Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday

by Henry Charles Lahee

He made a second tour in America in 1898, when he confirmed the opinions already formed as to his wonderful qualities.

In March, 1899, he went to Berlin, which city he had not visited for several years, and appeared as soloist of the tenth Nikisch Philharmonic concert, when he played the E major concerto by Bach, and scored an overwhelming success. At the end of the concert he was recalled some fifteen times, and had completely exploded the idea so firmly held in Berlin, that the Belgians cannot play the classics.

Of late years M. Ysaye has made his mark as a conductor, and has given a series of orchestral concerts in Brussels. He organised and managed this enterprise entirely by himself, without any guarantee fund, and the concerts were so successful, financially as well as artistically, that at the end of the season it was found that they had paid all expenses, and this, as all who know anything about the financial side of or chestral concerts, is a most remarkable showing.

Few, if any, artists have been made the recipients of more ridiculous adulation from women Paderewski perhaps being the only exception, and at the conclusion of his concerts scenes have been witnessed which are simply nauseating. This fashion is not confined, by any means, to the United States, for there are anecdotes from all countries illustrative of the manner in which members of the fair sex vie with each other in the effort to do the silliest things.

Ysaye has a home near the Palais de Justice in Brussels. He is married to the daughter of a Belgian army officer, and has several children. He is a man of much modesty, and is devoted to his family. As a violinist he may be considered to rank next to Joachim.

Carl Halir, who visited America in 1896, was born in 1859 at Hohenelbe in Bohemia, and was first taught by his father. He entered the conservatory at Prague at the age of eight, and remained there until he was fourteen, studying under Bennewitz, after which he went to Berlin and became a pupil of Joachim.

For some time he was a member of the Bilse orchestra, and then went to Königsberg as concert-master, after which he held a similar position for three years at Mannheim, and then at Weimar, where he married the well-known singer, Theresa Zerbst.

On his first appearance, at the Bach festival at Eisenath, he played with Joachim the Bach double concerto, and was very successful. He has made concert tours throughout the greater part of Europe, and while in America he was recognised as a broad artist. He is no virtuoso in the ordinary sense of the word, but a classical, non-sensational, well-educated musician, whose playing was not dazzling or magnetic, but delighted by its intellectuality. He has an even and sympathetic tone, and inspires the greatest respect as an artist and as a man, and, while other players may make greater popular successes, Halir stands on a high artistic plane which few can reach.

Franz Ondricek, who visited the United States also in 1896, was born at Prague in 1859, the same year as Halir, but is an artist of an entirely different stamp. In his early youth he was a member of a dance music band, and his father taught him to play the violin. It was not until he was fourteen years of age that he was able to enter the conservatory of his native town. Three years later he was sent, through the generosity of a wealthy merchant, to Paris, where he became a pupil of Massart. He shared with Achille Rivarde the honour of the first prize at the Conservatoire, since which time he has been a wandering star, and has never sought any permanent engage ment. His playing is marked by individuality and dash, but he does not show to the best advantage in the interpretation of the classics.

Charles Martin Loeffler, who shares the first desk of the first violins in the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Mr. Kneisel, is a musician of the highest ability.