Description

BRONISLAV GIMPEL (LEMBERG, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, PART OF POLISH GALICIA (NOW LVIV, UKRAINE), JANUARY 29, 1911 – LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, MAY 1, 1979)

 

 

 

 

He was born in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (then part of Polish Galicia; now Lviv, Ukraine) to a family of Jewish origin. Gimpel’s grandfather, Jaakov Ber Gimpel, founded the Jewish Theatre in Lviv. His father, Samuel, originally a clarinetist, also played the violin and conducted the small theatre orchestra in which Bronislav performed at about eight years of age. Gimpel’s older brother, Jakob Gimpel, became a noted concert pianist who also recorded music for motion pictures, while his eldest brother, Carol, was a gifted pianist who accompanied Bronislav on his 1926 concert tour of Italy.

Gimpel began piano and violin lessons with his father at the age of five. At eight, he entered the Lwów Conservatory, studying with Maurycy Wolfsthal. After 1922 he continued his studies with Robert Pollak at the Vienna Conservatory. In 1925, at the age of fourteen, he performed the Goldmark Violin Concerto with the Vienna Symphony. The following year, an extended concert tour in Italy brought him a series of triumphs of historic proportions, including command performances before King Victor Emmanuel III and Pope Pius XI, as well as invitations to play Paganini’s celebrated Guarneri violin and to perform at the virtuoso’s grave.

While touring Italy in June 1926, Gimpel was presented with a silver box inlaid with precious stones, inscribed “From one infant prodigy to another.” It was gifted to him by Gabriele d’Annunzio, who also gave him a signed photograph and advised him: “Always love your art more than your notoriety.” Tours of South America and Europe soon followed. In 1928–29 he studied at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik under Prof. Carl Flesch, after which he continued his solo career while holding concertmaster positions in Königsberg and Gothenburg.

Gimpel immigrated to the United States in 1937. On the initiative of Otto Klemperer, he became concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in July of that year. After serving in the U.S. Army from 1942 until the end of World War II, he resumed his European solo career, receiving once again wide acclaim. In 1963 he founded The Warsaw Piano Quintet with Władysław Szpilman. His recording of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto is regarded as one of the finest interpretations of this work.

In 1967 Gimpel accepted a professorship at the University of Connecticut, where he led the New England String Quartet. From 1973 he served as professor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. During this period he also resumed extensive solo appearances throughout Europe, the United States, and South America.

Bronislav Gimpel died in Los Angeles at the age of 68.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Dudziarz Opus 19 (Wieniawski) Karol Gimpel, piano Syrena-Electro 21972-6766, 21973-6766

Liebesleid (Kreisler) Karol Gimpel, piano Syrena-Electro 21976 6769

Nigun from Baal Szem (Bloch) Karol Gimpel, piano Syrena-Electro 24077 7763

Nocturne Opus 9 (Chopin) Karol Gimpel, piano Syrena-Electro 6768

Praeludium and Allegro in the Style of Pugnani (Kreisler) Karol Gimpel, piano Syrena-Electro 21970-6766, 21971-6766

Tambourin Chinois (Kreisler) Karol Gimpel, piano Syrena-Electro 21972-6766 or 21973-6766

Träumerei (Schumann) Karol Gimpel, piano Syrena-Electro 21975-6769

Zigeunerweisen (Sarasate) Moderato – Lento – Un peu plus lent – Allegro molto vivace Karol Gimpel, piano Syrena-Electro 21968 6765, 21969 6765