FROM PRODIGY TO PEDAGOGUE

Swedish-born violinist Paul Makanowitzky ultimately helped create the American school of violin playing. David Hays explores his life and multifaceted career

Makanowitzky as a child, and in the early 1960s

YOUNG PORTRAIT MEADOWMOUNT SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Violinist Paul Makanowitzky may be best remembered today as Ivan Galamian’s teaching assistant at the Juilliard School and at the Meadowmount School of Music during the 1960s and 70s, but he deserves better recognition for his significant career as a soloist, recording artist, conductor and teacher in his own right. Importantly, he trained a number of soloists, chamber musicians and professors in a way that extended the legacy of Galamian’s school of violin playing and subsequently helped shape what would become the American school. Born in Sweden in 1920 to Russian parents, Makanowitzky soon moved to Paris, where he was to become the first star pupil of the young Galamian – who would put the four-year-old boy up on a table so that he could work with him more easily. By early 1930, Makanowitzky had performed recitals to glowing reviews. Dany Brunschwig wrote after a private performance in December 1929: ‘We have found in him the stuff of a great violinist… The authority and finish of his playing, th intelligence and sensitivity of his interpretations, permit one to envisage for him the highest musical destiny’ (Le monde musical, 1 January 1930). After his February 1930 performance at Salle Gaveau, Brunschwig wrote of the young violinist’s ‘remarkable bow, a clarity of détaché, of “spiccato”, which can be greatly envied by violinists who are more than eight [sic] years old’. A year later, a critic in the Daily Mail wrote of another performance at Salle Gaveau: ‘His genuine artistic temperament and his innate qualities of musical comprehension enable him to convey a real musical experience, as distinguished from the mere tricks of a precocious child.’ At the age of eleven he performed solo before the king and queen of Belgium, to an enthusiastic reception.

Makanowitzky recalled his concert life as a prodigy in unpublished memoirs written during his retirement: I always regretted leaving Paris to resume our travels. It may seem odd, but [on tour] one suffers a great deal of solitude and boredom. One travels and travels, unpacks, repacks. One is plagued, anguished, by this or that. And, paradoxically, in the midst of crowds, people, audiences, one feels extraordinarily alone, out of place, isolated. Cut off from a world one would have liked to be a part of.

Makanowitzky’s life changed suddenly in his early teens when Galamian was called away to the US. He was introduced to famed violinist Jacques Thibaud, who gave him lessons and brought him to the attention of Nadia Boulanger. Makanowitzky later wrote in his memoirs:

One fine day, Jacques Thibaud, all handsome and tanned, came to fetch me himself in a splendid car and took me to his house – an immense villa with the typical Basque roof inclined to the ground, at the same time majestic and charming, perched on a high hill… I learnt that a lesson need not be a monotonous series of interruptions, criticisms, reproaches, corrections, during which one constantly had to fight boredom and fatigue. To the contrary, I felt pleased. I tried to understand everything. I fervently wanted to play my best for him, and I managed to do so, almost without effort, thanks to him – my prince. And I felt a bit princely myself.

Makanowitzky gained a sense of self-respect from his time with Thibaud, learning to use his imagination; this was a welcome change from the discipline of Galamian. Soon his hosts allowed him to roam the town and play on the beach. For the first time, he felt ‘profoundly grateful to be alive’.

Galamian soon returned, and Makanowitzky resumed his routine in the winter, learning more repertoire and playing concertos under Paul Paray, Pierre Monteux and Dimitri Mitropoulos. He suffered from stage fright, and blamed Galamian for programming a Paganini concerto in Lisbon that was ‘absolutely beyond my technical capacity’.

Makanowitzky was inspired by his work with Boulanger. ‘I was 13 or 14 when Mademoiselle opened my marvelling eyes to life, to the role of the musician that awaited me, and to the existence of an element far more important, purer, and more precious than the violin and the bow: the composer’s text.’ He recalled working with her intensively for twelve years, during which time he also studied with George Enescu and Samuel Dushkin (with whom he probably studied Stravinsky, according to one of his violin students, David Updegraff). In a 1981 news article Makanowitzky declared, ‘Boulanger brought me up musically,’ and in his memoirs he recalled exploring Mozart with her: We would spend three or four hours at a stretch on a Mozart score. We were both indefatigable. How could one tire of exploring Mozart’s miraculous character? He offered us all the riches of his soul. He was everything: joy, sadness, timidity, authority. He could be everything because he was himself, and it was in discovering him that I discovered my own capacities.

