On Bronislaw Huberman
samir golescu
[revised and completed after listening to the previously "missing"
Huberman recordings]
In one of his novels, "Wandering Stars", Sholom [Sholem] Aleichem draws
the portrait of a Jewish wunderkind--Grisha Stelmach. "When he took the
violin in his hands and started moving it on the strings, the kid [...]
disappeared and someone else appeared, different face, different height.
The eyes were different as well [...] the public became crazy. I was
wondering: how was it possible to worship a human being so much? Still,
the way he played, especially the encore, was divine, more than divine!"
[sorry, my translation via Romanian]
Not many people know, probably, that the writer took as source for his
Grisha many biographical data from, and characteristics of, the violinist
Bronislaw Huberman. Marcella Embrich, the singer from the novel that helps
Grisha, is no other than Adelina Patti, the legendary soprano from the end
of the last century. [Marcella *S*embrich existed as well, but my guess is
that Aleichem combined, in his fiction, more than one myth of the Jewish
communities -- after all, "musician" was the "third profession", after
"doctor" and lawyer".(:
[Mischa Elman also represented, in the Jewish imagination, the
prototype of the wunderkind violinist, the poor Odessa Jew becoming,
trough extraordinary talent and hard work, the favorite of the royal
courts and the idol of the concert halls, but that was to be later.] Patti
had the generosity of scheduling the not-yet-famous Huberman in her
concert, contributing as such to the violinist's glamorous debut, even if
it seems that the unexpected triumph of her young and innocent
"competitor" irritated a bit the sensitive diva.
Many people today still consider Heifetz the greatest violinist after
Paganini. I had never anything but admiration for Heifetz's prodigious
mastery. His technical ability, among the most amazing in the history of
violin playing, is beyond any doubt, as are his musicality, the purity of
his sonority and the impeccable polish of most of his recordings. I'm
sorry to say that when I want to listen to *artists* that "just happened
to study violin" (as J. Sveida cleverly put it), I still listen to Enescu,
Huberman, Szigeti, Kreisler, Busch, Thibaud, Elman, Spalding or Seidel.
From Huberman (ONE "N", please--he deliberately asked for it, in one of
his letters, being annoyed by the frequent "Hubermann") we are left two
major writings, one about his professional experience, the other about his
paneuropean convictions.
Huberman believed in the future of a united, tolerant Europe, based on the
common components of the nations' spirituality, based on political trust
and cooperation. One of Huberman's "78"-discs coupled, perhaps
symbolically, Schubert's Ave Maria and Bruch's abbreviated Kol Nidre, as a
testimony of the inextricably Christian-Jewish character of the European
culture Huberman was a proud son of. I also remember having read some
beautiful thoughts of Huberman, the Jew, on Jesus Christ as incalculably
great historical figure.
Huberman also believed in the artist's duty to guard the public morality.
In 1933, Furtwangler, willing to demonstrate that he was not inclined to
accept the Nazi intrusion in artistic affairs, invited Huberman in Berlin,
to celebrate the Brahms centennial in Brahms's Double Concerto, together
with himself [Furtwangler], BPO and Gregor Piatigorsky. When Huberman was
a child still, Brahms reputedly was as enthusiastic about H.'s version of
his Concerto, that he planned to write another "concertante" form
him--the composer's death canceled any project...
WHAT FOLLOWS IS WHAT I WROTE TWO YEARS AGO ABOUT THE SUBJECT:
-----------------------------
<<<<<Huberman's Brahms Concerto... I am myself longing for it! -- had me
looking into an old exchange I had with Mr. Allan Evans (Arbiter Records)
on the subject.
I reproduce here the significant passage:
me:
<<Reading an old ICRC issue, I happened to find the information that in
the future Arbiter will publish the long time unavailable Brahms Concerto
with Huberman, from "immaculate sources".
