Description

JACQUES GORDON (ODESSA, UKRAINE, MARCH 7, 1899 – HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, SEPTEMBER 15, 1948)

 

 

 

 

Jacques (or Jakob) Gordon was born in Odessa, Ukrain in March 7, 1899. He studied, as did his successor, Mischa Mischakoff at the Imperial Conservatory in Saint Petersburg, where he graduated in 1912.  His family then emigrated to the U.S. in 1914 to New York.  This led to his first U.S. tour in the 1914-1915 season.  Gordon then became a violin student of Franz Kneisel formerly of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Kneisel Quartet at the Institute of Musical Art (later Juilliard) in New York 3.   Frederick Stock appointed Gordon Concertmaster in the 1921-1922 season, and he remained for nine seasons. Jacques Gordon was simultaneously active in chamber music and his Gordon String Quartet was active until 1947, when Gordon disbanded it due to his stroke.  While in Chicago, the Gordon String Quartet consisted of Jacques Gordon first, Edwin Edeler second, Joseph Vieland viola and Nahoum Benditsky (later spelled Naoum Benditzky) cello.  The later Gordon String Quartet of the late 1930s consisted of Jacques Gordon first, David Sackson second, William Lincer viola, Nahoum Benditsky cello, with Fritz Magg later succeeding Hahoum Benditsky.  Jacques Gordon was said to have a violin tone and personality better suited to the collegial dynamics of a string quartet than for the role of Concertmaster of a large symphony orchestra.  Jacques Gordon taught first in the 1920s at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, and later at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.  In 1930, Gordon established a Music Mountain summer music school in Falls Village, Connecticut.  (His grandson, also named Jacques Gordon, advises that Jacques Gordon’s son Nick Gordon has kept Music Mountain alive and still very active today.)  From 1936-1939, like other musicians such as Modest Altschuler and Nathan Abas, Jacques Gordon was conducting the local WPA Orchestra, and also the WPA supported Hartford Symphony Orchestra 71.  There is a famous account of Jacques Gordon playing his Stradivarius on a Chicago street corner at the beginning of the depression in 1930 to test the attractiveness of his music to the Michigan Avenue public.  He is said to have collected $5.61 (the equivalent of more than $50 in current money). In the 1941-1942 season, Jacques Gordon joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, becoming a teaching colleague of Samuel Belov, former Principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra.  In 1943, Jacques Gordon became head of the strings faculty at the Eastman School.  During the 1940s suffering from glaucoma and his vision deteriorated.  Then, in 1947, Gordon suffered a stroke.  Jacques Gordon died September 15, 1948, aged only 49.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

1). Two Pieces for Violin and Piano I. Nocturne (piano Aaron Copland) Columbia 68321-D XCO 17326 1935-04-22

Ukulele Serenade (From Two Pieces for Violin & Piano) (piano Aaron Copland) Columbia 68742-D XCO 17325 1935-04-22

2). Partita for violin and piano (Loeffler)

First movement (Intrada), part 1 with Lee Pattison (piano) Columbia XCO 17665 68820-D

First movement, part 2 with Lee Pattison (piano) Columbia XCO 17666 68820-D

Second movement, part 1 (Sarabande and Variations I-III) with Lee Pattison (piano) Columbia XCO 17667 68821-D

Second movement, part 2 (Variations IV, V)…Third movement (Divertissement), part 1 with Lee Pattison (piano) Columbia XCO 17593 68821-D

Third movement, part 2 with Lee Pattison (piano) Columbia XCO 17594 68822-D

Fourth movement (Finale des tendres Adieux), part 1 with Lee Pattison (piano) Columbia XCO 17595 68822-D

Fourth movement, part 2 with Lee Pattison (piano) Columbia XCO 17596 68823-D

3). Peacocks (‘’Les Paons’’) From four melodies for voice and piano (Loeffler (Trans. by Gordon) with Lee Pattison (piano) Columbia XCO 17912 68823-D

4). Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914)

The Gordon String Quartet:

Jacques Gordon, violin I

Urico Rossi, violin II

David Dawson, viola

Fritz Magg, cello

5). String Quintet in One Movement (Loeffler)

The Gordon String Quartet:

1. Gordon
2. Weiss
3. Lincer
4. Magg

Kay Rickert