Adolph Brodsky

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Adolph Brodsky (born March 21, 1851 - died 1929) was a Russian violinist.

He was born in Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. His grandfather and father were fiddle players. He started music lessons at the age of five, a year after he first played the violin. He later studied at the Vienna Conservatory.

He participated there in the Hellmesberger Quartet, a String Quartet with Joseph Hellmesberger (1st violin), Sigismund Bachrich (viola) and David Popper (cello).

Brodsky was the dedicatee of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto, after Leopold Auer rejected it as unplayable. Brodsky premiered the work on December 4, 1881 in Vienna.

Brodsky taught music, first at the Leipzig Conservatoire from 1883 to 1891, and later at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1895 until his death.

While he was in Leipzig, he held a Christmas dinner, in which Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Grieg met. This sparked a friendship between Tchaikovsky and Grieg, who held high esteem for each other.

In October 1891 Brodsky and his wife settled in New York where he played with the New York Symphony Orchestra. After three years he returned to Europe, in Berlin; while he was there Sir Charles Halle invited him to Manchester to teach at the Royal Manchester College of Music, and direct the Halle Orchestra.