Is that feasible in the proximal future?>>
him:
<<It won't happen on Arbiter. The orchestra is the New York Philharmonic
and we cannot issue their property without permission, due to exorbitant
union fees and the likelihood of a refusal.
Let's hope it will be included in some future anthology of their
broadcasts.>>
Also Mr. Evans, a true Huberman connoisseur, is my (reliable) source re.
the "inauthenticity" of the 1937 Huberman-Brahms (not that having an early
Elman live version would be bad, God forbid!!!).>>>>
-----------------
In the meantime I was able, after more efforts than predicted -- but by
sheer luck of finding a most generous spiritual brother-collector --, I
DID find both these rare 1937 and the 1944 recordings and I have to say
that, with all my great respect for Mr Evans' genuine expertise, in more
than one respect far superior to my limited knowledge, to my ears BOTH
recordings of Brahms' Concerto are Huberman "durch und durch". It would
take serious extra-musical documentary evidence to convince me of the
contrary. It is true that the 1937 recording, probably made right before
the plane accident that hurt the soloist's hands, presents Huberman's
sonority at a peak of mellowness which could be locally taken for Elman's,
but the two violinists had such a strongly individualized (different from
each other's) use of vibrato, portamento, and rubato, that I can safely
say that I don't think I made a mistake. Moreover, both recordings
exhibit Joachim's cadenza, played with (about) the same way of phrasings,
and with Huberman's characteristic, extraordinarily expressive playing of
the short, beautiful coda of (i), after the cadenza. Huberman plays there
the main theme, on the E string, with a unique, quasi-hesitant attitude,
with a penetrating pianissimo sonority -- the orchestra (NYPSO,
well-conducted by Barbirolli) plays mezzoforte, but the solo violin has
such a gorgeous tone that the listener has no trouble in hearing,
isolating it. But where Huberman reaches a peak of Brahmsiana never heard
elsewhere is in what follow the theme -- that descending lament
"C# B A G F# D# E C# D B C A # B". His violin
sounds like a wondrous, sad and sublime bird from another universe.
Both the 1937 (Barbirolli) and the 1944 (also NYPSO, but
Rodzinski-conducted) recordings exhibit pretty much similar conceptions,
with Huberman being in better technical shape in the early one, but in
still unexpectedly excellent technique in the later one as well.
The Finale, in both performances, is the most "substantially exciting" I
have heard. I have to admit that, in this finale, most performances make
me wait for the return of the theme. With Huberman, what happens *between*
the rondo-reference points is equally, if not more exciting. The "G Major
episode" exposes an echt-Huberman "sobbing"
(on the "D---B G E D G F#A...") that gives an undimenticable profile to
*****
the theme in its various uses. Huberman uses plentifully, in the Finale,
his specific alternance of incredibly beautiful singing tone and
devilishly spicy spicatti. The coda, with that specifically Brahmsian
transforming a binary thematic material in a ternary one (or vice versa),
has Huberman riding on his audience toward the wildly exciting final
chords like no other recording.
We have also Brahms' G Major Sonata, a late, not impeccable live
recording, played with an extraordinary assumption of Brahms' lyricism.
Furtwangler could hardly have found a more "authorized" Brahms soloist.
However, finding a good German (i.e. politically desirable) soloist wasn't
impossible, of course. Furtwangler wanted to combine, though, the use of a
soloist he enormously admired (and with whom he shared musical honesty and
emotional intensity) with a just-too-transparent allusion to his humanist
and anti-racist convictions. Huberman, despite many previous
collaborations, refused. His refutal underlined more, though, his
incompatibility with the anti-Nazi regime than with Furtwangler's person.
In his protest addressed to "Germany, nation of poets and philosophers",
the violinist exclaimed: "Where are in Germany those Zola, Clemenceau,
Painleve, Piquart, in the monstruous 'Dreyfuss Trial' directed against a
defenseless minority?"
