Jascha Spiwakowski

Jascha Spiwakowski ( Russian Яша Спиваковский ; born August 18 ^{. Jul} / the 30th August  1896 ^greg. In Smila , Russian Empire ; † 23. March 1970 in Melbourne Toorak ) was a Russian pianist .

Life

Jascha Spiwakowski was the fifth of nine children of the Jewish cantor David Spiwakowski and his wife Rahel and thus one of the four Spiwakowski brothers , who all became musicians and teachers: Adolf (1891–1958), Jascha, Isaak (1902–1977) and Tossi (1907-1998). Her nephew was the British violinist , conductor and composer Michael Spivakovsky (1919–1983).

Jascha Spiwakowski showed his musical talent at an early age and began playing the piano at the age of three . He was first taught by his father. In 1902 the family moved to Odessa , where he received more specialized classes. In 1903 his talent was discovered by Józef Hofmann , with whose help he was heard by VI Safonov , the director of the Moscow Conservatory . Safonov offered him his personal promotion at the Moscow Conservatory. However, no use could be made of this, as he would have had to travel to Moscow alone without his family because of the immigration ban on Jews. Instead, he gave concerts in Odessa as a child prodigy . After a sold out concert, he received a grand piano from the wife of the governor of Odessa.

During the pogrom in Odessa towards the end of the Russian Revolution in 1905 , the Spiwakowski family barely escaped death, but had lost all of their belongings through looting. Jascha Spiwakowski also gave concerts to support the family and to earn money for emigration.

After emigrating to Berlin in 1907 , Spiwakowski studied with Moritz Mayer-Mahr at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory on a scholarship . In 1909 he won the Blüthner Prize, with Ferruccio Busoni , Ossip Salomonowitsch Gabrilowitsch and Leopold Godowsky being the judges. Thereupon he began a concert tour through Europe including the European courts in Leipzig in 1910 . Willem Mengelberg was also one of his conductors . In 1913 he performed in London's Bechstein Hall .

In 1914, at the beginning of the First World War , Spiwakowski was interned as an enemy foreigner in the Ruhleben internment camp. Although he was conditionally released due to a petition from the professors of the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory to Kaiser Wilhelm II , he was only able to perform publicly again at the end of the war. In 1919 he made another concert tour through Europe, which also included a performance under Wilhelm Furtwängler in Darmstadt . With him traveled his younger brother Tossi, who appeared as a violin prodigy with him as a duo. Furtwängler made him the youngest concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic . The Spiwakowski duo performed for many years with pieces by Fritz Kreisler , Niccolò Paganini and Johannes Brahms in particular , made recordings with parlophones and was also admired by Albert Einstein .

On his concert tours Spiwakowski came to Australia and New Zealand in 1922 . In 1926 he married Leonore Krantz in Bodenbach , whom he had met in Australia in 1922. Shortly afterwards Richard Strauss engaged him to play his burlesque with the Vienna Philharmonic under his direction, after which he stayed in Vienna . Hans Knappertsbusch engaged him for Tchaikovsky's 1st piano concerto .

In 1930 the Spiwakowski Trio was formed with the brothers Jascha and Tossi Spiwakowski and the cellist Edmund Kurtz . The trio began a concert tour of Europe in The Hague . Returned to Berlin looked Spiwakowski an angry NSDAP - press campaign exposed, he that after a cautionary note by Richard Strauss just before Hitler's seizure of power with his trio to a concert tour to Asia and Australia departed. The trio was appointed to the University of Melbourne so that they did not have to return to Germany, albeit with the uncertainty that they could be expelled as undesirable foreigners due to Australian immigration laws. 1938 Spiwakowski received the Australian citizenship.

After the Second World War , Spiwakowski resumed his worldwide concert activities in 1947. In 1948 Jascha Spiwakowski inherited the Edzell House in Melbourne-Toorak , now a listed building , from his mother-in-law Rose Krantz , which was built in 1892 by the architect Joseph Reed for the Melbourne mayor James Cooper Stewart and acquired by Rose Krantz in 1931. Jascha Spiwakowski's son, the architect Michael Spivakovsky, sold Edzell House in 2011 .

Jascha Spiwakowski retired in 1960 for health reasons. He was friends with Sir John Monash and Sir Zelman Cowen . The Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University annually awards the Jascha Spivakovsky Piano Prize ($ 1000 A) to the winner of their piano competition, which is presented by Jascha Spiwakowski's son Michael.

literature

• Catherine J. Stevens: Spivakovsky, Jascha (1896–1970) . Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, Melbourne University Publishing 2002, (accessed February 18, 2016).
• Mark Ainley: The Greatest Pianist You've Never Heard Of (accessed February 19, 2016).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Russian pianist: Spivakovsky's Career . Sunday Times, May 12, 1929.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Jascha Spivakovsky, the pianist. To interview . The Mercury, May 17, 1922, p. 9.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Spivakovsky. Russian pianist arrives . Sydney Morning Herald , March 1, 1922.
4. ↑ Edzell Mansion & the incomparable Dame Nellie Melba (accessed on February 23, 2016)
5. ^ Andrew Abercrombie, the former chief executive of leasing company FlexiGroup, has bought the Toorak mansion, Edzell (accessed February 23, 2016).
6. ^ Jascha Spivakovsky Piano Prize (accessed February 23, 2016).