Description

MAX POLLIKOFF (NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, 1904 – NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, 1984)

 

 

 

 

Max Pollikoff was an American violinist, composer, conductor, and one of the most important advocates of contemporary music in New York during the mid-20th century. Born in Newark, New Jersey, on April 30, 1904, he developed as a violinist at an early age and received musical training in both Europe and the United States. From the age of fifteen to nineteen, his studies were supported by the McDowell Club, allowing him to continue his education in Europe and New York. Among his most important teachers was the celebrated Hungarian violinist and pedagogue Leopold Auer, whose school had a profound influence on American violin playing.

Pollikoff made his New York debut at Aeolian Hall in 1923, when he was only nineteen. His performance attracted favorable critical attention, and he was described as a violinist of considerable interest and promise. His early repertoire included works by Bach, Bruch, Sarasate, and Chopin, as well as his own compositions, including Légende.

Although Pollikoff possessed the training of a traditional virtuoso, his lasting importance came from his passionate commitment to the music of his own time. He became particularly associated with contemporary American composers and with the promotion of new works for violin and chamber ensembles.

In 1954 Pollikoff founded Music in Our Time, a pioneering concert series at the 92nd Street YMHA (now 92nd Street Y) in New York. The series continued for approximately two decades, until 1974, and became one of the city’s most significant platforms for contemporary music. Pollikoff organized performances and encouraged composers to create new works, commissioning and presenting hundreds of compositions. Through these activities he became a central figure in New York’s postwar new-music community.

His importance extended beyond performance. Pollikoff maintained close relationships with composers and frequently became the dedicatee or first performer of new works. Among the works associated with him is Otto Luening’s Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin, first performed by Pollikoff in New York in 1960. The work was dedicated to him. He was also associated with works by other prominent American composers, helping to establish a repertory of contemporary violin music.

Pollikoff’s activities placed him at the center of an exceptionally active period in American musical life. He worked not only as a solo violinist but also as a conductor and organizer, collaborating with composers and performers and providing opportunities for experimental and newly written music to reach the public. His influence was particularly significant for younger composers and musicians who were seeking alternatives to the established concert repertoire.

In recognition of his contribution to American music, Pollikoff received a Letter of Distinction from the American Music Center in 1972. Contemporary accounts regarded him as one of the leading violinists devoted to new music, and his Music in Our Time series became an important part of the history of postwar American musical modernism.

Max Pollikoff died in New York City in May 1984, aged eighty. His papers, preserved in the Music Division of the New York Public Library, document his extensive career as a violinist and conductor and contain music, programs, correspondence, photographs, press clippings, contracts, and other materials relating to Music in Our Time.

Today, Pollikoff is remembered not primarily for the standard violin repertoire, but for his pioneering role in bringing contemporary music to the concert stage and for the extraordinary number of new works he helped introduce to New York audiences. His career represents an important chapter in the history of American violin playing and, above all, in the development of the American contemporary-music movement after the Second World War.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Niccolo Paganini – The York String Quartet – Quartet In E Major (Grand Quartet)

Label: Regent – MG 5004

Format: Vinyl, 10″, Album, Mono

Country: US

Genre: Classical

Style: Classical, Romantic

Quartet In E Major

Composed By – Niccolò Paganini

Ensemble – New York String Quartet

A1 Allegro Moderato

A2 Menuetto

B1 Adagio

B2 Rondo

Cello – L. Arthur Turkisher

Viola – William Russell

Violin [1st Violin] – Max Pollikoff

Violin [2nd Violin] – Samuel Weiss

Cover shows “The York String Quartet” Label shows “New York String Quartet”

(On label) Not Licensed For Radio Broadcast For Home Use On Phonograph

 

“String Time”

Morton Gould and His Orchestra

CO 36639: Laura (David Raskin, for film of same title) (Side 2)

CO 36640: Sophisticated Lady (Duke Ellington) (Side 4)

CO 36641: Stormy Weather (Harold Arlen, “Cotton Club Parade of 1933”) (Side 8)

CO 36642: The Surrey With the Fringe On Top (Rodgers, “Oklahoma!”) (Side 7)

CO 36646: Holiday for Strings (David Rose) (Side 3)

CO 36647: Solitude (Duke Ellington) (Side 5)

CO 36648: Body and Soul (Johnny Green, “Three’s a Crowd”) (Side 1)

CO 36649: Over the Rainbow (Harold Arlen, “The Wizard of Oz”) (Side 6)

On the first three of these, Max Pollikoff is credited as solo violinist.  All arrangements are by Morton Gould.

Recorded July 11 and 15, 1946, probably in Liederkranz Hall, New York City.