DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

606 KUBELIK KUBELIK
born in Melbourne, Australia, of German
parents, on March 22, 1859. He appeared in
public when nine yeara of age, playing at the
first desk in the Philharmonic concerts of his
native town. In 1875 he went to Berlin to study
mth Joachim in the Hochachule, in which institution
he was later appointed professor. In
1882 became principal violin and sub-conductor
of the Berlin Philharmonic Society, and founded
a string Quartet. In 1885 he visited Australia,
but was called back by Joachim to relieve him of
some of his work at the Hochschule, his activity
as teacher continuing till 1891, when he relin-
ijuished the appointment to go to Bremen as
leader of the Philharmonic orchestra. In Oct.
1892 he joined the Joachim Quartet as second
violin though still resident in Bremen, where
he also founded a Quartet of his own, travelling
very constantly in Germany with the various
organisations with which he was connected. In
1895 he revisited Australia for a short tournee,
and in 1897 left Germany and the Joachim
Quartet to live in London, where he once more
founded a Quartet, and gave a series of concerts
at St. James's Hall. In Oct. 1902 he took over
the Saturday Popular Concerts, of which only
ten were announced, and the following year
restored them to their original number of
twenty, besides reviving the twenty Monday
Popular Concerts. During the same season he
gave a series of orchestral concerts (conductor,
Felix AVeingartner), in 1903 a Beethoven Festival
of eight concerts, and in 1904 a second
festival of seven concerts, so that the English
public owes much to his enterprise and energy.
He is also favourably known as a performer of
chamber music, a department of the art in
which he has had extensive experience. As a
violinist his staccato bowing and trill may be
noted as of exceptional brilliancy, w. w. c.
KUBELIK, Jax, violinist, was born of Czech
parents, on July 5, 1880, at Michle, a little
village in the vicinity of Prague. Though his
father was a simple market-gardener, his early
life was spent in an atmosphere hardly less
favourable to the development of his musical
talents than that of a large city. In no
country has the love of good music penetrated
so deeply into the heart of the people as in
Bohemia, and the gardener by profession was a
musician by predilection, a genuine enthusiast,
possessing qualities w'hich would have secured
him a good piosition in the world of music had
he enjoyed reasonable opportunities of culture.
A self-taught performer on many instruments,
he conducted a little orchestra much in request
at festive gatherings in the neighbourhood, and
possessed the gift of imparting his knowledge
to others. Consequently, when the young
Kubelik at the age of five years expressed a
desire to learn the violin, he received from his
father a thorough training which laid an excel-
lent foundation for the virtuosity exhibited in
later years. In an incredibly short space of
time he was able to play the earlier studies of
Kreutzer, and in 1888 made his first appearance
in public at Prague, playing a concerto of
Vieuxtemps and pieces by Wieniawski. In
1892 he entered the Conservatorium, and was
favoured by the circumstance that Ottakar
Sevcik returned in the same year from Russia,
where he had held teaching appointments at
Kiev and Moscow, to Prague. Taking the
youth in hand at the most receptive age, the
professor saw his laboriously thought-out theories
of violin teaching carried to a triumphant issue
by his pupil, who, aiter six years devoted to
hard practice under the Sevcik method, played
the Brahms concerto, with his own cadenzas,
at a student's concert given in the German
theatre, and on the occasion of his final apjjearance
as a student in 1898, gave a brilliant
performance of the D major concerto of Paganini,
with Sauret's cadenza, and was recognised by
examiners and critics as a virtuoso player of
the first rank. It is sad to chronicle that his
father died at the hour of his first triumph,
leaving to his son the onus of supporting his
mother and her young family. Fortunately,
by his success on the occasion of his first
appearance away from home in the autumn of
1898, before a critical audience at A^ienna, he
was freed from anxiety on that score. He then
went to Budapest, and later made a prolonged
tour through Italy, receiving, when in Rome,
the order of St. Gregory at the hands of Pope
Leo XIII. In 1900 he visited many continental
cities, including Paris, and on June 18 of the
same year made his London debut at a Richter
concert, giving also, during the season, five
concerts of his own at St. James's Hall.
The opjerating causes of his phenomenal success
in this country were many. The public
was not sated, as now, by displays of virtuosity.
"Willy Burmester ami Cesar Thomson, both
Paganini players, had failed to capture the
English public, and the moment was ripe for
the appearance of such an artist as Kubelik,
who came heralded by stories of his humble
origin and marvellous technique, whilst his
modest, almost demure ap|iearance, predisposed
audiences in his favour. Thus when it was
perceived that he was able to execute the most
dangerous Hights of the virtuoso school, with
consummate ease and precision, there was a
scene of wild enthusiasm ; it was jironounced
that the mantle of Paganini had fallen on his
shoulders, and from that day to this, he has
secured crowded audiences whenever and wher-
ever he appears. Such a success is outre vtesure,
and has its dangers. He would hardly have
been human had he not stepped in to enjoy
the fruit of his suddenly acijuired popularity
by accepting the many lucrative engagements
olfered him to play music of dubious value all
over the world, but the passage from the