Ivry Gitlis

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Ivry Gitlis (2010)

Ivry Gitlis ( Hebrew עברי גיטליס; * August 25, 1922 in Haifa , League of Nations mandate for Palestine ; † December 24, 2020 in Paris ) was an Israeli-French violinist .

Life

Gitlis came from a family of Russian immigrants ; his mother was a singer, his grandfather a cantor . At the age of six he received his first lessons. He gave his first concerts at the age of nine, and at the age of ten Bronisław Huberman noticed him and made sure that he was sent to Paris for further studies. There he received lessons from three famous violinists, Carl Flesch , George Enescu and Jacques Thibaud . During the Second World War , he and his mother managed to escape to England, where he initially worked in an armaments factory to make his contribution to the war against theNational Socialist German Reich , after which he was involved with numerous concerts in the troop support .

In the mid-1950s he recorded relevant “warhorses” of violin literature with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (aka Pro Arte Orchestra), the violin concertos by Peter Tschaikowski , Max Bruch , Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Jean Sibelius , but also the 2nd violin concerto by Béla Bartók as well his solo sonata for violin .

During these years he became a dedicated advocate of the new and newest music; his concerts had cult status in the intellectual Parisian existentialist circles . In the 1960s, recordings of the violin concertos 1 and 2 by Paganini followed, as well as recordings of violin concertos of classical modernism, for example by Igor Stravinsky , Paul Hindemith and Alban Berg (also his concerto for violin, piano and wind instruments). In 1965 there was an acclaimed performance with the Berliner Philharmoniker with Bartók's 1st Violin Concerto; Nevertheless, two years later he played a violin recital there in front of half-empty ranks.

In May 1968 he played on the streets of Paris with Martha Argerich . In 1968 he appeared together with Yoko Ono in their Dirty Mac Project at the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (re-released on DVD).

In 1971 he gave the world premiere of the solo piece Piece for Ivri by Bruno Maderna , and in 1972 the world premiere of a solo piece by Iannis Xenakis . In 1972 he took part in a large series of concerts in Tel Aviv in memory of Bronisław Huberman, for which the world elite of violinists of the time met, a. a. the young Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman . Again he played Bartók's 1st Violin Concerto.

In 1980 his autobiography was published in French. In 1988 he became the UNESCO ambassador .

In the 1990s a CD was released in Japan with relevant additional pieces, in which he once again proves his violin brilliance with dubious material. In his old age he gave concerts with Martha Argerich in May 2001 , where he played the Kreutzer Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven and the violin sonatas by César Franck and Claude Debussy . In July 2013 he also gave a concert in Essen with Martha Argerich , in which he played Franck's violin sonata and two encores by Kreisler (Liebesleid and Schön Rosmarin).

On September 29, 2016, he performed the violin solo from the film music by John Williams for Schindler's List at the official commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre in Kiev .

He played a Stradivarius with the nickname "Sancy" from 1713.

Gitlis had lived in Paris since the late 1960s. He died there in December 2020 at the age of 98.

literature

  • Joachim W. Hartnack: Great violinists of our time . 4th, revised. u. added new edition 1993, ISBN 3-254-00171-0
  • Harald Eggebrecht : Great violinists. Kreisler, Heifetz, Oistrach, Mutter, Hahn and Co. Piper Taschenbuch Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-492-24302-9 .
  • Alfred Roeseler with Norbert Hornig: Great violinists of our century . Extended new edition, Piper Taschenbuch Verlag, 1996, ISBN 3-492-22375-3
  • Stefan Drees (Hrsg.): Lexicon of the violin . Laaber-Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-89007-544-4
  • Anne Midgett: Martha Argerich and Ivry Gitlis: Private: Knock Before Entering . In: New York Times. May 25, 2001
  • Nicole Coppey: Interview with Ivry Gitlis . Swiss music newspaper July / August 2008 (PDF; 171 kB)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Violinist Ivry Gitlis died at the age of 98. In: RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland , December 25, 2020. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  2. ↑ Ivry Gitlis, la liberté au bout de l'archer francemusique.fr, accessed on December 24, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Gitlis, Ivry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES עברי גיטליס (Hebrew); Gitlis, Ivri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli-French violinist
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Haifa
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 2020
Place of death Paris