Eduard Sõrmus
Julius Eduard Sõrmus (German also: Soermus ; born July 9, 1878 in Luunja ; † August 16, 1940 in Moscow ) was an Estonian violinist . As a staunch communist , he was involved in the labor movement and became known as The Red Violinist .
Life
Sõrmus studied history and philosophy in Tartu and received his violin training at the Petersburg Conservatory . From 1901 he took part in the revolutionary movement and took part in the Russian revolution of 1905 on the side of the revolutionaries. In 1904 he began a career as a soloist , had to flee from Tsarist Russia in 1906 and then went on concert tours through Northern Europe . He later studied with Henri Marteau in Berlin and Lucien Capet in Paris . After concerts in several European countries, he worked mainly in Germany in the 1920s.
Since 1921 Sõrmus has appeared at a large number of solidarity events organized by communist parties, international workers' aid and international red aid . He showed particular commitment to children's homes in Elgersburg and Worpswede .
Following a solidarity concert for workers' aid for Russia in the Kristall-Palast Magdeburg , he was arrested by the police on May 1, 1923, because the authorities had canceled his visa due to his political activities. His valuable Vitaszek violin was destroyed here. Students and teachers at the Leipzig Conservatory donated a new, precious violin to him. A memorial plaque attached to the Kristall-Palast in 1975, but no longer there, commemorated this incident.
On July 31, 1926, Soermus performed again in the Volkshaus in Weimar , although he was now prohibited from collecting donations for the children of Soviet Russia. The violinist was also prohibited from speaking to the concert-goers - his wife spoke instead.
The picture The Violinist , created by Marc Chagall in 1912, was inspired by the person Sõrmus.
Soermus' violin playing ("Immortal Sacrifice", recorded around 1918) can be heard on the CD: Brothers, to the sun, to freedom. Workers' music from the Weimar Republic in original recordings. PLANS 88775, LC 0972.
In many of his concerts he appeared together with his wife, the pianist Virginia Tschaikowski-Sõrmus.
Honor
The city of Zwickau named a street in his honor as Eduard-Soermus-Straße , which still bears this name today. Soermusstraße also bears his name in Radebeul .
literature
- Iris Hiller, Julius Eduard Soermus , Halle (Saale) 1975
- Harri Kõrvits, Eduard Soermus - The Red Violinist. A monograph , translated from Russian by Christof Reiger , VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik Leipzig 1978
- Rote Hilfe Deutschlands (publisher), Der Geiger der Sorge , Berlin 1928
Original recordings
- [1] Song about Stepan Rasin
Individual evidence
- ↑ Horst Seeger : Musiklexikon Personen A – Z / Deutscher Verlag für Musik Leipzig (1981)
- ^ Kurt Schilde in Die Rote Hilfe , VS Verlag 2003, ISBN 3-8100-3634-X , page 47 f.
- ^ Heinz Gerling , Monuments of the City of Magdeburg , Helmuth-Block-Verlag Magdeburg 1991, ISBN 3-910173-04-4 , page 19
- ↑ Council of the District of Erfurt (ed.): Collection of facts on local history lessons in class 4 , Erfurt 1978, p. 71
- ↑ Bernhard Shaw, JP Wearing, Bernhard Shaw and Nancy Astor , University of Toronto Press 2005, ISBN 0-8020-3752-6 , page 87 (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sõrmus, Eduard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Soermus, Eduard; Sõrmus, Julius Eduard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Estonian violinist and communist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 9, 1878 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Luunja |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 16, 1940 |
| Place of death | Moscow |