Description

NATHAN “TOSSY” SPIVAKOVSKY (ODESSA, IMPERIAL RUSSIA, DECEMBER 23, 1906 [O.S. DECEMBER 10, 1906] – WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT, JULY 20, 1998)

 

 

 

 

Tossy Spivakovsky, a Jewish, Russian-born, German-trained violin virtuoso who taught in Australia and later settled in the United States, was considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century. Tossy Spivakovsky was born in Odessa, which in 1906 was still part of Imperial Russia. Under the increasing threat of pogroms his family moved to Berlin, where he studied with Arrigo Serato privately and later with Willy Hess at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik. A violin prodigy, he gave his first recital at age 10. Together with his elder brother Jacob “Jascha” (1896–1970), a renowned concert pianist, Tossy made his first European concert tour at age 13, performing as soloist with orchestras in a number of countries including Holland, England, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, in 1919, where the brothers played for Danish royalty. At only 18, after being talent spotted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, Spivakovsky became the youngest concertmaster hired by the Berlin Philharmonic. Two years later he left to pursue a solo career in Europe. During the 1920s, he and his brother Jascha performed together as the Spivakovsky Duo. In 1930, Tossy and Jascha established the highly acclaimed Spivakovsky-Kurtz Trio together with cellist Edmund Kurtz. The trio was on a tour of Australia in 1933 when the Nazi Party took power in Germany, temporarily ending Spivakovsky’s European career. He remained in Australia, where he married Dr. Erika Lipsker Zarden, philologist and Renaissance historian, who was his wife of 63 years. All three members of the Spivakovsky-Kurtz trio joined the teaching staff of the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. The youngest of nine, Spivakovsky belonged to a musical family. His brother Albert, a distinguished pianist, also played the cello and conducted orchestras in Germany and Denmark. Another brother, the violinist and cellist Isaac ‘Issy’ (1902–1977), who had studied violin under Willy Hess, and cello with Hugo Becker and Gregor Piatigorsky, also migrated to Australia in 1934, and for 28 years (1937–1965) taught violin, viola and cello at Scotch College, Melbourne. Adolf (1891–1958), a bass-baritone, also migrated to Melbourne in 1934 and taught at the University Conservatorium where his students included the sopranos Glenda Raymond and Sylvia Fisher. In 1940, Spivakovsky moved to the United States with his wife and baby daughter, and made his New York debut at Town Hall that year. He became concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra under Artur Rodziński, in that capacity also often performing as soloist. In 1943, Rodziński invited him to present the premiere United States performance of Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in Cleveland, Ohio. Spivakovsky subsequently gave this work its first performances in New York and San Francisco. Spivakovsky was soloist in the premiere performances of Leon Kirchner’s Sonata Concertante and David Diamond’s Canticle and Perpetual Motion. Accompanied by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, he gave the New York premieres of violin concerti by Frank Martin and Carl Nielsen. He composed his own cadenzas for the Beethoven violin concerto that were published in 1964 by Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden, No. 6460. He also composed cadenzas for all five Mozart violin concerti that were published in 1967 by Wilhelm Zimmermann, Frankfurt am Main. For more than four decades, represented by Columbia Artists Management, he travelled extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, South America, Israel, and Europe giving solo performances. He also found time to teach violin and chamber music at the Juilliard School in New York City from 1974 to 1989.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

1. Arva — Valse mignonne (Paul Juon, op.52, 2) Paul Juon (p). B. 12318-I 37726 Parlophon 1929.08.
2. Baal Schem (Bloch) Sascha Spiwakowsky (p) Parlophon R1217 38548, 38549 1931
3. Carmen Fantasy (Sarasate) A4415 21832, A4415 2-21833 Parlophon 1933.02.28
4. Hungarian Dance No. 1 (Brahms) 12318 Parlophon 1928.06.06
5. Introduction and tarantella, Op. 43 (Sarasate) P-9548 2- 21726 Parlophon 1929.10.11
6. Le Ronde des Lutins (Bazzini) A4310 2-21627 Parlophon 1929.11.18
7. Rondo (Mozart) P-9568 2- 21788 Parlophon 1931.03.23
8. Sarabande (Mouret) E 11144 21553 Parlophon 1929.09.06
9. Scherzo-Tarantelle (Wieniawski) 9548 21726 Parlophon 1930.06.11
10. Sicilienne et Rigaudon — im Stile von François Francœur (Fritz Kreisler) A3592 38709 Parlophon 1933
11. Slavonic Dance No. 10, Op. 72 (Dvorak-Kreisler) 25379 A Parlophon 1930.06.11
12. Sonate XI, XII (Paganini) P9090-I 20079, P9090-II 20080 Parlophon 1927.01.15
13. Valse Op. 39 No. 15 (Brahms) R 1414 36173 Parlophon 1928.08.27