Huberman spent lots of money, time and energy for his "United Europe"
ideal. He was not a greedy person, as sometimes portrayed by gossipists &
columnists. He was a regular guest, for decades, of the Romanian concert
halls, since he was Brahms' "wunderkind". His popularity as a violinist in
Hungary or Romania of the time was equaled perhaps only by Enescu and
Kreisler.
The following (true!) anecdote was told by Jack Bratin, an influent and
charming interbellum Jewish-Romanian impresario. (He had a piano that was
autographed by almost ALL great pianists of the period--practically ANY
pianist that performed in Bucharest was his guest! The trace of that
precious instrument was lost after the war...)
Huberman was gossiped about as being very interested in money, people were
kidding that during the concert he was counting the spectators in order to
check the number with the number of tickets sold. Actually, on the
occasion of that specific concert, Huberman thought wrongly that he was
somehow tricked regarding his payment, argued a lot over the matter (to
people's dismay) and gave up only when he was convinced he was wrong in
his suspicions.
The day after his concert though, when he found out that a charity concert
for retired penniless musicians was organized, Huberman asked himself
(nobody would have dared) to participate, for free, in that concert and
his contribution served to augment the amount of money raised...
Jack Bratin said that then he knew the real Huberman--generous, altruist,
humane.
The nationalist outbursts in the '30s might have made the musician
ridiculous, in his own eyes, when he radically changed his view about the
future of the European Jewry? I am not sure. Today though, at least in the
half of Europe that was exonerated by the other plague, Communism, the
(then) utopia of the United Europe became (almost) reality. What Huberman
said -- "where are no borders, there are no wars" -- became, from utopia,
reality. Huberman and his adepts, disappointed by the totalitarian
evolution of the post-WWI Europe, saw, unbeknownst to themselves, far in
the future. Their utopia proves itself being more fertile and vivid, in
time, than the sinister "realism" of the untreatable nationalists of his
and our day.
Like Enescu (the later in the broader field of musical interpretation
and composition), Huberman dominated and conciliated, in his art,
very diverse, sometimes adverse, cultural influences. Joachim was for a
time his professor, but Joachim's classicizing shadow can hardly be
detected in Huberman's aesthetics. It was said that Huberman didn't get
along very well with the illustrious -- but somehow rigid -- pedagogue,
working more with one of Joachim's assistants. Let's not forget Szigeti
refused Joachim's offer to take him as a student as well...
Joseph Joachim was celebrated for his rendition of Beethoven's Violin
Concerto, as no other violinist in the 19th century was. Joachim's few
discs, engraved after Joachim was seventy, reveal *some* of Joachim's
personality-- e.g., his unexpectedly improvisational phrasing in Brahms'
First Hungarian Dance as also some touching, emotional touches in Bach's G
Minor Adagio--but it seems to be little doubt that Joachim at his apogee,
THE Joachim that silenced into admiration listeners like Liszt, Brahms or
Hanslick, was a much greater artist than what his recordings are able to
convey.
Besides Joachim and his school, the great cantorial tradition exercised
influence over Huberman. Even Caruso (not Jewish, as far as I know) said
he listened to cantors on any occasion, learning from their antique vocal
art. I'd say this only enriched Huberman's playing--especially in our
wrongly internationalized era (I am referring to culture here), when in
any interpretation one could easily ascertain a deficit in idiomaticity.
Beyond its religious function, the great cantors of the past possessed an
original and impressive vocal art, their science of ornamental
improvisation being served by adequate vocal means. I like Pinkashovich,
Kwartin or Hershman, but Gherson Sirota remained my favorite--his voice
thrills and trills like that of an indomitable bird.
Huberman transmitted some cantorial intonations not only to Kol Nidre but,
unpredictably, to pieces that have presumedly little to do with Jewish
music--Sarasate's Romanza Andalusa or the slow movement of Lalo's Spanish
Symphony. The music gained a mystical dimension, possibly surprising, I
daresay, for the authors themselves, had they heard Huberman's
interpretation. Compare Huberman's Kol Nidre (abbreviated and played,
modestly, with piano) and Casals' excellent version(s). With Casals, I
hear more of a "from outside" music, an "essay about prayer", very
beautiful nonetheless. Huberman does not take distance, he does not evoke
the prayer, as part of a cultural inventory assumed in a half-objective
manner. Huberman prays, with all the vulnerability, naivete and sublime
dedication genuine prayer asks for, concretely assuming the
transfiguration of the celestial nemesis in consolatory, fatherly light.
Here are also some thoughts on Huberman's other recordings:
Unmissable are, among his concerto recs.:
Tchaikovsky's Concerto -- 1928, studio, Berlin Opera, Wilhelm (then),
William later, Steinberg -- Naxos published that, newly
transferred, yes, you guessed, by M. O.-T. -- excellent. An incredible
version, very fast in the outer movements, a fastness that reflects a
wonderful sense of form and never a penchant for record-breaking speed as
a goal in itself. Whatever weak developments Tchaikovsky used in this
concerto, Huberman makes them sound "right" by the vitalizing urgency of
his approach. A gripping second movement. I love the accompaniment
as well--the BSO basses offer a good support and the brass triplets in the
development of the first movement sound as enthusiastic as in the best
modern recording you love. In the third movement, "literal" [sic!]
balalaika illusion with the pizzicati.
This recording already appeared on various labels, from the deceased(?)
French label "Classical Collector") to Pearl and EMI. The EMI wasn't bad,
a bit dry, now out-of-print anyway (a collector gently copied it for
me)... the Naxos is better, though.
Lalo's Spanish Symphony -- 1934, Vienna PO, Szell, available on Pearl,
Preiser, Appian (APR) -- go for the latest, is the best yet transfer
(Bryan Crimp). My very favorite recording of the piece--a pity the (then
customary) cutting of one whole movement... the almost contemporary
recording of the young Menuhin includes it though, no doubt under Enescu's
influence. It is one case where i can only regret the cut--the piece
would not have sounded long with Huberman, anyway! His is my all-time
favorite Lalo recording. The violin's sonority varies within an enormous
dynamic and color range, it sounds alternatively like a cello, like a
viola or like a flute piccolo, everything played with a penetrating,
haunting psychological (I am tempted to say expressionist) intensity, at
that level of intensity at which the song opens into painful expressive
ejaculation and the interjection redeems itself in the nobility of the
song.
Bach--both Concerti (A Minor, E Major), Vienna PO, 1934, Issay Dobrowen.
The A Minor Concerto is incredible -- my other favorites are the young
Menuhin (God rests his good soul), with Enescu conducting, and Busch (on
Pearl). But, perhaps, nobody played like Huberman the first violin theme
(mi re mi la sol# la, mi re mi do si...), like an intimate conversation
with the Divinity. Not a Bach for "stylists", but for those for whom Bach
is a music for intense emotion, for tears. Pearl CD couples the Bachs with
a spicy, weird and... sublime Mozart G Major (Third) Concerto (with
Huberman's own idiosyncratic cadenzas) a very good, close to ideal, in
terms of 78s transfers (it is an "early" Mark Obert-Thorn transfer,
I love the realism of the sound and that he happily did leave a bit of
surface noise).
Huberman's Bach... he, Enescu and Szigeti [the last two with all Sonatas
and Partitas] were all recorded too late in their life [Szigeti recorded
some earlier, fortunately]
But the early Sarabande in B Minor, recorded by Huberman in 1934 -- I
never heard it better... A Hungarian critic wrote in the '30s that
Huberman and Enescu were the only violinists capable to hold an audience
breathless for hours, just by playing Bach solo... they had an organ
hidden in their thin violins...
Two 2CDs Biddulph volumes include Huberman's Brunswick acousticals and
the Columbia electricals (the later including the above-mentioned
Sarabande). I remember the Diapason critic J-M Molkhou
writing that never a "plus boulversante" Aria on the G String was
recorded. I tend to agree. The Columbias include the famous 1930
Kreutzer, with Friedman (some alternate takes from those sessions
are filling the second Arbiter--Huberman CD). The Brunswicks (from the
20's) reproduce an earlier, abbreviated still exciting, Kreutzer Sonata,
with Siegfried Schultze at the piano, as well the second and third mvts.
of Mendelssohn's Concerto, for whose interpretation Huberman was famous.
(There were rumors regarding a live, complete Huberman--Mendelssohn,
somewhere in Swiss archives, until now they remained rumors only...)
It is certain that Huberman played the Mendelssohn in 1939, at that
Luzerne Festival where Rachmaninov played Beethoven's First Concerto...
what a treat! A Romanian music lover (among many other things!), Nicu
Steinhardt, assisted to Huberman's rehearsal in Luzerne, as well.
Toscanini was not conducting, but he was in the hall during rehearsal,
commenting: "Dilettante! How does he dare! etc." However, Toscanini helped
with his prestige the groth of Huberman's dearest child, the Israel
Philharmonic.
Anyone wanting to have a taste of Huberman can not go wrong with any of
these start choices (tolerance for old sound being a prerequisite, of
course). For those who already know and praise Huberman enough as to
tolerate the diminished technical level of the live recs. made after his
plane accident that affected both his hands, the two wonderful Arbiter
CDs are none the less invaluable. On one of them the main items are
Brahms's First Sonata, with Huberman's heart--touching sound, a
very impressive, if somehow scratchy in sound, Bach's Second Partita (a
counterpart to another less-than-ideal-technically, larger-than-life,
Second Partita, Joseph Szigeti's) and Schubert's C Major Fantasy. I cannot
forget the simply most profound --yes, Sarasate profound--
Sarasate--Romanza Andalusa, surpassing even the studio alternatives of
Huberman himself.
On the second CD there is a live Beethoven Concerto, with an unstable
orchestra (lousy horns!!) but with a playing I find more inspired and
organically phrased than the (technically superior) 1934 version, with
Szell/VPO. Szell was a capable conductor but he could be an
albatross as well. If it is true (I don't remember the source, but I
couldn't invent or dream such a thing) that Szell told Huberman, at those
1934 sessions, on the subject of Beethoven's Second movement, "Larghetto,
not ghetto, Herr Huberman", that is one of the ugliest and
inspiration-cutter puns I've heard. No wonder the 1934 Beethoven
(best heard on Appian) sounds a bit disjointed and the discrepancy between
the violinist's warmth and the conductor's detachment is much too much in
evidence--it is overall a recording much less successful than the Spanish
Symphony, recorded in the same Szell sessions. Huberman's second mvt. of
Beethoven, in the live 1944 rendition, is all emotion and spirit.
In Mengelberg's annotated score of Beethoven's Violin Concerto there are
"cues" representing the end of the cadenzas used by the violinists he
accompanied in this piece. Among them, some "last names": Busch,
Huberman, Flesch, Kreisler... and a "first name": Yehudi... (he must have
been a teenager than).
Judging by the recordings Mengelberg left -- with Guila Bustabo and,
more significant, with his old friend Louis Zimmermann -- his conception
was very close to Huberman's... A Huberman-Mengelberg, or a
Huberman-Furtwangler Beethoven... Dreamful thinking aside, the quoted
Arbiter, lousy orchestra apart, contains a great performance I wouldn't
miss.
On the same CD, there is an excitingly idiomatic performance of a Smetana
piece, a slightly incomplete but more expansive tempo-wise Bach Chorale
(another, studio, version was available on Biddulph--Columbia Rec.) and
alternate takes for the first and the last mvt of the rightly famous 1930
Kreutzer (with Friedman), not very different nor better than the
"officials".
