Description

ISSAY BARMAS (ODESSA, 19 APRIL (1 MAY) 1872 – LONDON, 3 JULY 1946)

 

 

 

 

He studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Ivan Grzymaly, then at the Royal Academy of Music in Berlin under Joseph Joachim and Emmanuel Wirth. In 1899 he made his debut in Berlin as a soloist. He toured in Budapest, Warsaw, and various cities in Germany. He was known as a popularizer of the music of Max Reger, corresponded with the composer and performed with him. From 1919 to 1928 he performed at the head of his own string quartet (second violin – Willi Petereins, Alfred Laserstein , Karl Knaak, viola – Otto Klust, Ovsey Schwiff, cello – Fritz Dechert), placing an emphasis on contemporary Russian music in the program.

From 1900 to 1905 he taught at the Stern Conservatory, and from 1905 to 1929 at the Scharwenka Conservatory . Barmas’s students included, among others, Andreas Weisgerber, Edith von Voigtländer, Jon Fernström, and the first concertmaster of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, Rudolf Bergman. He published a methodological manual, “The Solution to the Problem of Violin Technique” (German:  Die Lösung des geigentechnischen Problems, 1913, published with parallel text in Russian and Polish, and in German, English, and French), and compiled several collections of exercises. He is the author of a number of arrangements and transcriptions.

During his Moscow period, he became friends with Konstantin Balmont and maintained friendly relations for many years.

 

 

 

JAKUB DRUTMAN (BREST, BELORUS, 1870 – ?)

 

 

 

 

He studied under Stanisław Barcewicz at the Institute of Music in Warsaw from 1886 to 1891, performing in a concert there in 1891. He received his violin diploma and a military bandmaster’s diploma in 1893. For many years, he played in the first violin section of the Grand Theatre Orchestra in Warsaw and also taught violin, including from 1912 at the Józef Lipiański School of Music. In 1912, he made several solo recordings for Syrena Record.

 

 

 

LEON SAMETINI (ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, 16 MARCH, 1886 – CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, US, 20 AUGUST, 1944)

 

 

 

 

Leon Sametini was an American virtuoso violinist and music pedagogue who originated from Rotterdam, Holland. Sametini was born to Samual Sametini and Rose De Groot. He initially studied violin in the Netherlands with his uncle, M. De Groot, and from 1892 until he was 10 years of age with Dutch violinist Felice Togni and Bram Eldering at the Amsterdam Conservatoire. In 1902, Sametini went to Prague to study violin for one year with Otakar Ševčík. He also studied with notable teacher Eugène Ysaÿe.

As a violin virtuoso, Sametini gave concert tours from which he became well known in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Austria. He was a protégé of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands who enabled him to continue his studies in Prague under Otakar Ševčík and she gave him a violin made in 1730 by the Venetian violin maker Sancto Seraphin.

Sametini was a notable violin teacher. Whilst in London he taught Isolde Menges, an English violinist. He eventually settled in Chicago, where he was head of the violin department at the Chicago Musical College. Whilst director of violin, he taught notable students such as Silvestre Revueltas, Aaron Rosand, Harry Adaskin, Oliver Colbentson and Guila Bustabo, who studied with Sametini from the age of five.

On 20 August 1944, Sametini was admitted to the Grant Hospital, Chicago, where he died of a sudden heart attack.

 

 

ROBERT PERUTZ (POLAND 1886 – CINCINNATI, USA FEBRUARY 27, 1934)

 

 

 

 

He was born into a family of Jewish parents in Poland. He was the Artist Teacher of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He made a few recordings for Gennett.

There were many great violinists of Jewish descent in interwar Lviv. They participated in Polish musical life as soloists, chamber musicians, conductors, members of orchestras and teachers. Along with creating their local music scene, they performed on various Polish and foreign stages and played for Polish Radio. Among the most talented Jewish violin virtuosos connected with Lviv at that time were Robert Perutz, Feliks Eyle and Bronisław Gimpel.

He was a musician, who primarily based in Cincinnati. also Perutz String Quartet: Robert Perutz first, Thomas Williams second, Peter Froehlich viola, and Desire Danczowski cello in the 1920s).

Recorded the Wieniawski Valse Caprice for Gennett Records of Indiana in the late 1920s. He taught at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. His last days seem to have been sad: Perutz suffered from poison in November, 1933, but recovered 132. He died in Cincinnati on February 27, 1934 of exposure after having taken a drug.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

1. Issay Barmas Romance in G (Reger) Polyphon 13693 947977
2. Jakub Drutman Dudziaz (Wieniawski) Syrena 12538
3. Jakub Drutman Kujawiak (Wieniawski) Syrena 8497
4. Jakub Drutman Nocturne in E flat major. Op.9, No. 2 (Chopin) Syrena 8496
5. Jakub Drutman Polonez (Wieniawski) Syrena 12537
6. Jakub Drutman Serenata (Toselli) Gramophone 27994 16630b
7. Leon Sametini Air On The G String (Bach) John Bull 40806
8. Leon Sametini Valse Bluette (Drigo-Auer) John Bull 40807
9. Robert Perutz Cradle Song (Aulin) Freda Slauter (piano) Gennett 11662 C1-B
10. Robert Perutz Gavotte (Mozart) Freda Slauter (piano) Gennett 11660 C1-A
11. Robert Perutz Valse Caprice (Wieniawski) Prewett Williams (piano) Gennett 11819 C3-A