Far left Makanowitzky as a five-year-old prodigy Left Poster for a 1936 concert at the Maison Gaveau Above Jacques Thibaud taught the young Makanowitzky

YOUNG PORTRAIT MEADOWMOUNT SCHOOL OF MUSIC. POSTER MICHAEL WAIBLINGER

In 1939 Makanowitzky travelled to the US and made his New York Town Hall debut in 1940; this escaped review in the press. Although still a Swedish citizen, he volunteered for the US service during the Second World War, with records of the Office of Strategic Services showing that he served from 13 June 1942 to 1 October 1945. ‘Being a violinist qualified me to be a gunner,’ he later said. He flew missions in a B-24, and shot down behind enemy lines over Romania, he spent five months in a POW camp before walking to Italy to be repatriated at the war’s end.

An important collaboration began for Makanowitzky in 1954 when he joined forces with Noël Lee, an American pianist living in Paris who was also a Boulanger student. That union resulted in a number of tours and recordings over a ten-year period. The Boston Herald’s P.C. Brooks called their work ‘the best ensemble playing to be found anywhere in the world’, and their set of Bach sonatas (recorded 1958, currently available on Doremi) was a Grand Prix du Disque winner in 1959.

Makanowitzky was both charismatic and enigmatic, social yet difficult. A powerful speaker and performer, he could also be a temperamental artist and tended to burn bridges. Updegraff recalls hearing how Makanowitzky frequently upset his managers and that it was Galamian who would come to his aid by procuring new ones (his last manager was Kazuko Hillyer). In 1966, Makanowitzky performed the Berg Violin Concerto brilliantly with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia (a concert that was broadcast on 19 November 1967). Subsequently invited by the orchestra to perform the concerto in Chicago during the regular (winter) season, he turned the offer down.

Makanowitzky had a fruitful partnership with pianist Noël Lee

MAKANOWITZKY FREQUENTLY UPSET HIS MANAGERS AND IT WAS GALAMIAN WHO WOULD COME TO HIS AID BY PROCURING NEW ONES

The year 1955 was pivotal for Makanowitzky and the start of a fruitful period. He married Barbara Norman, an American working for the US government in Paris. She was an accomplished writer with a command of several languages. They had no children but remained married until his death.

It was also in 1955 that Makanowitzky accepted Galamian’s offer to serve as teaching assistant at Meadowmount, the summer music institute that the latter had founded in upstate New York. Galamian had a huge number of students there, some of whom were assigned on alternate weeks to have lessons with his assistants, among whom were Makanowitzky, Sally Thomas and Dorothy DeLay. Makanowitzky specialised in teaching 20th-century works with which Galamian was relatively unfamiliar, such as the concertos by Berg and Stravinsky, as well as the duo sonata repertoire.

Ivan Galamian: Makanowitzky was his first star pupil

The influential Nadia Boulanger (pictured in 1925)

BOULANGER PHOTO BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE

During the years 1965–70 Makanowitzky also joined the faculties at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Juilliard School in New York, where his functions were largely the same as those at Meadowmount: to coach certain Galamian students (but never on the same music they would play for Galamian). Those he coached or taught during this period include concert soloists Kyung Wha Chung and Ulf Hoelscher, quartet players Ronald Copes (Juilliard Quartet) and Kazuhide Isomura (Tokyo Quartet), and violin professors Gerardo Ribeiro and Jody Gatwood.

Makanowitzky produced a number of recordings in the late 1950s and early 1960s (many of which are available today), including the complete Bach, Beethoven and Brahms sonatas with pianist Lee, Brahms’s Violin Concerto and Horn Trio, Mozart’s violin concertos nos.3 and 4 and the Concertone K190 (with violinist Georg Friedrich Hendel), the Stamitz Sinfonia concertante in D major for two violins (also with Hendel), and all twelve concertos that make up Vivaldi’s La cetra op.9. Additional live recordings circulate among collectors, such as one of the Berg Concerto.

Listening to these recordings today, one is immediately struck by the level of commitment to the music. Strict adherence to dynamics and articulations in the score is a staple of Makanowitzky’s performances. Attention is paid to the score’s details, with less emphasis on improvised or individualised small-level phrasing. For example, Beethoven’s ritardando markings are observed in the Violin Sonatas but rarely is the tempo otherwise relaxed nor are expressive slides employed. The effect is achieved on a large scale for each movement by choice of tempos, dynamics and other elements consistent with the score. His facility, intonation and bow control place Makanowitzky in the company of top soloists of his generation.

All his students recall stories involving a gun that he kept in a desk drawer, and which, on occasion, he brandished or actually fired (once accidentally indoors, and at least once outdoors –

deliberately putting holes in an etude book). Whatever the cause, Makanowitzky was fearful for his safety on some level and also became a nervous performer. His solo performances all but ceased in the late 1960s.

