Description

RUTH PIERCE POSSELT (MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, 6 SEPTEMBER, 1911 – GULFPORT, FLORIDA, 19 FEBRUARY, 2007)

 

 

 

 

Posselt studied violin with Emanuel Ondříček, a former student of Eugène Ysaÿe, and made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1923. She won the Schubert Memorial Prize in 1929, toured France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, the Soviet Union in the early 1930s and made her first tour of the United States in 1935. She performed with the National Orchestral Association, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Columbia Symphony Orchestra and frequently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She was invited to perform at The White House by President and Mrs. Roosevelt in 1937. Posselt toured frequently as a recitalist, and formed a duo with pianist Luise Vosgerchian in 1958. Posselt performed several world premieres in her career, including Walter Piston’s First Violin Concerto, a piece which was written for her, in 1940. (Violin Concerto No. 1) She also premiered a violin concerto by Vladimir Dukelsky, a.k.a. Vernon Duke, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Serge Koussevitsky in March 1943. Also with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Posselt premiered violin concertos by composers Edward Burlingame Hill (Concerto for Violin, Opus 38), in 1939, and Samuel Barber (revised version of Concerto for Violin and Orchestra), in 1949, and played the New York premiere of Paul Hindemith’s Violin Concerto in 1941. In 1944, Posselt premiered Aaron Copland’s Violin Sonata with the composer at the piano. She married violinist, concertmaster, and conductor Richard Burgin on July 3, 1940. Their son, Richard W. Burgin, is the author of numerous short-story collections and novels. Their daughter, Diana Lewis Burgin, is an author, Professor of Russian at the University of Massachusetts Amherst From 1958, Posselt performed on a 1732 Giuseppe Guarneri “Del Gesu” known as the “Posselt, Phillip”.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

1. Concerto in A major for violin, strings and continuo (The Pisendel-Concerto) (Vivaldi)
2. Concerto in D minor for violin, strings and continuo (Torelli)
3. Sonata for violin and continuo in B minor, op. 1, no. 3 (Veracini)
4. Sonata in C major for 2 violins and continuo, op. 3, no. 1 (dall’Abaco) Richard Burgin (violin)
5. Trio sonata in A major, op. 1, no. 3 for 2 violins and continuo (Albinoni) Richard Burgin (violin)
6. Violin Concerto, Op. 14 I. Allegro (Barber) Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky
7. Violin Concerto, Op. 14 II. Andante (Barber) Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky
8. Violin Concerto, Op. 14 III. Presto In Moto Perpetuoso (Barber) Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky