Auer

Leopold Auer

The name of Leopold Auer, the celebrated violinist and teacher, personifies the flowering of the Russian violin school. The pleiad of prominent performers he had trained, among them Heifetz, Elman, Zimbalist, Milstein, Polyakin, Zeitlin, Ganzen, Pistro, Achron, artists that rank among the greatest, has determined to a considerable degree the principal trends of twentieth century violin art. Himself a highly accomplished musician, his art combined the traditions of West-European (Joachim) and Russian violin schools.

Leopold Auer was born on June 7, 1846 in Veszprem (Hungary). At the age of eight he began to take violin lessons in Pest from R. Kohne and later continued his training at the Vienna Conservatoire in the classes of Dont and Helmesberger, also with J. Joachim in Hannover. Joachim “proved a revelation to me, opening up before me such vistas of transcendent art which I never expected to have existed”, the musician stated in his reminiscences.

In 1858 Auer began to concertize throughout Europe, at the same time holding the posts of concertmaster in Dusseldorf and Hamburg. The year 1868 proved a turning point in his career. While in London where he appeared together with Anton Rubinstein, the latter was so impressed by Auer's art that he invited him to replace Wieniawski, who was leaving the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, and take up the post of professor there.

Thereupon Auer moved to St. Petersburg where he devoted nearly fifty years of his life to concert and pedagogical activity — playing the first violin in the string quartet of the Russian Musical Society in that city, conducting concerts and serving as soloist in the Mariinsky Theatre ballet orchestra. The high estimation the violinist enjoyed among the Russian musicians - is borne out, among others, by Tchaikovsky, who wrote that “the prevailing qualities of Auer's interpretations are warmth and emotionality in conveying the melody and a tender songfulness of his tone. He plays with great expression, faultless technique, subtly conceived, poetic phrasing". Tchaikovsky dedicated to Auer his “Serenade melancolique” also the piano score of his Violin Concerto. To him too were dedicated the violin concertos of Glazunov and Arensky, and Taneyev's “Suite Concertante”.

At the beginning of 1917 Auer, together with his pupils, left on a concert tour of Scandinavia. He continued his creative career in the USA where he taught at the Institute of Music in New York and at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Leopold Auer died on July 15, 1930.