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AN INDIVIDUAL VOICE

When Ivry Gitlis died on Christmas Eve last year at the age of 98 there was an outpouring of love and affection from the musical community.Tully Potter pays tribute to the great violinist’s life and career

Surely the most individual violinist to come out of Israel, Ivry Gitlis died in Paris on 24 December aged 98. The last link with the pre-war classes of Carl Flesch, George Enescu and Jacques Thibaud, he was never a household name but attracted a cult following.

It was an article of faith with Gitlis that he would aim for the ultimate in conviction and spontaneity: rather than motor along at a safe 80 per cent, he always tried for the 90s. ‘Music is something that you must feel everywhere,’ he said. ‘You don’t play just with fingers.’ This approach, inevitably entailing a certain amount of crashing and burning, did not endear him to Heifetz-fed American critics but went down better in Europe.

Yits’hak-Meir Gitlis was born in Haifa on 25 August 1922, the son of Ukrainian immigrants to Palestine. There was music in the family but nothing to indicate his life’s path. ‘I wanted a violin,’ he recalled. Family and friends clubbed together to get him one for his fifth birthday, but owing to an illness which almost cost him his sight he could not make a proper start until he was getting on for six.

His first teacher was Elisheva Velikovsky (née Kramer), who had been a favourite student of Adolf Busch in Berlin. When he was ten his next mentor, Mira Ben-Ami (a pupil of Joseph Szigeti), introduced him to Bronisław Huberman, who suggested he study in France. A fundraising campaign was subsequently launched.

Arriving with his mother in Paris, Ivry (the name he how adopted) had lessons from Marcel Chailley at the École Normale de Musique before entering Jules Boucherit’s Paris Conservatoire class. He graduated in 1935 with a first prize, studied with Flesch in Spa, Belgium, for a year, then with Enescu and Thibaud. ‘I have the impression that I learnt more with Enescu than with Flesch,’ he said.

In wartime London, where he and his mother fled in 1940, he worked in a munitions factory but was scooped up by the Entertainments National Service Association and spent the rest of the war entertaining troops. On 19 June 1946 he made his London debut at Wigmore Hall with pianist Harry Isaacs: Beethoven ‘Spring’ Sonata, Bach Chaconne, Mozart Concerto no.5 in A major and pieces by Chausson, Szymanowski and Bartók.

A year later, at the same venue, he premiered Lennox Berkeley’s op.24 Introduction and Allegro for solo violin, which he edited for publication.

Gitlis initially scored a hit with the audience at the 1951 Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris, but his fifth placing indicated dissension among the jury – and on the day of the final a ridiculous rumour that during the war he had stolen a Stradivari was buzzing round. That year he went to New York to study with Theodore and Alice Pashkus.

For his first concerto recordings, in 1954, he chose the Berg and the composer’s Chamber Concerto – but he left himself barely two weeks to learn the music.

‘MUSIC IS SOMETHING THAT YOU MUST FEEL EVERYWHERE. YOU DON’T PLAY JUST WITH FINGERS’

Gitlis as a young violinist in the 1930s

THIS PAGE TULLY POTTER COLLECTION

He lived with it night and day, especially the Violin Concerto, and the result was a Grand Prix du Disque.

On 15 December 1955 he made a poorly received Carnegie Hall debut in the Sibelius with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony under George Szell. His fingers further burnt by an unsuccessful recital tour in 1958, he did not reappear in the US until 1980, his career instead centring on Europe, Israel (where he first played in 1949) and Japan (which he visited more than 30 times).

‘I play violin, but in order to play well you have to be much more than a violin player,’ he would say, and: ‘I don’t separate music from life.’ In the late 1960s and 1970s he began to be seen in other guises: taking part in John Lennon’s ‘supergroup’ The Dirty Mac and acting in movies, notably as a hypnotist in François Truffaut’s The Story of Adèle H. In 1972 he founded the Festival de Vence in the south of France and in 1988 he became a Unesco Goodwill Ambassador.

