Flesch, Carl (actually, Károly)

Flesch, Carl (actually, Károly), celebrated Hungarian violinist and pedagogue; b. Moson, Oct. 9, 1873; d. Lucerne, Nov. 14, 1944. He began to study the violin at the age of 6 in Moson, then continued his training with Jakob Griin at the Vienna Cons. (1886–90), and with Sauzay (1890–92) and Marsick (1892–94) at the Paris Cons., graduating with the premier prix. While still a student, he played in the Lamoureux Orch. in Paris and made his formal debut in Vienna (1895); went to Bucharest (1897), where he was active as a performer and as a prof, at the Cons, until 1902; he subsequently went to Amsterdam, where he taught at the Cons. (1903–08). In 1908 he made his home in Berlin, where he engaged in private teaching when not engaged on extensive tours. In 1913 he made his N.Y. debut; then served as head of the violin dept. at the Curtis Inst. of Music in Philadelphia (1924–28). Returning to Berlin in 1928, he joined the faculty of the Hochschule fur Musik. With the advent of Hitler, he went to London (1934). He was in the Netherlands when World War II erupted in 1939, and lived there until the Nazi invasion in 1940; then made his way to Hungary, finally settling in Lucerne in 1943 as a teacher at the Cons. He acquired an outstanding reputation as an interpreter of the German repertoire. However, his greatest legacy remains his work as a pedagogue. His Die Kunst des Violin-Spiels is an exhaustive treatise on violin technique and interpretation, and is duly recognized as the standard work of its kind. He also prepared eds. of the violin concertos of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Brahms, the violin sonatas of Mozart (with A. Schnabel), 20 etudes of Paganini, and the etudes of Kreutzer. In 1945 the Flesch Competition was organized in London to honor his memory; it later became part of the City of London International Competition for Violin and Viola, which awards the Flesch Medal.

Writings

Urstudien (Berlin, 1911); Die Kunst des Violin-Spiels (vol. I, Berlin, 1923; 2nd ed., 1929; Eng. tr., Boston, 1924; vol. II, Berlin, 1928; Eng. tr., Boston, 1934); Das Klangproblem im Geigenspiel (Berlin, 1931; Eng. tr., N.Y., 1934); H. Keller and C.R Flesch, eds., The Memoirs of Carl Flesch (London, 1957; 3rd ed., 1974; Ger. ed. as Erinnerungen eines Geigers, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1960); Die hohe Schule des Fingersetzes aufder Geige (MS; 1st publ. in Italian as Alia scuola di diteggiature violinistica, Milan, 1960; Eng. tr., 1966, as Violin Fingering: Its Theory and Practice).

Bibliography

W. Brederode, C. F. (Haarlem, 1938); C.F. Flesch, Und spielste Die auch Geige? (Zürich, 1990).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire