Váša Příhoda

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Váša Příhoda (born August 22, 1900 in Vodňany (Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary), † July 26, 1960 in Vienna ) was a Czech violinist .

Life

Příhoda was born in the South Bohemian town of Wodnian (Vodňany) in his grandparents' house, but grew up in Prague. His father Alois Příhoda founded a music school in Prague-Pankrác in 1896 after passing his state examination for violin and music. In 1919 he finally settled in Prague-Nusle. He called his institute from then on "First Czechoslovak Music School of the director Alois Příhoda in Nusle ". Alois Příhoda taught his son until 1910. After that, Váša Příhoda went to Jan Mařák as a private student until 1919 . In addition, Příhoda was largely self-taught; He had no conservatory training.

On September 30, 1912, Váša Příhoda made his first public appearance. On December 12, 1913, he played for the first time in the Prague Mozarteum. During the First World War he was able to contribute to the maintenance of the family through occasional concerts. In 1915 he performed three times in Prague's Smetana Hall. His first post-war tour took him to Switzerland in 1919. In Zurich he was able to stay with a Mr. Kučera - which was a noticeable help given the low income. Then his impresario Richter took him to Milan and Yugoslavia together with the pianist Asta Doubravská. A self-financed concert in Trieste brought good reviews, but no fee. Příhoda returned to Milan completely penniless.

The turning point came on December 27, 1919 with a concert in the “Café Ristorante Grande Italia” in Milan. Paganini's variations on “Nel cor più non mi sento” were on the program . A journalist managed to get Arturo Toscanini to listen to the young violinist. After the concert Toscanini said to Příhoda: "Paganini couldn't play better". Toscanini's intercession helped Příhoda achieve his final breakthrough. The Italian manager Frattini was able to organize a large number of concerts for the next five months. The handwritten concert list shows 48 concerts in Italy.

In June 1920 Příhoda traveled with the pianist Asta Doubravská from Genoa to South America. After concerts in Buenos Aires and São Paulo, he ventured to the USA. His concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York City, as well as in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and other major cities brought him great success. In 1921 the Edison Company recorded its first series of records. Asta (= Augusta) Doubravská was the piano partner. He worked with her at least until 1925. After returning to Europe, he rented a room in Sankt Wolfgang am Wolfgangsee and prepared for concerts in Vienna.

After he had already triggered enthusiastic reactions with Paganini's “Nel cor piu non mi sento” variations, he used them to perfect his technique and took it to extremes in his own adaptation. The “Nel cor Variations” accompanied him until the end of his life.

When Příhoda was at the forefront of European violin virtuosos in the mid-1920s, he made the acquaintance of Arnold Rosé in Vienna . At a concert on November 11, 1928, he met his daughter Alma Rosé . They married on September 16, 1930 in Vienna. The witnesses were father Arnold Rosé and the writer Franz Werfel . In 1930 Příhoda bought an estate in Zaryby not far from Prague. From here, the couple continue their concert activities, partly separately and partly together. In 1933, Alma Rosé founded the “Wiener Walzermädeln” women's band. In March 1935, the turbulent marriage in Czechoslovakia divorced. At the turn of 1935/36, Příhoda took part in the Austrian-Italian joint film The Maharaja's White Wife .

The Second World War drastically restricted Příhoda's concert activities. However, this gave him the opportunity to intensify his teaching activities. Together with the cellist Paul Grümmer and the pianist Michael Raucheisen , he founded the master trio in 1942 . His last home “war concert” took place on March 31, 1944 in Prague's Smetana Hall. In 1944 he gave concerts in Munich, Nuremberg, Dresden and Leipzig. In Munich, Příhoda taught at the music academy until the end of the war.

The end of the war did not mean any improvement in his situation. The Central Committee of the City of Prague sentenced him to a fine for his appearance in Germany and banned him from appearing in the Czech Republic - but not in Slovakia. The violinist Dusan Pandula experienced this time in Prague: “But one would also have to write about him how he was mistreated by his own Czechs after 1945. He, Ludikar and Talich , three absolute peaks, had to march across Wenceslas Square , were spat at, beaten and had to clean latrines. ”During a concert tour in France, he phoned his wife to come to Rapallo “ with bag and bag ” , where he too - without returning to Czechoslovakia - came towards the end of 1946.