With fellow students of Carl Flesch in 1938: (l-r) Joseph Segal, Josef Hassid, Gitlis, Edward Michael, Flesch, Thomas Matthews and pianist Adela Kotowska

TULLY POTTER COLLECTION

I last heard him at Wigmore Hall on 19 September 1996, when he celebrated the golden jubilee of his London debut with his companion, pianist Ana-Maria Vera. They began with Hindemith’s adorable little E flat major Sonata and Gitlis launched the second half with Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin. Both were memorable.

The Gitlis tone was capable of great variety, from almost too vibrant to muscular and athletic. His double-stops had immense depth of sonority. ‘Ivry’s sound was amazing, unique,’ says cellist Steven Isserlis told me. ‘Although it was beautiful, it wasn’t principally about beauty; it was about speaking. Every note said something, conveyed a message. And because of his urgent need to communicate, it cut through, even when he was very old.

‘In private he was quite similar to how he was in public, full of life, humour, wisdom and charm. His main fear, I think, was loneliness – and alas, there was far too much of that in his last year. He loved to be surrounded by people – and he was deeply affectionate. If you knew him well, you loved him, even if he drove you up the wall! He was just such a force.

‘His playing wasn’t for everybody (as his personality wasn’t) but if it spoke to you, it was irresistible, addictive; and one just accepted any rough patches – that was Ivry. Completely human, both musically and personally.’

Years ago, my sister phoned to say she had heard this amazing violinist playing Tchaikovsky with the London Schools Symphony Orchestra. I bought her the Vox Box which is still a good introduction to Gitlis: the Tchaikovsky is a little stiff, the Mendelssohn is poor, but the Sibelius sizzles and the Bruch is fine, as is the Bartók (Second Concerto and Solo Sonata).

No one should miss his Hindemith Concerto. His Berg, recoupled with the Stravinsky, was owned by actress Marilyn Monroe. His Paganini Caprices yield many rewards but are not for the fainthearted. Among the encore pieces, some are graceless, then suddenly you come across a Wieniawski Capriccio-Valse or a Sarasate Introduction et Tarantelle of which any violinist would be proud.

CHRONOLOGY

1922 Born in Haifa, Palestine (now Israel) 1931 Makes Tel Aviv debut

1932 Plays to Bronisław Huberman, who sends him to study in Paris with Jules Boucherit

1935 Graduates with first prize; further studies with Carl Flesch, George Enescu and Jacques Thibaud

1940-46 Works in a London munitions factory during World War II, and later in the Entertainments National Service Association

1946-7 First London season 1951 New York studies with Theodore and Alice Pashkus

1951 Places fifth in Long-Thibaud competition 1952 Debut with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

1954 Records concertos by Berg, Bartók, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky

1955 US debut and first tour of America

1956 Acquires the 1713 ‘Sancy’ Stradivari

1963 First Israeli musician to tour Russia

1968 Plays with John Lennon’s The Dirty Mac supergroup on a Rolling Stones TV special

1971 Bruno Maderna writes Pièce pour Ivry for him

1972 Premieres Iannis Xenakis’s Mikka

1972 Starts Festival de Vence in the south of France

1977 Plays hypnotist in Truffaut’s film The Story of Adèle H

1978 Premieres Michel Legrand’s Concerto

1980 His autobiography, L’âme et la corde, is published

1982 Performs at Huberman Centenary festival in Israel alongside Itzhak Perlman, Isaac Stern and Ida Haendel

1990 Appointed Unesco goodwill ambassador

1995 Tour with Schiff and Northern Sinfonia, playing Paganini D major

1996 Performs at Wigmore Hall to mark the 50th anniversary of his debut there

1998 Plays a violin teacher in the French film Les cachetonneurs

2001 Commentates on the DVD documentary The Art of Violin with Itzhak Perlman

2001 Appears with Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford

2002 Tchaikovsky Trio at Wigmore Hall, with Nelson Goerner and Steven Isserlis

2003 Plays Monsieur Click in the French film Sansa

2009 Inspiration, a Dutch-made documentary about his life, is released

2012 Attends 90th birthday concert at Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, with artists including violinists Maxim Vengerov and Janine Jansen, violist Amihai Grosz and cellist Isserlis

RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS

The Art of Ivry Gitlis (Tchaikovsky, Bruch, Sibelius Mendelssohn, Bartók)

VOX CDX2 5505 (2 DISCS)