Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday

es without witnessing the début of some half-dozen aspirants for public approbation, but the great major

t would remain in a city for months, make acquaintances, and gradually acquire a reputation which would justify his

in his judgment, likely to please the audiences to whom he caters, and who wil

lits from Maine to California and from Canada to the Gulf in a few short weeks. Th

eat violinists are not to be found every day. In the past twenty years, perhaps, not more than two can be recalled who have visited the United States as mature, great artists,-Wilhelmj and Ysaye. Many violinists of excellent ability have been heard, and to som

elegance and polish, did not come to tour the country as a virtuoso. He was engaged by Mr. Walter Damrosch as concert-master for the New York orchestra, but duri

one of those who found his profession at the age of four, when he

earing him play at a concert at Odessa, and provided the funds necessary for him to go to Vienna and study under Hellmesber

Schradieck accepted the position of violin teacher at the Cincinnati conservatory, Brodsky was appointed to fill his place at Leipzig. In 1892 he was called to New York, but, owing to troubles which arose in the musical

nd made a tour which was so successful, that it was repeated in 1874, when he travel

L S

ance, in 1852, and at the age of six entered the conservatory at Strasburg, after some preliminary instruction

er Vieuxtemps in Paris, and in 1872 was one of the artists engaged for the tour organised by

, a post which he relinquished on being offered the position made va

individuality, passion, and fire, he would consider it a sacrilege to obtrude his own personality upon the listener. He is dist

. He expects much of his pupils, and is the very

s before that he had grown to a consummate and astounding virtuoso. His tone was firm, pure, and beautiful, th

e entered the conservatory of his native place, after receiving some instruction from his father, and had c

hestra of the Baron de Derwies. In 1879 he became a member of the Bilse Orchestra, and in 1882, having won dist

eipzig, at a Gewandhaus concert in 1891, he made a phenomenal success, and in 1898 at Brussels he received five

ve playing almost equals that of Paganini himself. Yet he is lacking in personal magnetism, and is a player for the musically cultivated rather than for the multitude, though his technique f

it is said, to disagreements at the Con

s alike the musician and the amateur, because of his perfect musical expression. He possesses the inex

d immediately afterward started on a series of concert tours. Ysaye's eminence as a violinist has been gained by hard work. He did not burst meteor-like upon the world, but he earned his posit

sked him what he would play, and in reply he placed on the piano desk a concerto of Vieuxtemps. The result of his performance was that he at once became a pupil of Wieniawski, with whom he remained some three years, during the period in which Vieuxtemps was recovering from his paralytic shock. In 1876 Vieuxtemps heard him at Antwerp, and through his influence the Belgian government was induced to grant Ysaye a stipend in order to allow him to pursue his studies at Paris. There h

Belgian school of violinists, the first professor of violin at the Brussels Conservatoire,

s acknowledged to be the greatest violinist

stein and to Paderewski. He inspires his hearers, or, as it was once expressed, very neatly, "he creeps up under your vest." He disarms criticism, and he seems to be more completely part of his violin and his violin of him than has been the case with any other player who has visited these shores for some years. He has given the greate

sar Thomson than from Ysaye, but he will rec

few measures of his original cadenza to the Beethoven concerto (an embellishment which all violinists seem obliged to compose), but he declared that he did not like the idea of an original cadenza to Beethoven's work, that it was

ire consisting of ninety-one pieces. Of these, fourteen were conc

8, when he confirmed the opinions alrea

harmonic concert, when he played the E major concerto by Bach, and scored an overwhelming success. At the end of the concert he was r

entirely by himself, without any guarantee fund, and the concerts were so successful, financially as well as artistically, that at the end of the season it

sion of his concerts scenes have been witnessed which are simply nauseating. This fashion is not confined, by any means, to the United States, for there

of a Belgian army officer, and has several children. He is a man of much modesty, and

t by his father. He entered the conservatory at Prague at the age of eight, and remained there until h

as concert-master, after which he held a similar position for three years at Man

was recognised as a broad artist. He is no virtuoso in the ordinary sense of the word, but a classical, non-sensational, well-educated musician, whose playing was not dazzling or magnetic, but delighted by its intellectual

was not until he was fourteen years of age that he was able to enter the conservatory of his native town. Three years later he was sent, through the generosity of a wealthy merchant, to Paris, where he became a pupil of Massart. He shared with Achille Rivarde the hono

the first violins in the Boston Symphony Orchestra w

in Paris, with Massart and Leonard, studying composition with Guiraud. While in Paris he was a member of Pasdeloup's celebrated orchestra, and was

ear he was engaged as second concert-master and soloist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position

been confined to music of the highest class. Mr. Loeffler has never made a tour of the country as a virtuoso, but as soloist of the orchestra he has bee

