| Bronisław Huberman | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Born | December 19, 1882 Częstochowa, Poland |
| Died | June 16, 1947 (aged 64) Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupations | Violinist, pedagogue |
| Instruments | Violin |
| Notable instruments | |
| Violin Gibson; ex-Huberman Stradivari 1713 ex-Huberman Guarneri del Gesù 1731 Huberman; Kreisler Stradivari 1733 Consolo Guarneri del Gesù 1733 |
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Bronisław Huberman (19 December 1882 – 16 June 1947) was a Jewish Polish violinist. He was known for his individualistic and personal interpretations and was praised for his tone color, expressiveness, and flexibility. The Gibson ex-Huberman Stradivarius violin which bears his name was stolen and recovered twice during the period in which he owned the instrument.
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Huberman was born in Częstochowa, Poland. In his youth he was a pupil of Mieczyslaw Michalowicz and Maurycy Rosen at the Warsaw Conservatory, and of Isidor Lotto in Paris. In 1892 he studied under Joseph Joachim in Berlin. Despite being only ten years old, he dazzled Joachim with performances of Louis Spohr, Henri Vieuxtemps, and the transcription of a Frederic Chopin nocturne. However, the two did not get along well, and after Huberman's fourteenth birthday he took no more lessons. In 1893 he toured Holland and Belgium as a virtuoso performer. Around this time the six year old Arthur Rubinstein saw one of Huberman's concerts. Rubinstein's parents invited Huberman back to their house and the two boys struck up what would become a lifetime friendship. In 1894 Adelina Patti invited Huberman to participate in her farewell gala in London, which he did, and in the following year he actually eclipsed her in appearances in Vienna. In 1896 he performed the violin concerto of Johannes Brahms in the presence of the composer, who was stunned by the quality of his playing.
In 1937, a year before the Anschluss, Huberman left Vienna and took refuge in Switzerland. The following year, his career was nearly ended when he was involved in an airplane accident in Sumatra, in which his wrist and two fingers of his left hand were broken. After intensive and painful retraining he was able to resume performing. At the onset of the Second World War, Huberman was touring South Africa and was unable to return to his home in Switzerland until after the war. Shortly thereafter he fell ill from exhaustion and never regained his strength. He died in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland in 1947.
In 1929 Huberman first visited Palestine and developed his vision of establishing classical music in the Promised Land. In 1933, during the Nazis' rise to power, Huberman declined invitations from Wilhelm Furtwängler to return to preach a "musical peace", but wrote instead an open letter to German intellectuals inviting them to remember their essential values. In 1936 he founded the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra, which gave its first performance on 26 December with Arturo Toscanini conducting. Upon the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 the orchesra was renamed as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Before 1936, Huberman's principal instrument for his concerts was the 1713-vintage Stradivarius "Gibson", which was named after one of its early owners, the English violinist George Alfred Gibson. It was stolen twice. In 1919, it was stolen from Huberman's Vienna hotel room, but recovered by the police within 3 days. The second time was in New York City. On February 28, 1936, while giving a concert at Carnegie Hall, Huberman switched the Stradivarius "Gibson" with his newly acquired Guarnerius violin, leaving the Stradivarius in his dressing room during intermission. It was stolen by a New York nightclub musician, Julian Altman, who kept it for the next half century. Huberman's insurance company, Lloyd's of London, paid him $US30,000 for the loss in 1936.
Altman went on to become a violinist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. and performed with the stolen Stradivarius for many years. In 1985, Altman made a deathbed confession to his wife, Marcelle Hall, that he had stolen the violin. Two years later, she returned it to Lloyd's and collected a finder's fee of $US263,000. The instrument underwent a 9-month restoration by J&A Beare Ltd., in London. In 1988, Lloyd's sold it for $US1.2 million to British violinist Norbert Brainin. In October 2001, the American violinist, Joshua Bell, purchased it for $4,000,000.
Huberman made several commercial recordings of large-scale works, among which are: