Jan Kubelík was a Czech

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Biography

He was born in Michle

Michle

Michle is a district of Prague city, part of Prague 4.Michle has been part of Prague since 1922....

 (now part of Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

). His father, a gardener by occupation, was an amateur violinist. He taught his two sons the violin and after discovering the talent of Jan, who was aged five at the time, arranged for him to study with Karel Weber and Karel Ondříček. Aged eight he studied at the Prague Conservatory

Prague Conservatory

Prague Conservatory, sometimes also Prague Conservatoire, in Czech Pražská konzervatoř, is a Czech secondary school in Prague dedicated to teaching the arts of music and theater acting.- Instruction :...

 with Otakar Ševčík

Otakar Ševcík

Otakar Ševčík was a Czech violinist and influential teacher. He was known as a soloist and an ensemble player, including his occasional performances with Eugène Ysaÿe.-Biography:...

, of whose technique he became the most famous representative. As a child, he used to practice 10 to 12 hours a day, or "until my fingers started to bleed." After 1898, he toured as a soloist, soon becoming renowned for his great virtuosity and flawless intonation, and his very full and noble tone. He played a Guarneri del Gesù

Giuseppe Guarneri

Bartolomeo Giuseppe Antonio Guarneri, del Gesù was an Italian luthier from the Guarneri house of Cremona. He rivals Antonio Stradivari with regard to the respect and reverence accorded his instruments, and he has been called the finest violin maker of the Amati line...

 and also two Stradivarius

Stradivarius

The name Stradivarius is associated with violins built by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or reproduce, though this belief is controversial...

 violins: he acquired the 1715 Stradivarius Emperor in 1910.

After great success following his debut in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, and in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 (where he first appeared at a Hans Richter

Hans Richter (conductor)

Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...

 concert in 1900), Kubelík toured in the USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1901 for the first time. He made his first appearance for the Royal Philharmonic Society

Royal Philharmonic Society

The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...

, London in the season of 1901-2, and in 1902 was awarded the Society's Gold Medal (in succession to Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...

). In 1902 he brought the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra to London, having assisted it financially in the previous year.

In his personal life, in 1903 he married Countess Anna Julie Marie Széll von Bessenyö (* 1 March 1880 in Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

), niece of former Prime Minister of Hungary Kálmán Széll

Kálmán Széll

Kálmán Széll de Duka et Szentgyörgyvölgy was a Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1899 to 1903.-Political career:...

, with whom he had eight children, five violinist daughters and three sons, among them conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 Rafael Kubelík

Rafael Kubelík

Rafael Jeroným Kubelík was a Czech conductor and composer.-Early life:Kubelík was born in Býchory, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, today's Czech Republic. He was the sixth child of the Bohemian violinist Jan Kubelík, whom the younger Kubelík described as "a kind of god to me." His mother was a Hungarian...

.

Kubelík made a number of recordings; his acoustic recordings were made for The Gramophone Company

Gramophone Company

The Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...

, and for Fonotipia

Fonotipia Records

Fonotipia Records, or Dischi Fonotipia, was an Italian gramophone record label established in 1904 with a charter to record the art of leading opera singers and some other celebrity musicians, chiefly violinists. Fonotipia continued to operate into the electrical recording era, which commenced in...

/Polydor (who also recorded Váša Příhoda

Váša Příhoda

Váša Příhoda was a famous Czech violinist known for the perfection of his technique and the beauty of his tone. He was considered a Paganini specialist, and his recording of the Violin Concerto in A minor by Dvořák is still very highly praised. His artistry was controversial, and tended to...

, Franz von Vecsey

Franz von Vecsey

Franz von Vecsey was a Hungarian violinist and composer.He was born in Budapest and began his violin studies with his father, Lajos Vecsey, and at the age of eight he entered the studio of Jenő Hubay...

 and Jacques Thibaud

Jacques Thibaud

Jacques Thibaud was a French violinist.Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won the conservatory's violin prize with Pierre Monteux...

). The Gramophone Company recorded him as obbligato to Dame Nellie Melba

Nellie Melba

Dame Nellie Melba GBE , born Helen "Nellie" Porter Mitchell, was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian Era and the early 20th century...

 in 1904, a match which reflected the classical phrasing, tonal purity and security of his art and was an ideal complement to it. Their early version of the Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

-Gounod

Charles Gounod

Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...

 Ave Maria

Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)

The Bach/Gounod Ave Maria is a popular and much-recorded setting of the Latin text Ave Maria.Written by French Romantic composer Charles Gounod in 1859, his Ave Maria consists of a melody superimposed over the Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier, written by...

(G.C. 03033) was recorded twice, in October 1904 and again in February 1905, and this was one of the great early classics of the gramophone

Phonograph

The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...

, one of those records which 'made' the instrument a popular success, though the double celebrity single-sided title retailed at one guinea. Nine years later (when technology had improved) the partnership was reformed to re-make the record (as 03333), in May 1913 with organ

Organ (music)

The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

 accompaniment and again in October 1913. It was the latter version which then survived in the inter-war catalogue in two-sided form. His 1935 Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 concert was also recorded and has been reissued.

He wrote music, including six violin concerto

Violin concerto

A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...

s, and continued to perform in public until his death, with a pause between the end of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and 1920, during which period he composed. In 1920 he resumed his concert career, but with the advent of Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz was a violinist, born in Vilnius, then Russian Empire, now Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...

, his career dwindled somewhat. In 1917, he was elected as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music...

 music fraternity by the fraternity's Alpha Chapter at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

Jan Kubelík died in Prague in 1940, aged 60.

In 1903 his portrait was painted by Philip de László. Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...

 mentions Jan Kubelík in his Chicago Poems, 1916. He is adored by the sisters in Sally Benson

Sally Benson

Sally Benson was an American screenwriter, who was also a prolific short story author, best known for her semi-autobiographical stories collected in Junior Miss and Meet Me in St...

's collected short stories which later became the film Meet Me In St. Louis

Meet Me in St. Louis

Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of an American family living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904...

 (1944). He is also referred to in Robert Ludlum

Robert Ludlum

Robert Ludlum was an American author of 23 thriller novels. The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.-Life and...

's 2002 novel The Janson Directive

The Janson Directive

The Janson Directive is a novel by Robert Ludlum. The posthumous novel was published in 2002, a year after Ludlum's death.-Plot:Paul Janson is an ex-Navy SEAL and former member of a U.S. government covert agency called Consular Operations. He is haunted by his memories of the Vietnam War and his...

.

Violin and orchestra

• Concerto No. 1 in C major (published 1920)
• Concerto No. 2
• Concerto No. 3
• Concerto No. 4 in B major (published c.1932)
• Concerto No. 5
• Concerto No. 6
• Cadenzas for the Violin Concerto in D major
  Violin Concerto (Beethoven)
  Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, was written in 1806.The work was premiered on 23 December 1806 in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. Beethoven wrote the concerto for his colleague Franz Clement, a leading violinist of the day, who had earlier given him helpful advice on...
  
  , Op.61 by Ludwig van Beethoven
  Ludwig van Beethoven
  Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
  
  
• Cadenzas for the Violin Concerto in D major
  Violin Concerto (Brahms)
  Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 is a violin concerto in three movements composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878 and dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim...
  
  , Op.77 by Johannes Brahms
  Johannes Brahms
  Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
  
  
• Cadenzas for the Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major
  Violin Concerto No. 5 (Mozart)
  The Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1775, premiering during the holiday season that year in Salzburg. It follows the typical fast-slow-fast musical structure.- Background :...
  
   by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
  
  

Violin and piano

• Burlesque
• Oriental Scene (published c.1931)
• Menuett (published 1931)

Discography of Fonotipia titles

• 39162 Souvenir (Drdla) XPh 270 (27 cm)
• 39163 Danse Hongroise (Nachez) XPh 272 (27 cm)
• 39164 Variazioni sulla ballata di Mefisto (Gounod) XPh 273² (27 cm)
• 39191 Serenade (d'Ambrosio) (27 cm)
• 39192 Perpetuum mobile (Paganini) XPh 276 (27 cm)
• 39193 Serenade (Drdla) (27 cm)
• 39194 Traumerei (Schumann) XPh 285? (27 cm)
• 39195 La Ronde des Lutins (Bazzini) XPh 295 (27 cm)
• 39884 Scherzo Tarantella (Wieniawski) XPh 2231 (27 cm)
• 39925 Der Zephir (Hubay) XPh 2228 (27 cm)
• 62036 Cavatina (Raff) XPh 2400 (27 cm)
• 62037 Vision (Drdla) (27 cm)
• 62496 Serenata napolitana (Sgambati) (27 cm)
• 62497 Le cygne (Saint-Saens) (27 cm)
• 62573 Poeme (Fibich) (27 cm)
• 62574 Berceuse (Drdla) (27 cm)
• 62603 Serenade de Pierrot (Randegger) (27 cm)
• 69010 Sextet, Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) (35 cm)
• 69013 Variazioni sull'Inno Nazionale Inglese XXPh 275 (35 cm)
• 74083 Danza Spagnola Zapateado (Sarasate) 5526F (30 cm)
• 74084 Zingaresca (Sarasate) 5526F (30 cm)
• 75085 Capriccio in Sol minore (Paganini) 5527F (30 cm)
• 75086 Cadenza del Concerto Paganini in Re Maggiore (Kubelik) 5527F (30 cm)

Source: J.R. Bennett, Dischi Fonotipia Numerical Catalogue - A Golden Treasury (J. Dennis/Record Collector Shop, Ipswich 1953).

External links

• The Jan Kubelík Society
• František Sláma (musician)
  František Sláma (musician)
  František Sláma was a significant Czech chamber music performer. He was the first Czech cellist who focused on Early music.-Biography:...
  
  Archive. More on the history of the Czech Philharmonic between the 1940s and the 1980s