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---------November

American Chapter ~ .~

of the t "INTERNATIONALE VIOLA FORSCHUNGSGESELLSCHAFT

--_._.,-------_._-_...~-- ............_---NE~'''SLETTER 19

GRAZ - THE EIGHTH INTERN-ATIONAL VIOLA CONGRESS

by A. Baird Knechtel, Islington

~

'*'1980

Graz, the second largest city lnAustr1a after Vienna, was host to theEighth International Viola Congress, July 2 - 6, 1980 0 Th1s was my firstvisit to a European congress and 1t held several surprises for me. Sessionswer·e conducted in the Hochschule fUr Muslk. on Prof. Franz Zeyrlnger' s t'hometurf.·t Zeyrlnger 1s virtually the father of viola societies which havesprung up internationally in the past ten years or so. U.S.A., Canada, Eng­land, West Germany, New Zealand. Japan, Australia, Scotland, and as of thissummer, Italy, all now have vl:f)la· societies (br~nches of the Internat10naleViola Forschungsgesellschaft)--a very- exciting situation 1ndeed~

The program was varied and interesting, and there were appearances by ex..ponents of not only the viola itself, but on otherlnstruments related to thevi ola. Among- the se were the viola d' amore, v iola de gamba, baryton, violapomposa, and even an arpegglorie~ You will re'membe-r that-the viola pomposa istile lnstrume nt with fl ve s trlngs for which J. S. Bach composed the last "cello"suite. The arpege10ne 1s of course the instrument invented in schubert's timeby one stauffer and for which Schubert wrote the lovely "Arpesglonet' Sonata inA Minor in 1824. At this congress there was a concomitant emphasis on musicof the 18th and 19th centuries; what was contemporary was generally c·onserva­tlve in style. These are observat-lons which oepend on taste for the 1r posi­tive or negative implications. Most comwen'ts I heard regarding theuse oftl re l a tlves of the viola" were generally positive.

lhe opening concert, at 8:00 p.m. on July 2nd, featured religious ~us1cwith viola in prominent roles. ~t was held at the Stadtpfarke Klrche in theheart of downtown Graz.- The Pro Arte-Ensemble Graz, with viola soloist HansGutmeyer, was directed by Karl Ernst Hoffmann 1n five works: J.S. Bach'scanta ta, E~~1/V 18., ftGleich wle der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel rl!llt, tt which._includes 4 violas in the lnstrumentatlon; Michael Haydn's "Ave Regina" forBass, Viola solo" and Strings; a Recitative"and Aria by Franz Aumann {1728-

AMERICAN VIOLA SOCIETY, INC,: Dr. I~yron Rosenblum, President J 39-23 47th st.,Sunnyside, N.Y. 11104; Dr. Maurice Riley, Vice-President, 512 Roosevelt Blvd.,Ypsilanti, MI. 48197; Dr. Ann Woodward, Treasurer, PO Box 1134, Chapel Hill,NO, 27514.Editor of the American Chapter New'slatter: Myron Rosenblum.Inte rna t10nale Viola Forschungs~ese llscha ft (IVFG): A-5020 salzburg J c/oHochschule tlMozarteulIl, tt Austria.

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1797) for Tenor, Viola solo, a.nd strings; a first performance of the cantata,"Per mondo m1g11ore tt for Chorua, Viola 8010 ,.Strings by Franz ~o.rl~.E:~~,~ (born,1921; text by G.F. qbermyer); and Benedetto Marcello's Psalm 50, "M1sereremel Deus lJ for Alto, Tenor, Bass, Cho'ru8, 2 Violas, and Bs.sso continuo. Ifound the ~~, and <!Pl:~ll~~t,,,works the most musically sa tis tying and worthlooking ln~o. .

On Thursday morning, the congress started in earnest with. a presentationby students of the Hochschule of the Brandenburg Concerto No.6 by J.S. Bach.students from the Kammerorchester of the Hochschule (a d 1fferent group),dlrect~d by Walter Klaslnc, gave a performance of three concertos: two bycontemporary composers Jan Zdenek Bartos (born, 1908) and Walter Skolaud(born, 1910), Czech and Austrian re'spe'ctlvely, 'and a ·t1rst_·pert'·orma.nce inAustria of the Double Concerto by Johann Gottl1eb Graun (1702-1771) forViolin and Viola. In these concerti, all the young performers acquitted them-selves quite nobly.

Conferences have their orga.n1za,tlonal proble'ms and this one was no ex­ception; at the last minute two accompanists fell 111 and could not perform,causing the complete cancellation of the reel tal scheduledef:·swlss violamusic by the Hunga.rlan-born virtuoso Andras von Toszeghl, and B. change to a8010 work recital by Ulrich von Wrochem.

There was a concert by the Hungarian Harp Trio which featured the violist!viola d' smore player Gustav Szered1-S&upe .. vlo1-1nlst Maria Vermes, and harpi atAnna. S. Molnar in performances of Handel,Martinu, and othera--most of itrather dull. At 4:30 p.m., Ulrich DrUnerfrom stuttgart lectured on thettDevel~opment of the Viola Etude" with assistance from Werner Erbrecht, soloviolist of tf~e Rund funk-Sinfon1e Orohe sters saarbrUcken. The se two artistswent on to play 3 stUcke fUr 2 Vlo1en by Xaver Thoma (born, 1949) and Tele­mann I s Duet in G Ma,jor for Viola and Viola Pomposa. There W8.S also a per­formance of Alessandro Rolla's "Paganln1-Duo" for V1011-n and Viola. Theevening's recital by Ulr1ch von Wrocham, as I stated before, featured un­aCcompanied works by this young German-born virtuoso, now at the Milan Con­servatory. He provided us with a few laughs when he coyly appeared at thesta.ge entrance with his tie and tails, waving an umbrella with a copy ofJohn Cage' 8 59! Seconds for Viola Alone on the shaft. A little pizzazz neverhurt a viola recital, it seems! Von Wrochem also delivered the Khatcha,turlan8010 sonata, the Berl0 Seouenza VI and the Bach Cha'conne in fine fashion.This was a very interesTIng andreward,.lng recital.

Friday featured several lectures 1n German (no doubt of great interest tothose who speak the language with much greater fluency than I). The sUbjectswere: two lectures by pre 111. suppan, ttMuslc in 5tyrla" ·and "otto S1egl: HisLife and Work,tt and a lecture-demonstration by Prof. Richard R. Et'rat1 withassistance by Walter I~hrer of tl1e Zurioh Tonha.lle Orchester, "The Interpre­tation of the Sonatas and Part1tas for Violin solo and the Suites for Violon­cello Solo. It At 3:00 P .. ID. there was 8. lecture-recital by Dr. Myron Rosenblum,president of the Am'2r1can Chapter of the IVFG I on the topic of the small butinteresting body of literature for viola d'amore and viola. He was shortlyjoined by two of his friends and colleagues, Daniel Thomason, viola d'amoreplayer and Franz Zeyrlnger, violi8t, with Ingeborg Ertel at.the cembalo. Worksby Schuchbaus"r'(18th .aelit.),F.W. Rust (1732-17~6) and A. Arcidiacono (born, '1915) were performed. The performance of the Schuchbauer was heard -·for thefirst time in Austria. Only at the annual viola congresses are we l1kely tohear such works, the music of composers whose obscurity 1& net alway~ jUs~

tifled.A. recital of new music followed at 4:30 p.rIl., with a student from the

Hochschule fUr Musik in Vienna, Herbert Hefer, performing works by AlfredUhl (born,. 1909), Eberhard Werdln (born, 1911), and Erich Mitzerllch (born,1906). Uhl was present at this recital, and indeed at most of the sessions.

On Saturday morning, a real treat was in store for those of us who loveto play the schubert "ArpegE1one U sonata, but have little actual knowledgeof the original instrument for which the sonata was written. Alfred Lessing

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performed the work o~ a facsimile arpegg10ne accompanied by Ingeborg Ertelat the aB.mme rklav1er. The e ffe'ct was re markable; to hear this music playedin Schubert's homeland on the instruments for which it was orlg1na.l1y in­tended was an extraordinary experience: La.tar, Prof. Lessing, assisted bytwo colleagues from the DUsseldorf symphony, performed works in variouscombinations for baryton, viola d'amore, viola da gamba, and cello. This wasindeed a most interesting presentation.

After the recital, there was a general meeting of the International ViolaReaearch Society during which ten topios w'ere discussed. The name change ofthe American cha.pter to American Viola. Society was approved and indeed therewas considerable discussion as to whether or not the German and Austrianchapters might not do well to follow the lead of the Americans. Ulrich von~rochem of the Milan Conservatory has undertaken the formation of an Italianchapter of the IVFG, the ninth one to be formed. Franz Zeyrlnger was re­soundingly re-elected as president, but there were certa1n changes in theexecutive which should promote greater facility in holding internationalmeetings. It was brought to the attention of those present that the nextcongresses will be held 1n Toro~to, Canada at the Faculty or Music fromJune 11-14, 1981 and in stuttgart, \~est Germany 1n 1982. .

