Max Rosen (violinist)

Max Rosen (born April 11, 1900 in Romania , † December 17, 1956 ) was an American violinist.

Life

The Bowery, 1896

Max Rosen was born the son of the hairdresser Benjamin Rosen, who immigrated to the United States from Romania around 1900. Benjamin Rosen's son Max was eight months old at the time. The father founded a hair salon in the Bowery , where Max Rosen grew up. Benjamin Rosen played pieces for the child on an old violin he had brought from Romania and gave his son his own small violin when he reached school age. Max Rosen received his first violin lessons from his father; However, the child did not initially show any particular interest in music.

A friend named Solomon Diamond eventually recognized the boy's talent and made sure that he was taken to David Mannes in a music school, where he was tutored for over a year. There he is said to have influenced George Gershwin's musical development. The social worker Rose Lubarsky heard Max Rosen audition and decided to raise money to give him an education in Europe. Max Rosen played in front of James Goldmark, who belonged to the McDowell Club and wanted the eleven-year-old to get a scholarship from the club's funds. Max Rosen's supporters, however, rejected this donation as insufficient. Kathleen Parlow finally put me in contact with Leopold Auer in Dresden . After an audition, Edward de Coppet agreed to finance Max Rosen's training with Auer, so that the boy and his father could travel to Dresden in January 1912. Max Rosen studied with Auer until he moved to Petrograd , where his student did not follow him because of the anti-Semitic legislation in Russia. Instead, he continued his training with Willy Hess and gave first concerts in Berlin and other German cities. When the First World War broke out, Auer moved to Christiania, where Max Rosen saw him again. In the winter of 1917/18 Max Rosen returned to the USA.

He made his US debut on January 12, 1918 at Carnegie Hall . That evening he played Brahms ' Second Symphony , followed by Karl Goldmark's Violin Concerto in A minor and various solo pieces for violin, and received enthusiastic applause. The next concert followed on January 21, 1918 at Carnegie Hall. On February 15, 1918, he gave a concert with pianist Israel Joseph in Ann Arbor , Michigan . On January 25, 1919, he could be heard again at Carnegie Hall. On January 7, 1921, he played with Walter Henry Rothwell in the first performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto by the Los Angeles Philharmonics.

He stayed in Europe from about 1923 to 1927; In 1927 a tour of the USA followed. Rosen was accompanied by Richard Wilens , whom he had met as a child in Berlin. In 1928 he married Nanette Guilford (née Gutman) in Manhattan , who was employed at the Metropolitan Opera . The marriage with the soprano was divorced in 1930.

Max Rosen was passionate about playing chess and once almost missed a concert in Leipzig because he was absorbed in a role with Emanuel Lasker .

Web links

• Max Rosen at MusicBrainz (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Norbert Carnovale: George Gershwin: a bio-bibliography . In: Bio-bibliographies in music . No. 76 . Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. 2000, ISBN 0-313-26003-6 , pp. 3 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 4, 2017]).
2. ^ New York Times, December 31, 1917
3. ^ New York Times, January 13, 1918
4. ^ New York Times, January 22, 1918
5. ↑ Concert program February 15, 1918 (PDF; 974 kB)
6. ^ New York Times, January 26, 1919
7. ↑ Tchaikovsky concert on January 7, 1921  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ^ The Southeast Missourian, February 14, 1927
9. ↑ Time Magazine, December 10, 1928
10. ^ New York Times, March 20, 1990
11. ↑ Schenectady Gazette, January 11, 1927