The Viennese press achieved through campaigns in which they blamed Příhoda for the death of his first wife that he no longer received any engagements and that concerts that had already been arranged were canceled. In 1946, Příhoda was fully rehabilitated in Austria. He was able to build on earlier successes with concerts in Alexandria, Ankara, Istanbul and Italy. From 1947 he gave concerts again annually in Vienna. The Italian authorities caused increasing difficulties. He was soon so tired of these quarrels that in October 1948 he took up the offer of his friend, the Turkish ambassador, to accept Turkish citizenship. So he was able to keep his residence in Rapallo undisturbed and go on his concert tours from here. In January 1949 he gave one last concert in the USA, then in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The American agents more than clearly rejected him because of his work in Nazi Germany. During this time he developed heart and breathing problems that seriously affected him.

He lived and taught privately in St. Gilgen on Lake Wolfgang, which he fondly remembered from his previous stay in this area. His lively educational activity was mainly concentrated in Prague, Salzburg, Munich and, from 1950, as a university professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

In 1954 a concert recording of Henri Vieuxtemps' violin concerto with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Franz Marszalek was made at the WDR Cologne . A few days after this concert, Příhoda broke his right upper arm in an accident in Salzburg. Health problems increasingly affected Příhoda. Příhoda was able to give concerts again from January 1955, but the psychological and physical stress and his heart disease forced a reduction in his activities. He took up a second residence in Vienna to avoid commuting between home and the music college.

In 1956 - after a twelve-year absence from his home country - he was invited to the “Prague Spring 56”. In the list of musicians taking part in the festival, Příhoda was listed as a "Turkish violinist". The Czech music lovers received him in the Smetana Hall with a big ovation. Music lovers who were not allowed in climbed up the facades and stood in the window openings. In spite of the great success, the newspapers only brought “tried and true” criticisms on “instructions from above”. In 1956 and 1957 he recorded his last records at CETRA in Italy.

In April 1960 Příhoda gave the last concerts. Then he died of a heart condition.

memory

Despite the “official silence”, the memory of Příhoda never completely faded. The violinist Pavla Žílová, who happened to grow up in Příhoda's birthplace, still looked after Příhoda's memory in small steps during the communist era. In the course of time she was able to win Mayor Heřmann for “her cause”. Heřmann visited together with Žílová and some town hall employees on Příhoda's 100th birthday his grave in the Hietzingen cemetery. In 2005, Žílová founded a Příhoda company. In the same year there was a symposium dedicated to Váša Příhoda in Ferrara . The international youth violin competition “Váša Příhoda” initiated by Žílová has been held in Budweis since 2011.

In the week from June 21 to 25, 2016, Váša Příhoda was exhumed at the Vienna Hietzing cemetery after years of preparatory work by Pavla Žílová and transferred to his hometown Vodňany, where he was reburied in the cemetery on June 26, 2016. Mayor Heřmann ordered that the grave should come into the possession of the city and be tended.

Since December 2016 - initiated by Pavla Žílová and her son - a pair of commuter trains called "Váša Příhoda" has been running between Prague and Linz. At the opening ceremony in Prague, violin students led by Professor Albert Fischer and Bohuslav Matoušek played three pieces for violin and piano composed by Příhoda.

Violins owned by Příhoda

Violin by Váša Příhoda "Laurentius Storioni"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jan Vratislavský: Váša Příhoda, Editio Supraphon, Praha 1974.
  2. ^ Antonín Moravec: Ad honorem, Editio ViVo, Brno 1994.
  3. ↑ Joachim W. Hartnack: Great violinists of our time, Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag, Zurich 1993.
  4. ↑ January Vratislavský: Mistr stradivárek (in the Czech newspaper Svobodné slovo dated August 22, 1975.)
personal data
SURNAME Příhoda, Váša
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech violinist
DATE OF BIRTH 22nd August 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Vodňany
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1960
Place of death Vienna