As I mentioned before, this oongress was beset by some.dlft1c:ult·1es. TheAmerican Air Force String Orchestra which graclouslyperformed for the con­gress had been in Egypt just previous to the 5th, and Larry Laffoon,one ofthe first-stand violists, was taken 111. Laffoon had been scheduled to per­form the Telemann Concerto in G Major tor" 2~ Viola's with Mary Atwood--but be­cause of his"iM"1sposition, Prot'. Robert Slaughter It saved the daytt by play­ing La.ffoon' s part exquisl te ly. He then we.nt on to partner Dr. Myron RosenblumIn:;::~a.f1ne performance'~" of the Concerto 1n D for VIola d.'amore, Viola, andStrings by Christoph Graupner. The highlight of the evening was Slaughter'sinspired performance of the Henk Bad1ngs Concert2 for Viola. and .strln6.-Q!­chestra.

sunday morning, July 6th. wa.s devoted to a talk by Dr. David Dalton onirl1111amPrlm,rose, and a recital by Dalton, his charming wife Donna, andIngeborg Ertel in iNorks for Sopra.no, Viola, and. Piano. ~us1c' by' Manookln(born, 1918), s'trrauss, Bliss, Loef·tler, and Janaoek was performed. At 11:30,there was a lecture-recital on the viola sonatas by J.B. Wanhal by Dr.Wolfgang sa~lodny, assisted by Wolfgang Scherer, viola. At 3:00 p.m., YlzhakSchotten, the brilliant, young violist, now on the faculty of the Universityof Vfaeh1ngton, gave a performance of the Telelnann Conce~to in G £.'lajor,Shulman's Theme and Variat~Qns for Viola! StrinE Orchestra, and-Harp, andBritten's Lach!I~~' all with the U.S. A r Force string Orchestra.

The formal pa.rt of the Eighth International Viola Congress drew to aclose with a panel discussion featuring the secretary of the West Germanchapter of the IVFG, Uta Lenkowltz von Zahn, Ulrich von.Wrochem, FranzZeyringer, and M.aurlce Riley. Our gracious Austrian hosts held a. receptionfor guests at 7:00 p.m. and a sightseeing tour of Graz and ita environs inAustria.

Next year in Toronto, you are assured an equB,lly exciting congress in oneof the world's great cities. Make your plans now to include Toronto'sCONGRESS NINS:, June 11-14, 1981. Brochures regard lng the 'congress will bemailed to you early in the new year. For information regarding housing and"Early-Bird Registration" please contact the Host-Chairman, Baird Knechtelat: CONGRESS NINE, 103 !~orth Drive, Islington, Ontario, M9A 4R5, CANADA.See you 1n Toronto~

* .. * * * '* * *N1NTl! _!NTEffi!ATIONAL VIOLA CONGRESS: As reported a'bove, the 1981 congre ss willtake place June-lfth~o~14tfi-rn-TOronto,Canada. Baird Knechtel, the host,1s putting together an impressive program that will feature major violistsand teachers from Canada and other countries. Am~n~ those featured to par-

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t1clpate in reel tala, lectures, master classes, and panels are steven Dann,Feodor Drushynln, Lillian Fuchs, R1vka Golan1-Erdesz, Raphael Hillyer,Donald McInnes, Hans-Karl Piltz, William Primrose, Gerald stanwick, FrancisTursi, Robert Verebes, and others. Ensembles scheduled to appea.r are theOrford at r1nE Q,uartet, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and an ense mbletoperform music for multiple violas. petal1s regarding accomodatlons andfinal programming will be sent to you shortly. We look fO~Nard to meetingyou in Toronto in 1981.

* * * * * * * * *AMERICANS WIN FIRST AND SECOND PRIZES~IN TERTIS VIOLA COMPETITION------ - - - ---

by Jl8.url·ee ·.W.: -It·11e.·1-.- .Yjisl1ant1

Paul Ne ubauer of Los Angeles and. Kim Ka shkashlan of New York 01 ty w·onfirst and second prizes respectfully in the Lionel Tertia International ViolaCompetl tlon he ld at Port :Erln on the I ale of IvIan, August 23-29, 1980. Paul .Neubauer, a student of .Alan de Veri tch and Paul Doktor, was the recipient of~ 1000. and gave a recital at Wigmore Hall. in London on September 1st. Hew·l11 also perform the world premier of Gordon Jacob's Concerto No. 2 forViola and s~rlU Orchestra with the English Chamber Orchestra. At tlie-r981Kings Lynn Fest val, he wIll perform a concertowlth orchestra. K1m Kash­kashlan, a student of Karen Tuttle, won L 750. The following week she wasthe Silver Prize IN'lnner at the contest for violists held in Munich.

