinfestivalgstaad.com, Menuhin said it on the occasion of a concert given by Repin
3. ^ "Entry for Vadim Repin on the official site of the Queen Elisabeth competition". Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition. http://www.cmireb.be/en/i/664-Vadim_REPIN.html. Retrieved 11 November 2010. 
4. ^ Vadim Repin - A Biographical Timeline
5. ^ James MacMillan: Violin Concerto premiere with Vadim Repin on Boosey & Hawkes
6. ^ Interview de Vadim Repin à l'Actualité Musique d'Evene en Novembre 2008
7. ^ Profile of Vadim Repin at the Moscow State Philharmonic Society

David Oistrakh (left), with conductor Franz Konwitschny (middle) and Igor Oistrakh (right), in 1957

David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (or Oistrach), Russian: Дави́д Фёдорович (Фи́шелевич) О́йстрах, David Fiodorović (Fišelević) Ojstrakh, Russian pronunciation: [dɐˌvʲid fʲodəˌrovʲɪʨ ˈojstrɐx], Ukrainian: Дави́д Фе́дорович (Фі́шелевич) О́йстрах, Davyd Fedorovych (Fishelevych) Oistrakh; September 30 [O.S. September 17] 1908 – October 24, 1974, was a renowned Soviet classical violinist.

Oistrakh collaborated with major orchestras and musicians from many parts of the world, including the Soviet Union, Europe, and the United States, and was the dedicatee of numerous violin works, including both of Dmitri Shostakovich's violin concerti, and the violin concerto by Aram Khachaturian. He is considered one of the preeminent violinists of the 20th century.

Early years[link]

He was born in the cosmopolitan city of Odessa in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) into a Jewish family of merchants of the second guild. His father was David Kolker and his mother was Isabella Beyle (née Stepanovsky), who later on married Fishl Oistrakh.^[1] At the age of five, young Oistrakh began his studies of violin and viola as a pupil of Pyotr Stolyarsky. In his studies with Pyotr Stolyarsky he made very good friends with Daniel Shindarov, with whom he performed numerous times around the world, even after becoming famous, for students at Stolyarsky School of Music. He would eventually come to predominantly perform on violin.

In 1914, at the age of six, Oistrakh performed his debut concert. He entered the Odessa Conservatory in 1923, where he studied until his graduation in 1926. In the Conservatory he also studied harmony with composer Mykola Vilinsky. His 1926 graduation concert consisted of Bach's Chaconne, Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata, Rubinstein's Viola Sonata, and Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major. In 1927, Oistrakh appeared as soloist playing the Glazunov Violin Concerto under the composer's own baton in Kiev, Ukraine—a concert which earned him an invitation to play the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in Leningrad with the Philharmonic Orchestra under Nikolai Malko the following year.

In Moscow[link]

In 1927, Oistrakh relocated to Moscow, where he gave his first recital and met his future wife: pianist Tamara Rotareva. They were married a year later, and had one child, Igor Oistrakh, who was born in 1931. Igor Oistrakh would follow his father's path as a violinist, and eventually performed and recorded side-by-side with his father, including Bach Double Concerto, which they first recorded in 1951, and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. In at least one of the recordings of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, Igor Oistrakh played violin, while David Oistrakh played viola.

From 1934 onwards, David Oistrakh held a position teaching at the Moscow Conservatory, and was later made professor in 1939. Some of his colleagues while teaching at the Moscow Conservatory included Yuri Yankelevich and Boris Goldstein. Oistrakh taught Oleg Kagan, Gidon Kremer, Zoya Petrosyan, Victor Danchenko, Cyrus Forough, and his son Igor Oistrakh.

From 1940 to 1963, Oistrakh performed extensively in a trio that also included the cellist Sviatoslav Knushevitsky and the pianist Lev Oborin. It was sometimes called the 'Oistrakh Trio.' Oistrakh collaborated extensively with Oborin, as well as Jacques Thibaud, a French violinist.