Makanowitzky relaxing on deck, and conducting

Dorothy DeLay, who taught at Meadowmount alongside Makanowitzky

CONDUCTING PHOTO UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. ON DECK PHOTO JERRY WECHSLER

In 1970, Makanowitzky accepted a position as professor of music at the University of Michigan, where he remained until his retirement. Students agree that his intensity as a teacher and conductor was unmatched. Kate Ransom (Serafin Ensemble) states, ‘He imparted reinforcement of the work ethic necessary to do something really, really well. He practised every day, before our lessons started, and always played examples exquisitely from all the concertos and any pieces he was teaching all of us.’

Violin pedagogue Hal Grossman recalls, ‘Mak was “old school”. He expected us to be properly dressed for lessons, and to have our lesson material conquered each week. He was intolerant of poor preparation.’ Grossman explains that Makanowitzky taught technique in etudes and scale assignments, not in pieces. ‘Information was flying at you in each lesson: I was taking notes as fast as I could.’ Copes recalls that when Makanowitzky demonstrated, he possessed the same qualities as those he would have in performance: ‘musical generosity, control, enviable ease… always connected to the ground’.

Makanowitzky emphasised articulation and tonal projection through such bow strokes as collé, martelé and détaché. He was intent on imparting a focus to both the attack and the release of a note and on using the bow to produce the right sound for a given passage. While Galamian used pieces such as Corelli’s variations on La folia to teach some of these bow strokes, Makanowitzky used the etudes of Kreutzer, Rode, Dont and Gaviniès. He also differed from Galamian in the way he taught Bach: whereas Galamian made use of many hooked bow strokes for playing ease, Makanowitzky demanded that students play the original bowings as much as possible. This called for more control of bow speed and contact point. Updegraff recalls that Makanowitzky’s bowings were deemed so difficult that his friend the acclaimed violinist Ruggiero Ricci retorted, ‘If I had to use these bowings, I could only play one recital per year!’

‘HE PR ACTISED EVERY DAY, BEFORE OUR LESSONS STA RTED, AND ALWAYS PLAYED EXAMPLES EXQUISITELY’ – KATE RANSOM

‘We overtrained,’ says Updegraff. ‘The idea was that if you could play martelé – with that kind of bow speed – you could use any détaché you wanted. He wanted to make our lives harder; then we would be ready for performance and would have a huge amount of control.’

Copes feels that Makanowitzky differed from Galamian in the way he approached musical decision-making: ‘Galamian, in an extraordinary way, used the physical aspects of playing to motivate the quality and suppleness of sound, and he used this to inspire music making. Makanowitzky talked about all the same things, but the motivation was the opposite: his deep fascination with the composer’s intention behind the score meant that he looked at where a phrase would go, asking about its character… and placed the violinistic tools at its disposal. Galamian started with the physical tools, while Mak started with the story.’

During this period (the 1970s into the 80s), in addition to Copes, Grossman, Ransom and Updegraff, Makanowitzky taught concert soloist Michelle Makarski, Kirk Toth (long-time concertmaster of the Toledo Symphony), Kathleen Winkler (Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara), the late Guido Lamell (long-serving member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) and many others. He also coached chamber music and conducted the chamber orchestra and University Philharmonia Orchestra at Michigan. Grossman recalls, ‘He could be musically brilliant in those chamber orchestra rehearsals. It was intense and demanding but we achieved a very high level of playing. I still remember playing Schubert Symphony no.5, and he said, “Imagine you’re in a great ballroom. A man has just come in to light the candles. Each lit candle represents one of the opening chords.” It was similar with Ravel’s Mother Goose suite – he would say something, and suddenly you could play it.’

Makanowitzky’s friend Vincent Castagnacci, then an art professor at the University of Michigan, was a fan of his performances as conductor. Describing him as ‘intense’, he continues, ‘His kind of musicianship –a no-nonsense approach – appealed to me. He used an economy of means to achieve a sense of the ensemble and total line. He came back and conducted a concert –I still remember that Beethoven Seven. It was sleek and spare, a kind of phrasing with no fat, no over-interpreting, objectivity as a part of the make-up. It was a tremendous draw – with a certain amount of emotional investment.’

Makanowitzky used coloured pencils to mark inch-high adjectives in students’ scores during lessons. Sometimes the markings were simply directions or reminders, but often he supplied words that were meant to be keys to unlocking the right feeling or sound.

Makanowitzky suddenly retired in 1983. He sold his violin, gave away all of his music and moved to France with Barbara to farm. ‘He thought he was dying,’ explains Updegraff. A prolific drinker and smoker, Makanowitzky cut back to one packet of cigarettes and one glass of wine per day and his health improved. He returned to the US several years later and conducted his final performance at the University of Michigan on 26 November 1991. He and Barbara settled in Freeport, Maine, where he died on 24 February 1998.