Other winners were Patricia McCarty (Boston, L 200.); Gabor Orma1 (Buda­pe at, Hungary); Kaoru Ichikawa (Japan); Lynne Ramsey' ( Pitt sburgh); KarenDreyfUS (Philadelphia); Susie J.1eszaros(England); lv11chael -Gerrard (England);Toby Hoffman (~#vash1ngton, D. C. ); Ah Ling N·eu (san Franoisoo); and GeorgeRubino and Lynn Hannlngs, both from Maine, for a viola bow they made. KaoruIchikawa, who had alraady won ~. 200., was awarded a "special prlze·;,it whichwas a leather viola case donated by W.E. Hill and Sons.

The Tertis Viola C'ompetltlon was the fruition of a dream of I\llrs. LionelTertia who hadenvls10ned this event from the time of her husband's death in1975. This Competition and ~tlorkBhop was a resounding success due to the com­blned efforts of Ruth, Lady Farmoy, D.C.V.O., O.B.E., and John Bethell, co­chairman; the British Viola Society, headed by John ~r1hlte; the many enter­prising members of th~ Erin Arts Centre in Port Erin on the Isle of Man; andby Harry Danks and other former students of Lionel Tertia.

The Competition was open to violists of all nat1onalities, born on or be­fore March 2, 1951. In the prellll1ina,ry audition, 28 violists performed fiveworks selected from a pre-arranged list. The jury selected. e1g.ht semi-finalistsfor the second round of the competition. The distingUished international jurywa.S composed of Harry Danks (UK), Paul Doktor (USA), Csaba Erdelyl (Hungary),Piero Farull1 (Italy) ,Milan Skampa (Czechoslovakia), and Gerald IVlcDonald (UK) I

the Cha.1 rman.For violists who were too old for the,competitlon or who did not want to .

compete, there was a workshop which was comprised of master classes, lectures,panel discussions, and recitals. Kaster classes were conducted by Paul Doktor,N'obuko Imal, Andras von Toszeghi, John 1..yhite, and Harry Danks. Illustratedlectures were g1venby Tully Potter: t'The Czech School of V101istst~.; Mauricew. Riley:"Early Bresclanand Cremonese ViOlas"; Thomas Tatton: "Music forMultiple V101as tt

; Bernard Shore : "Memories of Lionel Tertls tt; George Rubino

and Lynn Hannings: tfBow Making, Care, and 11l1alntenance u ; and lNl1fred saunders:"Learning Instrument Making and Related Problems." A panel discussion wa·s heldcovering all phases of viola teaching., viola literature, and. the selection of

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an appropriate instrument for a violist. Those serv1ng on the panel wereJohn 1tlhlte, 'Chairman';, Tully Potter (UK); Maurice Riley (USA); George Rubino(USA); W1lfred Saunders (UK), Bernard Shore (UK), and Thomas Tatton (USA).

Besides the recital gl yen by the flna11lt. reel tala were g1yen daily.Those who performed. included such internationally famous violists as NobukoIma1, Paul Doktor, Csaba Erdely1, Andras von. Toszegh1, and the ensembleconsisting of Jane Manning, S1mon Rowland-Jones, and Jukka Tlensuu. On thelast afternoon of the aotivities, a de11ghtful ensemble concert was given byllra,.·· Lionel Te rtls, cello; Lady EV'elyn Barb1rolll, oboe; Paul Doktor, v1ola;and l\1artln 1~111ner, violin.

The locale or the Isle of Man was ideally chosen tor the Tertia ViolaCompetition and Workshop. The beautiful scenery and the wonderful hosp1tal­ity of the people contributed to a most enjoyable and profitable event.

The Tertia International Viola Competition and Workshop was the second ina series intended to beoome annual events on the Isle of Man. In 1979, thedouble basses were fea.tured; in 1981, there will a competition for harpists.

