Leodegar Mayr

Leodegar Mayr (born June 27, 1928 in Munich ; † May 4, 2013 in Bayerisch Gmain ) was a German violin maker .

Life

Leodegar Mayr was the oldest child of the warehouse manager Leodegar Mayr, who came from Altmannstein in Upper Bavaria , and his wife Rosa. Before he started school, the whole family moved - together with his parents, siblings Anton and Rosa - from Munich to Ingolstadt , where he began to be interested in gliding , acquired the necessary flight licenses at a young age and later also the sports test for Motorized pilot graduated.

Shortly after the end of the Second World War , he became an apprentice at the Mittenwald violin making school . After the three-year apprenticeship, he passed the final exam there in 1948 and was selected by the violin maker Johann Padewet for another three years of training as a volunteer and brought to Karlsruhe .

In 1951 he settled as an independent violin maker "Leo Mayr" in the New Palace in Ingolstadt, whereby the clientele here could be assigned mainly to church institutions in Eichstätt and Neuburg an der Donau as well as the Bamberg Philharmonic and Munich Philharmonic . He married Elisabeth Franziska Theresia Westermeier in 1954, and their daughter Elisabeth Maria was born in 1961. In 1957 he finally passed his master's examination in violin making in Munich with a master's certificate .

From 1972 to 1974, the business was taken over the interim deceased Munich violin Baule Hrers and colleagues Hermann Glassl what particular a collection of valuable - even then at least seventy years old - claves included that Leo Mayr for his own violins and violas used and at later restorations.

In 1975 he moved to Bayerisch Gmain (near Bad Reichenhall) for professional reasons . The proximity to the cultural city of Salzburg was decisive, which is why, from this time on, many Austrian professional musicians from the orchestras located there (such as the Mozarteum Orchestra and Camerata ) and professors as well as their students from the Mozarteum University in Salzburg were among his customers.

For his publication on The Scale Problem of the Viola . Franz Zeyringer had a viola made by Mayr in 1977. In 1977, during the Salzburg Easter and Summer Festival, Mayr got to know musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic during their stays in Salzburg. His workshop was ready to fix problems with repairs or to give advice on new purchases.

In 1980 Mayr was on a four-week, state-sponsored tour of China for university lessons in violin making with an ensemble of the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Mayr were entrusted with Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù violins for restoration and the creation of expert opinions on high-quality string instruments was asked. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's “concert violin” was restored by Leo Mayr for a CD recording in 1992, recorded by Yuuko Shiokawa and András Schiff , so that it was playable again.

Leo Mayr manufactured several hundred of his own instruments (violins, violas, cellos) before he left the business, and over the years he also came into contact with well-known musicians such as Julius Berger, Thomas Zehetmair and David Garrett (Bongartz), the early Hagen Quartet , Sándor Végh , Luz Leskowitz , Ruggiero Ricci , Gidon Kremer , Frank Peter Zimmermann, Julia Fischer, Ingolf Turban , Daniel Barenboim , Gustavo Dudamel and others.

In 1999 he built a residential / commercial building opposite the New Castle in Ingolstadt and returned to the place of his childhood at intervals.

After three years of serious illness, he died in Bayerisch Gmain and was buried in the idyllic St. Valentin cemetery, Marzoll (near Bad Reichenhall).

evaluation

"He has unique craftsmanship, he feels drawn to the construction of string instruments, he has taste, perseverance and diligence, he has a large warehouse of the best, old violin wood, he has a very first-class varnish and can also use it in the finest Bring the style to the wood, he makes an instrument by hand from beginning to end (manually), even the delicate inserts are glued together by hand. "

- Franz Zeyringer

"A violin maker from Bad Reichenhall, Leo Mayr, who in my opinion is one of the best in Germany, traveled with us."

