Michel Schwalbé

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Michel Schwalbé (born October 27, 1919 in Radom , Poland ; † October 8, 2012 in Berlin ) was a Polish violinist and violin teacher.

Life

Poland

Michel Schwalbé was a Pole of Jewish origin . The surname Schwalbé probably goes back to the French Chevalier .

Schwalbé studied with Moritz Frenkel at the Warsaw Academy of Music and graduated there at the age of twelve. In 1933 he passed his Abitur.

France and Switzerland

After graduating from high school, Schwalbé continued his musical studies with Jules Boucherit (violin), George Enescu (interpretation) and Pierre Monteux (chamber music and conducting) in Paris, where he graduated in 1938. In 1940 he fled to Lyon , where from 1942 he was the concertmaster of the local symphony orchestra and was taught by Prof. Bouffard.

In 1944 he again fled from the German troops, hidden in a furniture van, in Switzerland . Ernest Ansermet engaged him in 1944 as first concertmaster of the Orchester de la Suisse Romande . In Switzerland he founded the Geneva Trio and the Schwalbé Quartet (1946–48), received a professorship at the Geneva Conservatory as successor to Joseph Szigeti and was also concertmaster of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra .

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

When Herbert von Karajan took him to the Berlin Philharmonic in West Berlin , Schwalbé, as the only survivor of his family - his mother and sister were murdered in the Treblinka extermination camp - felt it was an “act of reconciliation”. From 1957 to 1985 he was concertmaster with the Berlin Philharmonic. Schwalbé has appeared in many countries as a soloist, with chamber music ensembles such as the Philharmonic Soloists and as a conductor.

"King Maximilian" violin

Schwalbé played the Stradivarius violin “König Maximilian” from 1709 from 1966. Before that, it had been played by Martha Drews from 1930 , who made her debut in 1904 as a soloist with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Axel Springer acquired the violin in Boston in 1966 for 326,630 German marks (around 167,000 euros) after it had only been on display for many years. On the mediation of Herbert von Karajan, the violin was then made available to Schwalbé for life by the Axel Springer Foundation , whose foundation purposes include the support of artists and the reconciliation of Jews and Germans. Schwalbé first had to play them for a few years so that the sound of the instrument could regain its high value. In 1973 a long-playing record entitled Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis - Faciebat Anno 1709 - Die König-Maximilian-Stradivari played by Michel Schwalbé was published, with the violin sonata in G minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 1001 and some caprices by Niccolò Paganini . Karajan said in 1974 that the rare case occurred that “a precious instrument finds a congenial partner who knows how to fully exploit its capabilities”. Schwalbé returned the violin to the foundation in 1992, which then sold it for 2.5 million German marks (around 1.28 million euros).

death

tomb

Michel Schwalbé, who remained associated with the Berliner Philharmoniker until the end of his life, died a few weeks before his 93rd birthday. He was buried on October 15, 2012 in the Jewish cemetery on Heerstrasse .

Teaching

In addition to Geneva, Michel Schwalbé also taught in Salzburg, London and at the Berlin University of the Arts . He also held visiting professorships and master classes outside of Europe. His numerous students include:

Honors

Discography (selection)

  • Michel Schwalbé -  virtuoso violin, with works by various composers; Piano: Karl Engel , Listen / Electrola (1970)
  • Richard Strauss : Ein Heldenleben op.40 , Berliner Philharmoniker, Michel Schwalbé, Herbert von Karajan, Deutsche Grammophon (1959)
  • Richard Strauss: Also Spoke Zarathustra Op. 30, Berliner Philharmoniker, Michel Schwalbé, Herbert von Karajan, Deutsche Grammophon (1974)
  • Peter Tschaikowsky : The Swan Lake - Suite from the Ballet op.20, Berliner Philharmoniker, Michel Schwalbé, Herbert von Karajan, Deutsche Grammophon (1972)
  • Antonio Vivaldi : The Four Seasons, Michel Schwalbé, Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan, Deutsche Grammophon (1973, LP - 1985, CD)
  • Johannes Brahms : Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68, Berliner Philharmoniker, Michel Schwalbé, Karl Böhm, Deutsche Grammophon (1959)

literature

  • Berliner Philharmoniker: Variations with Orchestra - 125 Years of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Volume 2, Biographies and Concerts, Verlag Henschel, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89487-568-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date of death according to the tombstone (see picture), obituary notices and the community sheet of the Jewish Community in Berlin, November 2012 edition (PDF), p. 31. In the media, October 9 was often mentioned as the date of death, e.g. B. in the Tagesspiegel of October 11, 2012 .
  2. ↑ a b The master's first violin tagesspiegel.de, October 26, 2009
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Information on Michel Schwalbé ( memento from December 17, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) on lostfiddle.blogspot.de, May 24, 2011 (archived website)
  4. ↑ a b c Eleonore Büning : Karajan's concertmaster obituary in the FAZ , October 11, 2012
  5. ^ Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1709, the 'King Maximilian, Unico' description of the violin on tarisio.com
  6. ↑ Martha Drew's Music and Gender on the Internet, accessed online on October 14, 2012
  7. ↑ Michel Schwalbé, Hans Wallenberg (editor): The King Maximilian Stradivari - The unusual story of a violin, depicted in letters and documents, Edition AB, Hamburg, Verlag, Andreas Brylka , 1973
  8. ↑ Axel Springer Foundation (editor): A foundation in the service of reconciliation, freedom and unity . Brochure on the history of the foundation, published on May 2, 2012 in Berlin on the occasion of the founder's 100th birthday.
  9. ↑ Michel Schwalbé is dead tagesspiegel.de
  10. ^ Obituary notice of the Berliner Philharmoniker in the Tagesspiegel, October 14, 2012.
  11. ↑ Raphael Christ - Vita
  12. ^ Neithard Resa philharmonia-quartett-berlin.de
  13. ↑ Federal Cross of Merit for Toru Yasunaga magazin.klassik.com, February 27, 2009
  14. ↑ Michel Schwalbé  ( 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. at the Strad@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.thestrad.com  
  15. ↑ Review by Heinz Gelking on platte11
  16. ↑ Vivaldi: Le Quattro Stagioni , Michel Schwalbé, Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan discogs.com (online)
  17. ↑ Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, Albinoni: Adagio, Corelli: Christmas Concert, Michel Schwalbé, Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan discogs.com (online)
personal data
SURNAME Schwalbé, Michel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwalbé, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish violinist and violin teacher
DATE OF BIRTH October 27, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Radom , Poland
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 2012
Place of death Berlin