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MAURICE· RILEY'S, THE HISTORY OF THE VIOLA, published, 1980 by 1Vlaurlce W. Riley,author and pUb11sheri512 Roosevelt Blvd., Ypslla,ntl, Michigan, 48197. Hard­cover edition: #27.50 plus shipping; Paper-back edition: #22.50 pl~s shipping.Maurice Riley's long-awaited lhe Hist1r1 ~ the Viola is finally in print andavailable. Dr. Riley'sbook--the resu t of years of researoh and intensivework--1s one of the most important books on the viola to appear in our time.This 1s a must for 8.11 interested in the viola. and. 1 ts history ,instruments,music, and performers. A detailed review of this book will be forthcoming.In the mea.ntlme, we have been a.ble to arrange a special price for members ofthe American Viola Soc1ety for pu'rchase of this book. These prlces--$22.50plus $1.2.5 for shipping for the hard-oover and $17.50 plus $1.25 for shippingfor the paper-back (Michigan residents must add 4~ sales tax) areg~Od onl?until February];, 1981. If you haven't obtained a copy of this-coo yet, . 111out tr.Le form found. at the end of the Newsletter and. return 1t with youroheckor money order.

MUSIC FOR VIOLA, by Michael D. Williams has been released through DetroitstuaIeSIn MusIc Bibliography No. 42, Information Coordinators, Inc. J 1435-37Randolph street, Detroit, Michigan 48226 (362 PP., pub., 1979). According tothe publlshe r this 1 s n An annotated 11 sting of published edi tiona (current 1yavailable and out-or-print) and manuscripts of works for: Unacc'o~panled Viola,Viola wi ttl Keyboard, Viola with Non-Keyboard. Instrument, Viola wi th Electron­1'os, Viola with Chamber Ens8 mble, and Viola wi tb. Orche stra. II Dr. W11.1.1ams1s on the faCUlty of the University of Houston, School of Music and is cur­rently working on a study of 18th.~century'.. vlo1a music. The last price we hadon this was $16.50.

THE JOURNAL OF THE VIOLIN SOCIETY OF AMERICA. vol. V, no. 1, 1s almost en­tirely devoted to the vIola. IncluQia are "The William Primrose InternationalViola Competition (July 8-11, 1979)" by Maurice Riley, "'You've Come a Long".-lay, Baby!', A Report of the Seventh International Viola Congress, Provo,Utah. July 12-14, 197~t' by Myron Rosenblum, "Exhibition of Violas and TheirBows: The Fourth International' Exhibition of the Violin Society of America,(Held 1n Conjunction with the Seventh International Viola Congress)" by EricChapman, tfA Bach symposium, July 15,1979, the University of Utah tt by MauriceRiley, and! Select1~g of Lectures and Panel D1scus81~ from the Seventh

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International Viola cOAiress which includes the panel, tiThe Violist as Pro­fessTOnal-wItfi RaIpli arlch,. Donald McInnes, 1N'1111am Preuc11, and Alan deVerltch, "The Early Development of the Viola by Luthlers of the Brescian andCremona Schools" by Maurice Riley, and "Ruminationa on the Viola It by 'fN'1111amPrimrose. For information regarding th1s journal and membership in the ViolinSociety, write to Violin Sooiety of America, Dr. Ray Abrams, P.O.·Box 127,Lansdowne, PA 19050. .

so~~ COICERTS OF INTEREST: The New York premiere of George Rochberg's Sonata-rDrvIOIa and "PIano took place in September, 1980 by Y!~ZHA1t. SCHOTTEN andKA'THERINE COLLIER at the Abraham Goodman House. This sonata,you will recall.was commissioned by Brigham Young University, the American Viola Society, andFriends of ti1111a.m Primrose and was given its world premiere at the 1979viola oongress in Provo.JOEN VASQUEZ, viola pupil of Margaret Pardee at The Juil11ard School, willperform the New York premiere of Maurice Gardner' 8 Tr1clnluum for viola soloat a concert in New York in December, 1980.HARRY DANKS directed a concert of the British Viola Society in viola music byKenneth Hardin! on f.larch 13th, 1980 at the Royal Academy of Iv1uslc. The worksperformed were the sonatina for Two Violas, Divertimento for Four.V101as,Concertante for Five Violas, and the Idyll for Twelve Violas.l.,lADAlviE A. DE-LABARI BORRISOWSKY wrote us of concerts that took place inearry1980, In RusSIa honorIng the 80th birth date of lr1adlm Borrlsowsky. Shesaid that of the s1x concerts honoring her late husband, the most brilliantof them was given by Juri Bashmet, first prize winner of the 1977 Munichcompetl tlon. His programcons1sted of the Honegger Sona.ta for Viola andPiano; Michael Haydn's Concerto for Viola, Piano, and Orchestraj F.A. Hoff­meister's Conoerto for Viola and Orohestra; H1ndemith's Trauermuslk forViola and Orc·hestra; and the. first performance of Golovin AnareI's Sonata­breve. lv1adame Boris sowsky also wrote of an· .~Al1 SO'viet, Un·on·. Compe.t1~tlori"'ot _Viola Players" that took place in Lvov last April and of a recording of1tlad11l1 Bor1ssowsky performing on both viola and viola d.'amore that was toappear in Russia 1n the summer.

PUBLICATIONS: Maurice Gardner'.B ·Concerto for Viola and Orchestra has beenp_ub11shed. by the stafr Musio PUblishing Co., 170 N.E. 33rd st., Ft. Lauderdale,FA. 33334.PSI PRESS has pUblished "Viola Volumes," a series of music originally writtenfor the vi ola to· be used as e1 the r with the Suzuki. me thod or a more tradl tion­al approach. Cassettes of the l11us'lc are also available. \.~rlte to ProfessionalServices Institute, Inc., P.O. Box 2320, Boulder, Colo. 80306.

RECORDINGS: Anton Rubenstein's Sonata in F'Mlnor, OPe 49 for Viola and Pianoand Joseph Joachim's Hebrew Melodies, op. 9, #1 and #3 have been recorded byLubo~1r Maly, viola and LIbuse Kr~pelova, piano (supraphon 1111 2475; priceabout $8.98. ~"'rlte to Qua11ton Records, Ltd., 39-28 Orescent st., Long IslandCity, N.Y. 11101).CONTEMPORARY l~USIC FOR VIOLA features serge Collot in music by Berio (Sequen~avrr;' Hi·na.e m! t1l;aD.d J olIva t (Ad e s. 16.002; price ab out $8. 98) .BERLIOZ: HAROLD .IN ITALY has been recorded by Josef Suk, viola (Supraphon 4 102065; price about$6.98".VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: FLOS CA1~I and SUITE FOR VIOLA AND ORCHESTRA, FrederickRldd!e; vIola are aval1aoIe-on RCA (UK) ~25131j prIoe aoout iB.9B.HENRI VI EUXTEIVJPS : SONATA>~ VIOL!· ill P·IA,NO;, op. 36 a.nd CAPRICCIO 1.QB VIOLASOLO; SCHUr~NNis !llKRCHENBILDER; STRAVINSKY'SELEGIE; and BACH-KODALY: CHROJf:ATICFANTASY a.re performed '6y l\tar Arad, vIola and Evelyne Brancart J. ·piano on -Telefunken 6.420~5; price about 38.98.

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RARITISS FOR LOW STRINGS: The Phllharmonlsche 5011sten Hamburg perform worksby Beethoven (Duet for viola and cello), Bernhard Romberg (Trio for cello,viola, and double bass) and Rossini (Duet for cello and double base). Thisis on th.e lw1uslca Viva label, lVN30-031; coat about $10.98.(1hese last 5d lac8 can be also obtained from The od ore Front Musical 1"1usl0··al L1 terature,15·5 N. San Vicente Boulevard, Beverly H1.11s, C.A90211.)BRAHMS SONATAS FOR VIOLA AND PIANO, OPe 19~ No. 1 & 2: The zaslav Duo,Bernal'd-Zaslav, viola and Naomi Zasla.v, piano, GS-215, #.7.9t3. These can beordered from Gaaparo Co., P.O. Box 90574, Nashville, TN 37209.JllUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY has just released the first volume of chamber musio01 Brahms •. Included are the Trio 1n B major, OPe 8; Trio 1n E-flat major,Op. 40; Trio in C major, OPe 87; Trio in C minor, Ope 101; and the Trio inA minor, OPe 114. This lao! interest to violists for both the trios, op•.40and Ope 114 use viola lnsteadof the original horn and clarinet. Accordingto notes on the record set, tiThe recording. is also noteworthy because two ofthe fi ve trlos are pe rformed wi th rare ly hea.rd a 1te rna te 1nstrume nta.t1 ona inwhlchBrahms Bubst1 tut~d viola parts for the horn in Opus 40 and for theclarinet in Opus. 114••1 The performers are t11e Odeon Trio, Leonard Hokanson,piano, Kurt Gunter, Violin, Angelica May, oello, with Rainer Moog, viola.MHS 4215K/17Z (3 stereo LPs); MHO 6215L/17A (3 Dolbylzed Cassettes). 'IIrlte .to Musical llarltage Society, 14 Park Road, Tinton Falls, New Jersey 07724for their prices for members and non-members.

MICHAEL PONDER, British violist and member of the London Phllharmonla·,wrote usOTa-lost duet for two violas by the English composer Frank Br1dge.Supposedly, this was written for Tertia and Bridge to play together andwas found in The .Lloyal College of Mua1c. Ponder wrote that it will appearon Pearl Records. an English recording company.

