Description

JOSEF WOLFSTHAL (VIENNA, AUSTRIA 12 JUNE, 1899 – BERLIN, GERMANY, 3 FEBRUARY, 1931)

 

 

 

 

He was born into a musical family in Vienna. It was of Galician origin. His father and his older brother Max (born 1896) both played the violin. His father was an excellent violin teacher, and gave his sons their first lessons on that instrument. He also taught Sigmund Feuermann (1900–1952). From the age of 10, Wolfsthal studied for six years with famed Hungarian violin teacher Carl Flesch, and at age 16 started to perform in public. His debut was on April 7, 1916 with Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Camillo Hildebrand (1876–1953). There he performed the Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor, BWV 1043 by Johann Sebastian Bach with his teacher Carl Flesch, who then encouraged him to gain some experience as an orchestral player to make him a more disciplined ensemble player. In that capacity, he played in the first performance of Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss, and in the first recording of Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme by Strauss, conducted by the composer in Berlin. Wolfsthal then moved to Bremen, where he succeeded Georg Kulenkampff (1898–1948) as concertmaster. Later he moved to the Swedish capital Stockholm and then back to Berlin as concertmaster of one of the two outstanding orchestras in the German capital in the interwar period, the Berlin State Opera orchestra (the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was the other), where he became a protégé of Richard Strauss, who often conducted this orchestra (see above). When he was only 26, he was made a violin professor at Music Academy in Berlin. Some of his students were Szymon Goldberg (1909–1993) and Marianne Liedtke, who later named herself Maria Lidka (1914–2013) after emigrating to United Kingdom. Wolfsthal gave the premiere of Karl Weigl’s 1928 Violin Concerto. He played in a distinguished string trio with cellist Emmanuel Feuermann and violist and composer Paul Hindemith in which his pupil Goldberg succeeded him after his death and led the group in recordings for Columbia of Beethoven’s Serenade Op. 8 and Hindemith’s String Trio No. 2. Wolfsthal had already made some recordings in the 1920s. In 1928, he became deputy head of orchestra of Krolloper Berlin, which was led by Otto Klemperer. There he took part in the premiere of Kammermusik No. 5, op. 36 no. 4 by Hindemith. He formed a trio with pianist Leonid Kreutzer and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. The latter recommended him as a violin teacher to the young Marianne Liedtke. But when Wolfsthal was engaged to accompany young piano virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz, his lack of discipline betrayed him when, while performing for Piatigorsky’s manager, he abruptly stopped accompanying in midstream and started to improvise, laughing boyishly. He married Olga, the former wife of George Szell, who bore him a daughter. After attending a funeral in Berlin in the winter of 1930, he caught a cold which escalated to pneumonia several weeks later and took his life at only 31. His wife later married the cellist Benar Heifetz (1899–1974). Wolfsthal’s sound has been described as “tightly concentrated” and “sweet”; his style—which eschewed portamenti—as having a “spruce modernity”. Reviewing Wolfsthal’s 1929 recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, the Penguin guide to compact discs wrote of his “breathtaking mastery, making one regret that this pupil of Carl Flesch died in his early thirties.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Am Camin (Schumann) D7042 Artiphon, 11 March 1923 Berlin

Ave Maria (Schubert) 50636 B8084 Homocord 19223 Berlin

Danse Macabre Op. 40 (Saint-Saëns) B24429/30 95204, HMV 1928, Conducted by Oskar Fried

Danza Espanola No. 5 Playera (Sarasate) piano Karol Szreter HMV EG415 8-47910, 5 Jul 1926 Berlin

Chant Hindou (Sadko) 61037 B37 Homocord, 1927/8? Berlin

Hungarian Dance No. 2 (Brahms-Joachim) B2601, EG233 BW52-1 HMV, 5 Jule 1926 Berlin