- Hellmut Stern , longtime first violinist with the Berlin Philharmonic

Trivia

Ferdinand Leeb, former director of the Salzburg casino, made an amateur film about the making of a violin; Gottfried Kraus became aware of Leo Mayr through the ORF and presented his knowledge in a television report.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Elisabeth Maria Mayr: Leodegar Mayr (1928–2013). Typewritten curriculum vitae, family archive, Bayerisch Gmain 2013.
↑ Franz Zeyringer: The ideal viola. Special print from Instrumentenbau - musik international 7/8, Siegburg / BRD 1975. pp. 3–12. (Mozarteum University Library, Salzburg, C-4932)
^ Franz Zeyringer: The length problem of the viola. Part 2. Hartberg 1978. o. S., on "Leo Mayr" (see footnote 4).
↑ Described with a curriculum vitae in an English article by Franz Zimmermann: Leo Mayr. In: The STRAD. April 1981. Vol. 91. No.1092. Cover picture (= colored picture of a Leo Mayr violin) and p. 895.
↑ Michael Malkiewicz: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In: Mozart Week 2012. January 27th - February 5th. Almanac. International Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg. P. 112
^ Gottfried Franz Kasparek: Mozart's instruments. In: Mozart Week 2013. January 24th - February 3rd. Almanac. International Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg. P. 106: “It was not until 1956 that the violin was offered for sale by the Mozarteum Foundation and finally ended up in the rooms in which it was presumably played by Mozart himself. Lovingly cared for - it was last subject to an expertise by the violin maker Leo Mayr from Bayrisch Gmain in 1990 - it has since been made to sound by skilled hands on special occasions. "; The above-mentioned, typed “expert opinion on the three string instruments in WA Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg” from April 6, 1990, comprise five pages and can be viewed in the library of the International Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg under the shelf mark Dr Moz 23483.
↑ Yuuko Shiokawa: Mozart's concert violin. In: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Sonatas and Variations for Piano and Violin. International Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg, Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, DECCA London 1992. p. 4. (CD DDD ISM 92/4 436548-2)
↑ The entire estate - including various instruments - is owned by daughter Dr. Elisabeth Maria Mayr manages and is still located in the premises of the formerly “most beautiful workshop I have ever seen” (quote from Sándor Végh) in Bayerisch Gmain because of its location.
^ Franz Zeyringer: The length problem of the viola. Part 2. Hartberg 1978.
↑ Hellmut Stern: String Jumps. The unusual memories of a musician who had to flee from Berlin to China in 1938, immigrated to Israel in 1949, lived in the USA from 1956 and finally returned in 1961 ... TRANSIT Buchverlag. Berlin 1990. p. 209. ISBN 3-88747-060-5 .
↑ Ferdinand Leeb: Violin making or "A violin tells". Movie. Studio Glasenbach. Salzburg 1977 as well as “Music in the sound of its time”. A film report by Gottfried Kraus. Production by the ORF Landesstudio Salzburg (around 1980). Both records are preserved in the Bayerisch Gmainer family archive of Elisabeth Maria Mayr.

personal data
SURNAME	Mayr, Leodegar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German violin maker
DATE OF BIRTH	June 27, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH	Munich
DATE OF DEATH	4th May 2013
Place of death	Bayerisch Gmain

[:0-1] Elisabeth Maria Mayr: Leodegar Mayr (1928–2013). Typewritten curriculum vitae, family archive, Bayerisch Gmain 2013.

[2] Franz Zeyringer: The ideal viola. Special print from Instrumentenbau - musik international 7/8, Siegburg / BRD 1975. pp. 3–12. (Mozarteum University Library, Salzburg, C-4932)

[3] Franz Zeyringer: The length problem of the viola. Part 2. Hartberg 1978. o. S., on "Leo Mayr" (see footnote 4).

[4] Described with a curriculum vitae in an English article by Franz Zimmermann: Leo Mayr. In: The STRAD. April 1981. Vol. 91. No.1092. Cover picture (= colored picture of a Leo Mayr violin) and p. 895.

[5] Michael Malkiewicz: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In: Mozart Week 2012. January 27th - February 5th. Almanac. International Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg. P. 112

[6] Gottfried Franz Kasparek: Mozart's instruments. In: Mozart Week 2013. January 24th - February 3rd. Almanac. International Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg. P. 106: “It was not until 1956 that the violin was offered for sale by the Mozarteum Foundation and finally ended up in the rooms in which it was presumably played by Mozart himself. Lovingly cared for - it was last subject to an expertise by the violin maker Leo Mayr from Bayrisch Gmain in 1990 - it has since been made to sound by skilled hands on special occasions. "; The above-mentioned, typed “expert opinion on the three string instruments in WA Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg” from April 6, 1990, comprise five pages and can be viewed in the library of the International Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg under the shelf mark Dr Moz 23483.

[7] Yuuko Shiokawa: Mozart's concert violin. In: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Sonatas and Variations for Piano and Violin. International Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg, Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, DECCA London 1992. p. 4. (CD DDD ISM 92/4 436548-2)

[8] The entire estate - including various instruments - is owned by daughter Dr. Elisabeth Maria Mayr manages and is still located in the premises of the formerly “most beautiful workshop I have ever seen” (quote from Sándor Végh) in Bayerisch Gmain because of its location.

[9] Franz Zeyringer: The length problem of the viola. Part 2. Hartberg 1978.

[10] Hellmut Stern: String Jumps. The unusual memories of a musician who had to flee from Berlin to China in 1938, immigrated to Israel in 1949, lived in the USA from 1956 and finally returned in 1961 ... TRANSIT Buchverlag. Berlin 1990. p. 209. ISBN 3-88747-060-5 .

[11] Ferdinand Leeb: Violin making or "A violin tells". Movie. Studio Glasenbach. Salzburg 1977 as well as “Music in the sound of its time”. A film report by Gottfried Kraus. Production by the ORF Landesstudio Salzburg (around 1980). Both records are preserved in the Bayerisch Gmainer family archive of Elisabeth Maria Mayr.