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MINT CONDITION |
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Price: $1400.00 |
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Three page autographed letter by the Czech composer in English to Paul Aron, July 21, 1943 The letter provides information which is heretofore unpublished concerning the Martinu 2nd Violin Concerto, Halbreich 239. Martinu writes to Aron, who had completed the piano reduction of the orchestration to the composer’s 2nd Violin Concerto. Based upon the letter the reduction is for violinist Ruth Posselt to practice with her accompanist, not for Mischa Elman who premiered the work. Now here is the interesting part of this letter. All of the Martinu and Mischa Elman biographies link the Elman as the only violinist involved in the project. This letter reveals something completely different. July 21—1943 Dear Mr. Aron, I am so happy to know you have finished the piano score am (sic) very anxious to hear it. Mr. Dayton called me today and I hope I will see both of you next week. In the meantime please, make 2 photocopies by Circle Blue Print Co. of 250 West 57th Street and send the bill to me. It takes so much time. Please send 1 copie, (sic) special delivery, to the address: Mrs. Richard Burgin 140 Sewall Avenue Brookline - Mass Never mind if we change something after, Mrs. Burgin, Ruth Posselt, who playes (sic) next saison, need the score as fast as possible to study it, and correct the violin part. Please send it to her. I will pay you the post mail. I do not think we will change but even, we can make the corrections on the copy and make the new copys (sic) corrected. Mrs. Posselt start to study and she need the score, she has now only the violin part and there are the mistakes. Tell to Mr. Dayton to call when you come next Saturday, I think. Thank you very much, Very sincerely yours, B. Martinu Darien Conn. (I will come to take you at the station, call me before or from the station in Darien. Stamford 5-23165 (from the station call on the number.) Could you take a metronome with you?
Martinu commissioned Aron (1886-1955) to write a piano reduction from the full score of the 2nd Violin Concerto for Ruth Posselt. We have confirmed this and the fact that she planned to play the World Premiere of the work with Artur Rodzinski and the New York Philharmonic via Posselt’s daughter Dr. Diana Burgin. Now here comes the controversy. Ruth Posselt (1914-2007) was a world class concert violinist and her husband was Boston Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Richard Burgin. Martinu was a family friend through one of her teachers, Emanuel Ondricek, who was also married to Posselt’s sister Gladys. He had written his 1st Symphony during the Summer of 1942 in Ondricek’s Cape Cod vacation home. There is an account in Allan Kozinn’s biography of the violinist Mischa Elman and the Romantic Violin, that Elman commissioned the work from Martinu for $1000 plus $100 per performance as of January of 1943 and he performed the work for the first time on December 31,1943. However, we have confirmed through another Martinu letter contained in Aron’s personal papers at the Leo Baek Institute that he was writing the piano reduction of the 2nd Violin Concerto for Posselt. F. James Rybka wrote in his biography of the composer Bohuslav Martinu and the Compulsion to Compose that Elman had heard the 1st Symphony at a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert in January 1943 and was so taken with the work that he commissioned Martinu to write a concerto for him. Based upon an article in a 1990 article in Fanfare Magazine, this story was perpetuated by pianist Rudolf Firkusny and made its’ rounds in the biographies based upon Firkusny’s tale. However, the fact that the piano reduction was written for Posselt and her corrections leads us in a completely different direction. Especially with her ties to the composer as both a family friend and a championed composer of Serge Kouusevitzky and his tie to Posselt’s husband. Further, the biographies say Elman shopped the piece around to conductors and finally landed with Koussevitzky, which seems to be the logical conclusion from the start. A letter in the New York Philharmonic Archives seems to be the clinch which solves the mystery. Artur Rodzinski, the Philharmonic Music Director wrote to Bruno Zirato the NY Philharmonic Orchestra Manager on June 16, 1943 ...In case Martinu did not write a second violin concerto for Elman and in order to save Miss Posselt any embarrassing situation with Koussevitzky on whom she and her husband depend, and in order to still have a Premiere with our orchestra, I would suggest switching Posselt from her January date to any other date before December which you might find suitable.... (Thank you to Barbara Haws Chief Archivist of the New York Philharmonic) It would appear Rodzinski bowed out of the competition for the World Premiere, so that the Burgin’s did not have any problems with Koussevitzky. A superb letter which changes the known history of the Martinu 2nd Violin Concerto.
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BOHUSLAV MARTINU - COMPOSER |
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Phone: 212-860-5541 * Fax: 917-677-8247
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