Description

EDDY BROWN (CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, USA, JULY 15, 1895 – ABANO TERME, ITALY, JUNE 14, 1974)

 

 

 

 

His father, with whom he had his first lessons, was Austrian and his mother, Russian.  He later studied with Hugh McGibney in Indianapolis while still a child.  He is known for having launched and hugely influenced classical music radio programming in the U.S.  In fact, he gave the first radio performance of all ten Beethoven sonatas.  In 1936, he pioneered radio station WQXR in New York City (devoted exclusively to classical music) which survives to this day.  His first public appearance as a violinist was at age six.  At age nine (1904), he enrolled at the Royal Conservatory in Budapest where he studied with Jeno Hubay, Bela Bartok and others.  Two years later, he took first prize in the Budapest Concerto Competition.  Eugene Ormandy took second.  Brown graduated in 1909 and soon after made his formal debut in Budapest playing the Beethoven concerto.  That same year he made his London debut with the London Philharmonic playing Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto – he was fourteen years old.  His Berlin debut came in 1910 with the Brahms concerto.  He then studied further (until 1916) with Leopold Auer at the St Petersburg Conservatory and concertized world wide for some time after that.  His U.S. debut was at Indianapolis in 1916 with the Beethoven concerto.  He made his New York debut that same week.  He began to record (if one can call it that) in 1916.  He also formed a string quartet (name unknown) and established the Chamber Music Society of America. After becoming involved in radio in 1930, he essentially stopped touring, though he played for many of the different radio programs which he created and in various venues close to New York.  Ironically, almost none of the hundreds of performances he gave on radio survive.  Brown started to teach at the University of Cincinnati in 1956.  He was named Artist-in-Residence of Butler University (Indianapolis) in 1971.  Brown died unexpectedly (in Italy) on June 14, 1974, at age 78.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

Jocelyn (Godard) Berceuse Sonora 1055-A MS 462-1

La Gitana (Kreisler) Josef Bonime (piano) Columbia 97-M 80280

Ma Curley-Headed Babby (Clutsam) Crys Holland (vocal) Sonora 1055-B MS 462-2

Minuet (Haydn) Josef Bonime (piano) Columbia A3483 79848

My isle of golden dreams (Blaufuss) Max Terr (piano) Columbia A2924 78958

On Miami shore (Jacobi) Max Terr (piano) Columbia A2924 78957

Orientale (Cui) L. T. Greenberg (piano) Columbia A6012 49272

Paraphrase on Paderewski’s minuet (Paderewski) Columbia A6057 49412

Polish dance (Wieniawski) Columbia A6057 49356

Romance (Svendsen) Josef Bonime (piano) Columbia A3483 79838

Rondino (Cramer) Max Terr (piano) Columbia A2778 78321

Sadko (Rimsky-Korsakov) Song of India Columbia 143-M W144596

Serenade (Drdla) Max Terr (piano) Columbia A2882 78388

Serenade Espagnole (Chaminade) Columbia A3449 79912

Sing me to sleep (Greene) Hulda Lashanska (soprano) Columbia 24-M 79212

Solveig’s Song, from Peer Gynt Suite #2 (Grieg) Josef Bonime (piano) Columbia A3449 79898

Song of India (Rimsky-Korsakov) Columbia A3545 79175

That Naughty Waltz (Levy) Max Terr (piano) Columbia A2989 79274