During WWII[link]

During World War II, he was active in the Soviet Union, premiering new concerti by Nikolai Miaskovsky and Khachaturian as well as two sonatas by his friend Sergei Prokofiev. He was also awarded the Stalin Prize in 1942. The final years of the war saw the blossoming of a friendship with Shostakovich, which would lead to the two violin concertos and the sonata, all of which were to be premiered by and become firmly associated with Oistrakh in the following years. Oistrakh's career was set from this point, except for one small hitch - the Soviet Union was "protective" of its people and refused to let him leave. He continued to teach in the Moscow Conservatory, but when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he went to the front lines, playing for soldiers and factory workers under intensely difficult conditions. Arguably one of the most heroic acts in his life was his performance of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto to the end in the central music hall during the Battle of Stalingrad in winter 1942 while central Stalingrad was being massively bombed by the German forces. However, other sources indicate that Oistrakh performed in Leningrad in the Winter of 1942.^[2] Whether Oistrakh performed in Stalingrad is unconfirmed.

International travel[link]

Oistrakh was allowed to travel after the end of the war. He traveled to the countries in the Soviet bloc and even to the West. His first foreign engagement was to appear at the newly founded "Prague Spring" Festival where he met with enormous success. In 1949 he gave his first concert in the West - in Helsinki. In 1951, he appeared at the "Maggio Musicale" Festival in Florence, in 1952 he was in East Germany for the Beethoven celebrations, France in 1953, Britain in 1954, and eventually, in 1955, he was allowed to tour the United States. By 1959, he was beginning to establish a second career as a conductor, and in 1960 he was awarded the coveted Lenin Prize. His Moscow conducting debut followed in 1962, and by 1967 he had established a partnership with the celebrated Soviet pianist Sviatoslav Richter.

Later years[link]

1968 saw wide celebrations for the violinist's sixtieth birthday, which included a celebratory performance in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory of the Tchaikovsky concerto, one of his favourite works, under the baton of Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Oistrakh was now seen as one of the great violinists of his time, among such luminaries as Romania's George Enescu and Lithuanian born Jascha Heifetz.

Oistrakh suffered a heart attack as early as 1964. He survived and continued to work at a furious pace. He had already become one of the principal cultural ambassadors for the Soviet Union to the West in live concerts and recordings. After conducting a cycle of Brahms with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, he died of another heart attack in Amsterdam in 1974. His remains were returned to Moscow where he was interred in Novodevichy Cemetery.

Distinctions[link]

Oistrakh received many awards and distinctions. Within the Soviet Union, David Oistrakh was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1943, the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1953, and the Lenin Prize in 1960. He also won the 1935 Soviet Union Competition. Several reputable works from the standard violin repertoire are dedicated to Oistrakh, including a concerto by Khachaturian, two concerti by Shostakovich, and several other pieces.

Oistrakh's fame and success were not only limited to the Soviet Union: he placed second at the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Warsaw during the same year, only being bested by 16-year-old prodigy Ginette Neveu, and further improved upon that by winning the grand prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.

Additionally, the asteroid 42516 Oistrach is named in honour of him and his son, the violinist Igor Oistrakh.

Instruments[link]

David Oistrakh is known to have played on at least seven Stradivarius violins owned by the Soviet Union. He initially selected the 1702 Conte di Fontana Stradivarius which he played for 10 years, before exchanging it for the 1705 Marsick Stradivarius in June 1966, which he played on until his death.

David Oistrakh used bows by Albert Nürnberger and Andre Richaume throughout his life. Up until 1957, he used the Nürnberger bow. "The Andre Richaume bow bought by his son Igor Oistrakh in 1957, had filled David with such enthusiasm that Igor made a gift of it."^[3] Oistrakh had remarked that this (Richaume) bow gave him great satisfaction, so much so that when in Paris, he had to meet Richaume in person.^[3]

Honours and awards[link]

This article incorporates information from the Russian Wikipedia.

Soviet

• Two Orders of Lenin - 1946 and 1966
• Order of the Badge of Honour, twice - 1937 and ?
• People's Artist of the USSR, 1953
• Stalin Prize, 1st class - 1943
• Lenin Prize - 1960
• Honoured Artist of the RSFSR

Foreign

• Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland (1966)
• Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold II (Belgium, 1967)

See also[link]

• Moscow International David Oistrakh Violin Competition

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

• A Portrait (in Russian)
• Discography