Nathan "Tossy" Spivakovsky (23 December 1906 - 20 July 1998) was a Jewish Russian-born, German-trained violinist, who taught in Australia and later settled in the United States.
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Tossy Spivakovsky was born in Odessa in 1906 and grew up in Berlin, where he studied with Arrigo Serato privately and with Willy Hess at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. He was a prodigy – he gave his first recital at age 10 and had his first European tour at age 13, becoming concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic at only 18 after being talent spotted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. A year later, he left to follow a solo career in Europe.
In the 1920s he played in the Spivakovsky Duo with his brother Jacob "Jascha" (1896–1970), a talented pianist. In 1930 he formed the Spivakovsky-Kurtz Trio with Jascha and cellist Edmund Kurtz. The trio was on a tour of Australia in 1933 when the Nazi Party took power in Germany. This put an end to his European career, and he decided to stay. He married in Australia and had a child.[1] All three members of the trio joined the teaching staff of the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Jascha remained in Australia and became an Australian citizen. Another brother, the violinist and cellist Isaac 'Issy' (1902–1977), who had studied violin under Willy Hess, and cello with Hugo Becker and Gregor Piatigorsky, also migrated to Australia in 1934, and for 28 years (1937–1965) taught violin, viola and cello at Scotch College, Melbourne. A fourth brother, Adolf (1891–1958), a bass-baritone, also migrated to Melbourne in 1934 and taught at the University Conservatorium where his students included the sopranos Glenda Raymond and Sylvia Fisher.
Tossy remained in Melbourne for seven years. In 1940 he moved to the United States and made his New York debut at Town Hall that year. He became concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra under Artur Rodziński, was frequently soloist, and in this capacity in 1943 he gave the first United States performance of Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2, thus launching his career in the U.S. as a soloist. He also gave the work its first performances in New York and San Francisco. Bartók himself described Tossy's performance of his violin concerto as "first rate". "Was this the best since Heifetz," wrote the San Francisco Chronicle's Alfred Frankenstein after a 1948 performance of the Bartók Violin Concerto, "or was this just the best, period?" Following Tossy's New York performance of the violin concerto by Gian Carlo Menotti, a review appearing in the May 3, 1954 edition of Time Magazine stated: "As always, his tone was luxuriant, his pitch impeccable, and he brought the music to full-blooded life." The same article referred to him as "one of the most brilliant violinists alive." He was also the soloist in the premieres of Leon Kirchner's Sonata Concertante and David Diamond's Canticle and Perpetual Motion. For more than four decades he travelled extensively throughout the U.S., South America and Europe giving solo performances, and also taught violin and chamber music at the Juilliard School from 1974 to 1989.
He recorded Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under Walter Goehr and Sibelius's Violin Concerto conducted by Tauno Hannikainen. He also made the first studio recording of Bartók’s Violin Sonata No. 2 with Arthur Balsam, issued in late 1947 by Concert Hall Society. (The earlier version by the composer accompanying Joseph Szigeti was a live performance, and only issued later.) He recorded the Menotti Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Charles Munch. In 1925-31 he made a number of other recordings, on the Parlophone label, consisting mainly of popular pieces and encores. In 1970, he was preparing to record the Beethoven violin sonatas with his brother Jascha, when the latter died.
He also composed, and published his own cadenzas to the Beethoven and Mozart concertos. In order to draw from his instrument the richest, most brilliant tone possible, he developed an innovative method of bowing that was described in detail in a book entitled "The Spivakovsky Way of Bowing," by Gaylord Yost, 1949, Volkwein Bros. Inc., Pittsburgh, PA. In a life-long effort to perform his repertoire just as the composers wanted their music performed, he sought and researched their original sheet music. Upon discovering that Bach wanted certain chords in his solo violin suites played without arpeggiation, he wrote an article entitled "Polyphony in Bach’s Works for solo Violin," published in 1967 in THE MUSIC REVIEW, Vol. 28, No. 4., in which he provided the evidence for Bach’s preference.
Tossy Spivakovsky died in Westport, Connecticut, United States, age 91, survived by his daughter, Ruth Voorhis, of Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, and a grandson, Dave Mark Voorhis, of Derbyshire, UK.