b. Jupille-sur-Meuse, nr. Liège, March 9, 1848;

d. nr. Paris, October 21, 1924.

Belgian violinist, teacher and composer who, according to his ex-pupil Carl Flesch, “had a youth of privations behind him”. Marsick was a choirboy up to the age of 12, and entered the Liège Conservatory when aged eight and won 1st prize in the preparatory theory class two years later. He then began to study the violin under Désiré Heynberg and in 1864 won the gold medal there for “exceptional merit”. From 1865-67 he was at the Brussels Conservatoire where he studied violin under Léonard and composition under Kufferath, and from 1868-69 violin under Lambert Massart at the Paris Conservatoire with financial help from influential patrons, and won a 1st prize for violin in 1869. He also played in the Opéra Orchestra. A scholarship from the Belgian Government paid for him to study under Joachim from 1870-71 in Berlin, and in 1873 he made a brilliantly successful début in Paris at the Concerts Populaires.

After this he toured in Europe, and in 1877 formed a quartet with Rémy, van Waefelghem and Delsart. In 1879, on January 17, in Paris Marsick and others (all Belgian players) gave the first performance of Franck’s Quintet. Also in Paris, in 1880 he gave the first performance of Saint-Saëns’s 2nd Violin Concerto (composed 1879) and first played Lalo’s “Concerto russe” for violin (composed 1883) at the Concerts Populaire. Marsick founded a trio with the pianist Breitner and cellist Burger in 1884, and in 1885 he made concert tours in Russia.

Carl Flesch became a private pupil of Marsick’s in Paris in 1890 (and later at the Conservatoire) and described him at that time: “Marsick was 42, a medium-sized man of pleasing appearance. His appealing face framed by a small black beard, his vivid, keen eyes and his southern vivacity charmed his fellows, especially of the female sex.” Flesch said he was unrivalled as a chamber musician: “In his excellent quartet, Eugène Maurice Hayot ... played the second violin, and Laforge the viola ... The distinguished Belgian cellist Logs completed the ensemble”. In 1892 Marsick was made violin professor at the Paris Conservatoire succeeding Sauzay, and was an exceptionally good teacher.

During 1895-96 he toured in America and made occasional visits to England, but apparently did not become particularly popular in either country. But in 1900 he left his family and pupils and fled abroad with a married woman, and they wandered about for years, sometimes in disguise fearing the husband’s revenge, but later she returned to her husband, and in 1903, at the age of 55, Marsick returned to Paris to try and make a new life, but failed and eventually died in poverty. Flesch recalled an incident in 1903 in Berlin when he was to give a concert and Marsick announced one at the same time. Flesch called on him, received a lukewarm reception from Marsick who also turned down Flesch’s request to listen to him while he practised saying “Oh no, this time I keep my tricks to myself!” Flesch was disillusioned and a little disgusted, and cooled off him. He later met him once by accident and exchanged a few words. However, in 1933 Flesch, Enesco and Thibaud performed a Vivaldi Concerto for 3 violins at a memorial concert at Marsick’s birthplace. They were his three outstanding pupils, and amongst others he also taught A.Mangeot and gave Huberman a few lessons.

Teaching: Flesch thought “Marsick’s peculiar significance ... rested on his talent as a teacher” and he was “full of original, at times paradoxical, ideas, which stimulated his pupils to think for themselves” and that he was “restless, always dissatisfied with himself and driven by his thirst for perfection” which made him such a stimulating influence. He also took the individuality of his pupils into account. “It was he who taught me to think logically without endangering the spirit of the living work of art; and to him I owe the development of what later made me realise that teaching was the noblest of artistic activities.”

Playing: He was of the French school but used the best of other schools as he was resilient, used a high right elbow and “Russian” type bow hold, and was especially good with his interpretations of Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski. Flesch thought that as he started on the violin rather late in life “his technique was not adequate to every emergency and this prevented him securing world fame. But he was one of the best violinists of his time (and) sat at Vieuxtemps’s feet”. “His strength was in his bowing. His right arm was a model of physiological development, an absolutely perfect

instrument, although even in his case the staccato had its flaws. He produced an enchanting tone, capable of extraordinary modulation, and played with great imagination, constantly engaging one’s interest without falling into mannerisms. His left hand, however, seemed to lag behind, probably owing to his late start. At times it seemed that his intonation was insecure, and his changes of position were not entirely reliable, with the result that his performances proved somewhat uneven ... he was esteemed as a local rather than international celebrity”. Marsick played on a 1705 Strad. which was later used by David Oistrakh.

Marsick composed 3 violin concertos, many small pieces for violin and piano, chamber music, a system of finger exercises called Eureka! J’ai trouvé (Paris 1906). La grammaire du violon (1924) and songs. Jelly d’Aranyi liked and played his “Scherzando”.

b. December 27, 1901; d. May 6, 1992; entered the Berlin High School for Music as she planned to be a violinist, but she had to give up that idea after she got nerve ganglia in her left hand, and thus she entered theatre school and the rest is history.

b. Riga, Latvia, February 27, 1947;

Russian violinist whose parents and his grandfather were professional violinists. He studied at the Riga School of Music and won 1st prize of the Latvian Republic when aged 16, and then entered Moscow Conservatory where he studied for eight years under David Oistrakh. In 1970, aged 23, he won 1st prize at the 4th International Tchaikovsky Competition which was handed to him by his teacher David Oistrakh. He developed into a highly unusual artist with a penchant for modern works: a programme he gave in Salzburg in 1976 consisted of compositions by Schoenberg, Webern, Schnittke, and as a palliative a Richard Strauss Sonata and Beethoven’s Sonata, Op.96. His début in New York on January 14, 1977, was very impressive but did not draw much praise from the critics - he opened it with Stravinsky’s Elegy for unaccompanied violin and Charles Ives’s Sonata No.4, and he only plays showpieces as encores or on recordings. Extremely individualistic, he left Russia and from 1978 lived in Paris but frequently concertised in New York very successfully. He has also played with most top international orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw, the London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Philadelphia and Boston Symphony Orchestras, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In the 1980s he also gave concerts with his ex-wife Tatiana Grindenko, an excellent violinist, and they performed two-violin works and also made recordings together. In 1981 Kremer founded the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival in Austria where a Hagen Quartet won major honours and were helped by Kremer afterwards. He appears fairly frequently in London and on December 8, 1990, gave a recital at the Barbican with pianist Martha Argerich. At a Prom concert on August 9, 1995, he performed a work which he is keen on, the “lost” Schumann Violin Concerto in D minor, and as an encore a riveting piece by George Rochberg called “Caprice Variations on Paganini”. At the Proms again on August 29 he premièred a work written for him by Kaija Saariaho, “Graal Théâtre” with the composer present and it was fairly well received. At Chicago in 1997 he gave the première of Reimann’s concerto, composed in 1959.

In appearance he looks rather angular and thin, with an elongated body and long arms and fingers. A thinking and unconventional virtuoso violinist, called “the greatest violinist of his generation” by von Karajan, and highly regarded by his fellow violinists, he has an absolutely incredible technique together with an expressive and ethereal tone, and his performances of Ernst’s “Last Rose of Summer” and transcription of Schubert’s “Erlkönig” are, according to Boris Schwarz, “hair-raising”. His large repertoire includes the standard repertoire as well as his favoured avant-garde composers. An 18th c. Guadagnini violin is a family heirloom, but he now plays on a Strad.

His recordings include the violin concertos of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schnittke, Schumann, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, the sonatas of Bartók and Ysaÿe, Schnittke’s Concerto grosso for 2 violins and orchestra with Grindenko, Schnittke’s Piano Quintet, and several smaller violin pieces.