Famous Violinists of To-day and YesterdayLahee, Henry Charles
History
Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday
Lahee, Henry Charles
Bull, Ole, 1810-1880; Joachim, Joseph, 1831-1907; Paganini, Nicolò, 1782-1840; Violinists
Adolf Brodsky, who came to America in 1892, and who is a violinist of
much ability, with a beautiful tone, facile and brilliant technique, but
somewhat lacking in elegance and polish, did not come to tour the
country as a virtuoso. He was engaged by Mr. Walter Damrosch as
concert-master for the New York orchestra, but during his stay in this
country he appeared in many of the most important concerts, and was
considered one of the best violinists who had ever come to live in
America.
Brodsky was born in 1851 at Taganrog, in Southern Russia, and was one of
those who found his profession at the age of four, when he bought a
violin at a fair, and began to pick out Russian folk-tunes.
For four years he was taught music at home, and made good progress. Then
a wealthy gentleman was attracted by his talent, hearing him play at a
concert at Odessa, and provided the funds necessary for him to go to
Vienna and study under Hellmesberger. He became second violin in the
celebrated Hellmesberger Quartet, and thus gained a great reputation as
a quartet player.
After travelling all over Europe for four years, he was appointed second
professor of the violin at the Conservatory of Moscow, where he remained
another four years. Then followed more study and more travel until,
when Schradieck accepted the position of violin teacher at the
Cincinnati conservatory, Brodsky was appointed to fill his place at
Leipzig. In 1892 he was called to New York, but, owing to troubles which
arose in the musical profession, he returned to Europe the following
year, and, after a short sojourn in Berlin, received the appointment of
director of the Royal College of Music at Manchester, England, where he
succeeded Sir Charles Halle.
Emil Sauret is well known in America, for he visited the United States
in 1872-73, and made a tour which was so successful, that it was
repeated in 1874, when he travelled with Ilma di Murska, the great
singer, and his wife, Teresa Careno, the pianist.
[Illustration: EMIL SAURET]
Sauret began his public career at the age of eight. He was born at
Dun-le-Roi, in the department of Cher, in France, in 1852, and at the
age of six entered the conservatory at Strasburg, after some
preliminary instruction at home. In two years he began his travels, and
for several years he divided his time between study and travel.
As a boy he was taken up by De Beriot, who was much interested in his
welfare. He studied under Vieuxtemps in Paris, and in 1872 was one of
the artists engaged for the tour organised by the President of the
French Republic for the relief of the sufferers by the Franco-German
war.
In 1879 ne was appointed teacher at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, a
post which he relinquished on being offered the position made vacant in
the Royal Academy of Music, London, by the death of Sainton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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