* * * * * * * * *FRANZ ZEYRINGER'S THE PROBLEl'l OF VIOLA SIZE, translated by Louise Goldberg,1s st111.ava11ableto any member of the American Viola Society. If you haven'treceived this and would like ao'oPY, 'write to American V1.oJ.a ..so.Q1.st1.39..23 47th stree 1;', ·~·s·unny·sld.e , -N. Y•.. ,11104.

G. JEAN SlvlITH'S nAn Interview with \..villlam Primrose tr appeared in The Instru­IDentaTIst I vol. 35, no. 2, September, 1980. In the usua.lquestlon--aIia answerformat J Primrose covs·rs many important and rase ina t ing areas of viola per­formance a.nd pedagogy that will appeal to all those interested in this greatartist's unique experiences and expertise.

* * * * * * * * *CHAPTERS OF THE AVS: Jack Griffin, violist, member of the Louisville Orches­tra, and faculty member of the University of Louisville, Belknap Campus. 1sin the process of forming the first chapter of the American Viola Society.They have a.lready drawn up some By-La.wB which will bereviewd by members of ·the Board of Directors. Wewlsh them greet success and look fo.rward to hear­ing of their viola activities.

RARITI,ES FOR STRINGS PUBLICATIONS announces the pUblication of AlessandroHo Ila is Conct!rtlno In E ria i tor Vi ala and Orche stra, reduoed for Vi ola andPiano. The price is $9.50 plus 5% postage. Texas residents must add 5% salestax. Write to them at 7321 Brentfleld Drive. Dallas. TX 75248.

1 Mus1ca.l Heritage Review, vol. 4, no. 9, B!..!!ase 261, July 28, 1980, p. 6.

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LITERATUR FfiR VIOLA by Franz Zeyr1nger, the very important source book ofmusic for viola in all possible comb1na.tlons 1s still available to membersof the AVS at the special pr1ce of 620 • 00 • It you would like this, pleasesend a check for #20.00, payable to Amer1oanVlo1a society and mail toAmerican Viola Society, 39-23 47th st., Sunnyside, N.Y. 11104.

• * ** * * * •.

KARL DOKTOR

by tUlly Potter

(Reprinted from Newsletter 7, February. 1979 of

The British Vlo1aResearch Society)

Karl Doktor,· one of the outstanding chamber muslcla.ns of hls age J waa bornon 10 April, 1885 in Vienna whereh1s parents kept a shop. No one in hisfamily was musical and when at the age of eight Karl showed an inclination tolearn the violin, his mother took him toa violinist who lived nearby. Thisman played a tune and then handed. the fiddle to Karl. to see what he coulddo. The boy had wB.tched lntentlyand without even having handled a violin be­fore, he managed to produce asernblance of the tune. Instead of realizing.the lad's talent, the worthy master threw mother and son oat into the street,thinking they were tricking him by saying Karl was a beginner. Luckily, Mrs.Doktor had,' more sense and soon found a mora receptive teacher.

In due course, Karl went to the Vienna Consarvato1re (Wiener Konservator-lum) and at 18 he graauated--as a violinist. His very German teacher hadthis to say when Karl asked about his prospects: "Well, you mB.y find your­self a position in a small theatre orchestra. tt Karl was astounded--UMy God.professor, 1s that all you see in store for we, when you've always referredto me as your best student?tt To whlchoame the reply: "Well, you can alwaysfind a position ina bigger theatre orchestra ••• "

Not.·da~!tt;ed, .. Karl went. .. with other hopefuls to audition for FerdinandLBwe, conductor of the "'~1ener Konztervereln tl

. Orchestra (now the ViennaSymphony). This was the city's leading concert orchestra, as the ViennaPhilbarmonic was mainly concerned with the opera in those days. Karl wasone of some two dozen applicants for a place in the back desks of the violins;and having played his audition pieoes, he soon realised someone else had beenselected. He was just packing up his instrument dejectedly w'hen he was calledback to the Herr D1rektor's office. LBwe i 1 ·impressed by Doktor' 8 unusuallydark tone quality, asked if he could play the viola. Karl said yes, he did-­and he was. offered the post of solo viola in the orchestra. After a shockedsilence, he accepted on the spot.

So, from 1903 until his death 45 years later, Karl Doktor was to be knownchiefly as a violist, though in fact he never stopped playing the violin."My father always practised on the violin,tI says his son Paul. "He felt thatit was easier to achieve the necessary dexterity on the violin, withoutstretching the muscles, as he would have to do on the viola. It Karl Doktoralso played in public as a solo violinist, especially in his native Vienna.In the 19208, he had a chamber ensembles, the Vienna Trio, in which he wasjoined by the pianist Friedrich \N'lihrer and the cellist Herman Busch.

