1. Leopold von Auer was a Hungarian violinist, academic, conductor, composer, and instructor.
47 Facts About Leopold Auer
1. 2.
Leopold Auer lived at the home of his teacher, Jakob Dont.
3.
Leopold Auer wrote that it was Dont who taught him the foundation for his violin technique.
4.
Leopold Auer decided to seek the advice of Joseph Joachim, then royal concertmaster at Hanover.
5.
Leopold Auer paid Joachim very well, and on those occasions when Auer performed for the king, he was paid enough to support him for a few weeks.
6.
Leopold Auer spent the summer of 1864 at the spa village of Wiesbaden, where he had been hired to perform.
7.
Leopold Auer agreed to a three-year contract, as soloist at the court of Grand Duchess Helena.
8.
Until 1906, Leopold Auer played almost all of the violin solos in the ballets performed by the Imperial Ballet, the majority of which were choreographed by Marius Petipa.
9.
Until 1906, Leopold Auer was leader of the string quartet for the Russian Musical Society.
10.
Sometime around 1870, Leopold Auer decided to convert to Russian Christian Orthodoxy.
11.
Leopold Auer performed sonatas with many great pianists, but his favorite recital partner was Yesipova, with whom he appeared until her death in 1914.
12.
One sonata Leopold Auer liked to perform was Tartini's "Devil's Trill" Sonata, written about 1713.
13.
From 1914 to 1917, on concert tours of Russia, Leopold Auer was accompanied by the pianist Wanda Bogutska Stein.
14.
Up through 1917, Leopold Auer did not perform in the United States.
15.
Leopold Auer then moved to the United States, although because of his age, he did not undertake a wide concert tour.
16.
Leopold Auer played at Carnegie Hall on March 23,1918 and performed in Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia.
17.
Leopold Auer taught some private students at his home on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
18.
Leopold Auer died in 1930 in Loschwitz, a suburb of Dresden, Germany, and was interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
19.
Leopold Auer had to work incessantly, with an iron determination, just to keep his technique in shape.
20.
Leopold Auer's tone was small but ingratiating, his technique polished and elegant.
21.
Leopold Auer's playing lacked fire, but he made up for it with a classic nobility.
22.
Leopold Auer liked virtuoso works by Henri Vieuxtemps, such as his three violin concertos, and Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, and used those works in his teaching.
23.
Leopold Auer never assigned either of Bach's solo violin concertos to a student.
24.
Leopold Auer calls the Double Concerto "the most important" of the three concertos.
25.
Leopold Auer was in charge of the Russian Musical Society orchestral concerts intermittently in the 1880s and 90s.
26.
Leopold Auer is remembered as one of the most important pedagogues of the violin, and was one of the most sought-after teachers for gifted students.
27.
Leopold Auer taught the young Clara Rockmore, who later became one of the world's foremost exponents of the theremin.
28.
Leopold Auer expected intelligent work habits and attention to detail.
29.
Leopold Auer arrived for the lesson punctually; everything was supposed to be in place by the time he arrived.
30.
Admission to Leopold Auer's class was a privilege won by talent.
31.
Leopold Auer helped them obtain scholarships, patrons and better instruments.
32.
Leopold Auer used his influence in high government offices to obtain residence permits for his Jewish students.
33.
Leopold Auer made them read books, guided their behavior and career choices and polished their social graces.
34.
Leopold Auer insisted that his students learn a foreign language if an international career was expected.
35.
Leopold Auer wrote countless letters of recommendation to conductors and concert agents.
36.
When Mischa Elman was preparing for his London debut, Leopold Auer traveled there to coach him.
37.
Leopold Auer continued work with Efrem Zimbalist and Kathleen Parlow after their debuts.
38.
Leopold Auer did play the work later in his career, with alterations in certain passages that he felt were necessary.
39.
Performances of the Tchaikovsky concerto by Leopold Auer's students were based on Leopold Auer's edition.
40.
British composer Eva Ruth Spalding dedicated one of her string quartets to Leopold Auer, who had been her teacher at the St Petersburg Conservatory.
41.
Leopold Auer wrote a small number of works for his instrument, including the Rhapsodie hongroise for violin and piano.
42.
Leopold Auer wrote a number of cadenzas for other composers' violin concertos including those by Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart's third.
43.
Leopold Auer wrote three books: Violin Playing as I Teach It, My Long Life in Music and Violin Master Works and Their Interpretation.
44.
Leopold Auer wrote an arrangement for Paganini's 24th Caprice later performed by Jascha Heifetz, Henryk Szeryng and Ivry Gitlis, in which the final variation is removed and his own composed.
45.
Leopold Auer edited much of the standard repertoire, concertos, short pieces and all of Bach's solo works.
46.
Leopold Auer transcribed a great many works for the violin including some of Chopin's piano preludes.
47.
Prominent Hungarian philosopher and lecturer Agnes Heller mentions that prominent Hungarian violinist Leopold Auer was related to her family on her mother's side.