A M&A CD couples an alternative, late, live Tchaikovsky Concerto (in this
case, the 1929 version seems to me largely preferable, but the second
movement sounds as well as earlier) with a Mozart 4th Concerto, the only
subsistent Huberman rec. of that opus. The playing in Mozart is
distinctively inferior to the 1934 Third Concerto... Perhaps more for
aficionados, but how can any human gifted with a soul listen to Huberman,
without becoming an aficionado?
regards,
SG
Allan Evans
Very informative and fascinating post indeed. Would you be a pal and send
a cassette or CDR of both Brahms concerto performances - I'd love to comb
through them and hopefully reverse the experts' judgement that the earlier
Brahms performance is by Elman (and will send you some unpublished treat
in return).
Allan Evans
Ward Hardman
[snip]
: [Mischa Elman also represented, in the Jewish imagination, the
: prototype of the wunderkind violinist, the poor Odessa Jew becoming,
: trough extraordinary talent and hard work, the favorite of the royal
: courts and the idol of the concert halls, but that was to be later.]
Didn't Heifetz and also Milstein come from Odessa as well?
What was in the water there?!!! ;-)
--Ward Hardman
"The older I get, the more I admire and crave competence, just simple
competence, in any field from adultery to zoology."
- H.L. Mencken
samir golescu
On 13 Jul 2001, Ward Hardman wrote:
> samir golescu <gol...@students.uiuc.edu> wrote:
> [snip]
> : [Mischa Elman also represented, in the Jewish imagination, the
> : prototype of the wunderkind violinist, the poor Odessa Jew becoming,
> : trough extraordinary talent and hard work, the favorite of the royal
> : courts and the idol of the concert halls, but that was to be later.]
> [snip]
>
> Didn't Heifetz and also Milstein come from Odessa as well?
And many others....
> What was in the water there?!!! ;-)
Dunno, but remember Stern's view on the American-Soviet cultural exchange
program? "They send us their Jews from Odessa, and we send them our Jews
from Odessa"....(-:
.
samir golescu
[posted & mailed]
On Fri, 13 Jul 2001, Allan Evans wrote:
> Samir,
> Very informative and fascinating post indeed.
Thank you very much.
> Would you be a pal and send
> a cassette or CDR of both Brahms concerto performances
Shall be done.... somewhat I thought you might not have had the chance
to compare them both -- I trust your ears at least as much as mine.
> - I'd love to comb
> through them and hopefully reverse the experts' judgement that the earlier
> Brahms performance is by Elman
This would be interesting -- perhaps you (or me or both) should research
on the number of "coincidence points" -- you know, like with fingerprints,
above a certain number it cannot be coincidence. (-:
> (and will send you some unpublished treat in return).
I'd lie to tell you I weren't curious!
my best regards,
Samir
Delgesu
Right! so what did he send you? you must tell us when it arrives!
Delgesu
samir golescu
On 16 Jul 2001, Delgesu wrote:
> samir golescu <gol...@students.uiuc.edu> wrote in message news:<Pine.GSO.4.31.01071...@ux11.cso.uiuc.edu>...
> >
> > On Fri, 13 Jul 2001, Allan Evans wrote:
> >
> > > (and will send you some unpublished treat in return).
> >
> > I'd lie to tell you I weren't curious!
> >
> > my best regards,
> > Samir
>
> Right! so what did he send you? you must tell us when it arrives!
Nothing special -- a Sonic-Depth transferred copy of Liszt's cylinder...
regards,
SG
gggg...@gmail.com
June 19, 2016
Three Great Violin Concerto Recordings by Bronislaw Huberman
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D (with Berlin State Opera Orchestra/Wm Steinberg) Naxos 8.110903
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D (with New York Philharmonic/Artur Rodzinski) Pristine 421
Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D (with Vienna Philharmonic/George Szell) Pristine 421
http://www.wfmt.com/programs-a-z/collectors-corner-with-henry-fogel/