, "Les Veillées de l'Ukraine;" a concerto for violoncello, which has been played by Mr. Alwyn Schroeder; a divertimento for violin and orchestra, and a symphonic poem, "La Mort de Tintagiles." Besides these large works he has written a number of songs, of which

h musician who had settled in Brazil, and who gave him his first lessons to such good effect that, when only eight years of age, he gave a concert, and the Brazilian

, travelling throughout Europe and England, and being received with enthusiasm. About 1880

aid about him was that he might have developed into a player of their rank.

tates there are few whose accomplishments better entitle them t

ston Symphony Orchestra in 1885, and has held that place for fourteen years, duri

studied under Grün and Hellmesberger. He then received the appointment of concert-master of the Hofburg Theatre Orchestra

e Symphony Orchestra, he was only twenty years of age. He played, on his first appearance as s

heard in many of the great cities of America, as solo violinist wit

pretation of the great works he never attempts to enforce his personality upon the hearer,-in short, he is a true artist. As a conductor he has

1898, has risen in a very short time to a pl

e was of an age to be sent to Moscow, where he studied until his fifteenth year, under Besekirskij and Wieniawski. From Moscow he was

the boy that on first hearing him he offered to take him as a pupil gratis. Few violinists have had the a

, where the Czar granted him exemption from military service, and decorated by the King of Po

and in the smoothness and finish of his playing h

aused in America by Willie Bu

rst violin when he was four years of age, and it came to him from a Christmas tree. This served to show th

s entrance examination. On this occasion he received the recognition of the jury, and was admitted to the school, where he began a rigorous course of technical study. At the end of four years' study under Joachim he was refused a certificate, for some reason not stated, and he went to Helsingfors in Finland, where he worked according to his own idea

nerve. This troubled him to such a degree that he had several operations f

ble success. It was written at the time: "Mr. Burmester comes from an obscure town, unheralded, and, in the face of ind

an equal impression in London, a

play to him. His left hand pizzicato is marvellous, and he makes runs in single and artificial harmonics as quickly as most violinists can play an ordinary scal

denied his certificate and had narrowly escaped musical suffocation at the hands of that great master. He had already made the same st

he did not know the Hochschule had as many pupils as those who had claimed Joachim as their teacher, and who were all unknown. "If one known pupil

ed by the teacher. It is the stumbling-block on which many fall. It is, nevertheless, a fact that without a solid technique the highest perfection in playing cannot be reached, and it is usually regarded as a hopeless case when the pup

rilliant it appeared to lack foundation. Time may justify the stand which the young virtuoso has taken in opposition to his teacher, for he is still young and has time in which to develop. H

He is sincere, but without authority or distinction of style. His tone

, and the friendship extended over a period of three and a hal

n Büllow's temperament was such as to intensify the hostility rather than succumb to it. Burmester was then only sixteen years old, but his sympathy was with Von Büllow, and he wrote a letter to him offering his services, and expressing his contempt for the in

when Von Büllow paused and asked, "W

ched Von Büllow, who ha

it would be yours. Gentlemen," he added, turning to the musicians, "I wis

unswerving loyalty, and it is now one of his greatest desires to reach a point

ist whose excellent playing and charming personality delighted all who heard him. Marteau was c

t five years of age Sivori paid a visit to the family, and was so charmed with the little fellow that he gave him a violin, and persuaded his parents to let him become a professional violinist. Marteau now began to take lessons of Bunzl, a pupil of Molique, but three years later he went to Paris,

playing at the Paris Conservatoire, and Massenet, the

e idol of the hour. The concerto selected was that in G minor by Bruch, and it was played without a rehearsal

st time by the Colonne orchestra, with Marteau as soloist, at Paris, on November 28, 1894, and again on the following Sunday. It was next g

g. His technique is sure, and he plays with contag

f Austria. She gave it to a Belgian musician who had played chamber music with her in Vienna. He took it

ty he was born, and one day a musician of the Royal Opera House happened to hear the boy, who had already endeavoured to master the difficulties of the instrument, and he used his

theatre orchestra, but fortune smiled upon him, and he became an object of interest to the Princess Ourosoff, who heard him play at a concert. Her influence was exerted in his behalf, and he was soon

social, and financial. He has created a furore wherever he has appeared, and has been recalled as many as sixteen times. So great has

t he has a full, penetrating, sympathetic tone. There is no charlatanism or trickery in his playing, nor any virtuoso effects, but the charm of it rests in his glowing temperame

ur, by Theodor Leschetizky, couched in the most glowing terms, and is calle

é are well known. In America, we have Leopold Lichtenberg, a good musician of admirable qualifications. Bernhard Listemann, now of Chicago, has done much toward forming musical taste in America, and was concert-master of the Bosto