Joseph Joachim (violin) - Hungarian Dance No. 1 (Brahms-Joachim) (1903)
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- Опубліковано 4 лис 2024
- Joseph Joachim plays 'Hungarian Dance No. 1,' recorded by William Sinkler Darby in Berlin for The Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd on 27 June 1903.
From Wikipedia: Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 - 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.
Joachim studied violin early, beginning in Buda at age five, then in Vienna and Leipzig. He made his debut in London in 1844, playing Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto, with Felix Mendelssohn conducting. He returned to London many times throughout life. After years of teaching at the Leipzig Conservatory and playing as principal violinist of the Gewandhausorchester, he moved to Weimar in 1848, where Franz Liszt established cultural life. From 1852, Joachim served at the court of Hanover, playing principal violin in the opera and conducting concerts, with months of free time in summer for concert tours. In 1853, he was invited by Robert Schumann to the Lower Rhine Music Festival, where he met Clara Schumann and Brahms, with whom he performed for years to come. In 1879, he premiered Brahms' violin concerto with Brahms as conductor.[1] He married Amalie, an opera singer, in 1863, who gave up her career; the couple had six children.
Joachim quit service in Hanover in 1865, and the family moved to Berlin, where he was entrusted with founding and directing a new department at the Royal Conservatory, for performing music. He formed a string quartet, and kept performing chamber music on tours. His playing was recorded in 1903.
I transferred this side from Symposium 1014. The recording is of excellent quality, but there had obviously been some minor damage to the metal part from which the stamper was made. I have not attempted to remove the resultant noises, because such a course was likely to only make things worse!
I have also allowed the voice at the end of the side to remain - and have increased the volume a little to enable it to be better heard. It sounds for all the world like the speaker is saying, "You must be older than me."
One of the most important violin recordings. A true bench mark to help understand the pre WWII violin schools in Europe.
The mystery voice you refer to in the notes might possibly have said "You must be over the moon", and if he had, I think that might have been a nice tribute to the magnificent playing. Thank you for this delightful record, VS!🌙✨
An important historical document, as well as a remarkably good acoustic capture of the violin. Thanks, as always.
Thank you.
A recording of high historical interest, I’ve know it for years & this is one of the best transfers of it I’ve heard! Excellent all round! ❤
Thanks so much. Yes, it's certainly of great importance.
Also, it is quite possible to remove the swishing noise at the beginning, I have done this before.
The voice at the end, according to correspondences held at the EMI archive following the release of the disc in December 1903, says, "Shouldn't that be over yet?". It is most likely spoken by Darby.
Thanks. I hoped that by setting out what I thought I heard someone might come up with a better transcription: but of course "Shouldn't that be over yet?" doesn't quite make sense. I have read transcriptions of the Florence Nightingale and the Arthur Sullivan cylinders that come up with some extraordinary words that are clearly NOT said, so I suppose I like to keep an open mind. (Both those cylinders seem to me to be quite easy to verbally transcribe). I have no doubt that the swishes at the beginning could be removed with the right software and much patience but I often find that my efforts to remedy these sort of problems replaces the existing noise with something equally unpleasant, with the result that I need to draw a line as to what I attempt!
@@vintagesounds3878 Apparently the correspondences say that Darby was being impatient about the recording time during the session (it is a fairly long selection for its time, after all) and uttered those words in dismay, and the G&T people were concerned if Joachim or his associates would know about this rude utterance included at the end. In the end, Joachim or anyone else never came forward to complain.
Interesting. The music runs for only 3:04, but the tendency at that stage was certainly to keep to a fairly narrow groove width. Perhaps 3 minutes was considered the limit. There must be a great deal of interesting correspondence in the EMI Archive! By the way, I still can't hear the official version of the transcription. Assuming the word is "over," it seems to be followed by either two words or a word with two syllables, and it sounds something like "than me."
That such a recording exists is amazing. That the actual quality defies its early date is gratifying. Being able to listen to a musician who knew Mendelssohn, Brahms and Liszt seems nigh miraculous ...
But the main point is that I really enjoyed Joachim's playing. Interesting that sometimes he slightly foreshortens rests and falls into the beat early in a new phrase. That has completely gone from modern music making, but his use of vibrato sounds very modern compared to the style of say Arnold Rose [leader of the Vienna Stae Opera Orchestra, which also constituted as the VPO for concert giving], whose style is quite often devoid of vibrato and even when applied it is of the narrow type - called finger vibrato.
So this is quite reassuring that the likes of David Oiistrach and Artur Grumiaux [from much more recent times] really were playing in a style that Brahms would have expected from violinist friend.
So much can be learned from this old record. HIP experts should take note!
Thanks and best wishes from George
To my ears Rose & Joachim sound relatively similar (playing Brahms) & certainly worlds away from Oistrakh & Grumiaux! I’m sure you can trace a line of development through generations but it’s a development more than a similarity? Anyway, great playing whatever style! Most interesting to compare!
The influence of gypsy violinists is obvious. Note that this has significant differences with Joachim's Bach recordings (rubato, phrasing, type of vibrato etc.). Historical violinists (such as Joachim, Sarasate, Ysaye, Hubay, Enescu, Huberman) knew well how to change their playing and details according to the piece. Modern performers play everything like European elite music. What a mistake!
All agreed! The older generation certainly did understand what they were doing!