Hymnne an die heilige Cecilie (Gounod) with Ewel Stegman (Cello) & Anna Hopf-Geidel (Harfe) 50724 B8117 Homocord 19223 Berlin

Il rè pastore (Mozart) L’ amerò, sarò costante (w. Ivogün) B 24234 1853 as Gramophone

Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso (Saint-Saëns) 52220 4-8881 Homocord, Berlin Symphony Orch, Horst Platten

Kaleidoscope Orientale (Cui) 10668-1 A357 Ultraphon 1928/9

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (R. Strauss) Courante 95393 414Bs Polydor

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (R. Strauss) Entry and Dance of the Tailors 95393 410Bs Polydor

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (R. Strauss) Lully Minuet 95393 414Bs Polydor

Lento Melodie (Gluck-Kreisler) piano Karol Szreter HMV EG415 8-47909, 5 Jul 1926 Berlin

Moment Musicale (Schubert) D7042 Artiphon 11 March 1923 Berlin

Ombra mai fu Largo (Handel) 50639 B8082 Homocord, 1922/3 Berlin

Partita No. 3 Prelude (Bach) D7041 Artiphon 11 March 1923 Berlin

Romance No. 2 in F Op. 50 (Beethoven) Polydor 869az 69794, Berlin May 1925

Solveig’s song (Grieg) Homokord 50547 B8049, 1922/3, Berlin

Suite No. 5 Air (Mattheson-Brumester) B2602, EG209 BW49-2 HMV, 5 Jule 1926 Berlin

 

Träumerei (Schmann) B8056 50554 B8049 Homocord, 1922/3 Berlin

Violin Concerto Op.61 (Beethoven)

Berliner Staatsoper Orchestra, Conducted by Hans Thierfelder

Allegro ma non troppo

Larghetto

Rondo (Allegro)

1925

Polydor-69789/93 (B 27587-96)

Violin-Concert E Minor (Mendelssohn) Op. 64 Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace Polydor  69822 B 27606, Piano Waldemar Liachowsky 1925

Violin-Concert E Minor (Mendelssohn) Op. 64 Allegro molto appassionato Polydor 69820 B 27602, Piano Waldemar Liachowsky 1925

Violin-Concert E Minor (Mendelssohn) Op. 64 Andante Polydor 69821 B 27605, Piano Waldemar Liachowsky 1925

Waltz No. 15 in A flat (Brahms-Boyd) HMV EG209 8-479015, July 1926 Berlin

 

Symphonie espagnole – Scherzando. Allegro molto (Lalo) Homocord 4-8835 Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester Horst Platen, conductor

Trio No. 3, Op. 1 Menuetto (Beethoven) with Leonid Kreutzer and Gregor Piatigorsky 66212 Polydor, 1924

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 I. Allegro ma non troppo Polydor 95243 B 27742, 95243 B 27743, 95244 B 27744, 95244 B 27745, 95245 B 27746 Conductor Manfred Gurlitt, Berlin, Hochschule für Musik, Berliner Philharmoniker, 1929-01-01

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 II. Larghetto Polydor 95245 B27747, 95246 B 27748 Conductor Manfred Gurlitt, Berlin, Hochschule für Musik, Berliner Philharmoniker, 1929-01-01

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 III. Rondo. Allegro Polydor 95246 B 27749, 95247 B 27750, 95247 B 27751 Conductor Manfred Gurlitt, Berlin, Hochschule für Musik, Berliner Philharmoniker, 1929-01-01

Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K219 Turkish (Mozart) I. Allegro aperto – Allegro aperto – Allegro aperto Conductor Frieder Weissmann, 1928-09-15

Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K219 Turkish (Mozart) II. Adagio Parlophon P. 9360-II 20919 Conductor Frieder Weissmann, 1928-09-15

Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K219 Turkish (Mozart) III. Allegro – Tempo di menuetto Parlophon P. 9458-I 20929, P. 9458-II 20930 Conductor Frieder Weissman