As principal violist, Doktor was a member of the Konzertvere1n Quartet,which reinforced the predilection he already showed for chamber music. Onone occasion the quartet was engaged for a recital in Hermanatadt in Romania;but when they arrived at the hall, they heard the un~istakable strains of amilitary band. They were about to turn away, thinking they had corne to the

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wrong hall, when the organisers oame out to explain that the band was playingto welcome them. Unfortunately, every t1me the quartet f1nlsheda work andleft the stage, the band. regrouped and started up aga.in. Doktor's humour anddiplomacy saved the day--he struck a bargain with the bandleader that hismen could play at the end of the concert, if they would only refra.ln in themeantime. .

In 1912, the pastor lead~r of both orchestra and qua.rtet fell vacant andthe cond uct·or, Fr1 tz Steinback, who wa 8 passing through Vienna, me nt10nedto Doktor tha t hi B outstanding young c omposl t10n pupi1l-Ad olf Busch wouldma.ke an ideal leader. Doktor's friend, Paul Gr~mmer, the orchestra's princi­pal cellist, could vouch for this. The previous Deoember, he. and Busch hadplayed Brahms 'double concerto underSte1nbach in Cologne--and 8.fterwardsthey had stayed up all night playing trios with Busch's brother Fritz' at thepiano. The friendship had been further cemented when the three had given atrio reel tal--to an almost empty hal1--1n ColoEne in Aprl·1. The 21-year oldBusch was already something of a legend, through having mastered Reger'sfiendish concerto from memory when he was only 16. SO the leader's job wasoffered to him.

Busch's arrival in Vienna on 5 November, 1912 forh1s first rehearsalwith the quartet,was a decisive moment in musical history, though at thetime 1 t seemed anything but tha.t. Busch' 8 ·organized German mind was appal.ledby "Viennese slovenllness tt and his first orchestral rehearsal on 8 Novemberalmost decided him to return horne. Luckily, he needed a regular job sothat he could get married; on 13 December he was offioially appointed leader.He quickly apprecla,ted Doktor's accuracy of lntona.tion--which among v'iolaplayers became proverblal--and his beauty of tone. The Austrian was to be in­dispensable to him for more than three decades.

The new quartet line-up first played in public in May, 1913 .. ·on···an out"1ngto.' ·the·· E's-te ..rhazy pala.ce; at Eisensta.d t, where they naturally played two Haydnworks. Their official debut came in August at the salzburg Festival, buteven before that, Busch's leadership had aroused great expectations. Musicianslike the young George Szell begged to be allowed into the rehearsals atGrUmmer t s villa on the Kahlenberg, but were exoluded. Busch, who ha.d just re­covered from a serious illness and had been marrledonly on 15 May, would notallow even his honeymoon to inte.rfere with work:: He and his young wife Friedalived on the Leopoldberg, from where they had a short walk to GrUmmerts place.Doktor stayed in the big hotel on the Kahlenberg and would wav'a a ta.bleclothat pre-arranged times to let h1sflancee Georgine know hO,,1 the rehearsalswere going.

At salzburg, this intense preparation paid off, with the famous critic MaxKalbeck ccmparing them wi ttl the Joach1m Q..uartet of recent memory. They playedpieces by Beethoven and. Schumann. The concerts which followed were equallysuccessful but the outbreak of the war in 1914 meant that second violinist,

Fritz Rothschild and Doktor were oalled up almost 1mrned1ately for mill taryservice. This was a particularly bitter blow to Doktor, as he and Georginehad been married only that January. Busch was saved, ironically, by a touchof TB which undermined his health in the long run; and he and Grtlmmer, wnoO!iO also escaped war serv1ce, kept the quartet going. The puo11c1 ty 11tera- ·ture still bore Doktor'ln.ame arid on at least one occasion he .had a badnotice when someone else was actually playing the viola:

Meanwhile, he had been sent to the Romanian front, in a aquadof whomon~y two other. were to survive. LUOkily, Georgine' managed to convince theauthorities that her husband would be better employed in making music than insoldiering. Karl was drafted into the Army orchestra in Vienna, which causedhim several years of acute boredom, but undoubtedly saved his life. In 1917,Georgine gave birth to a son who wa.S named Paul (after Gr~mmer).

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In May, 1919, the quartet was reformed. as the Busch Quartet, but Doktorwas not available at first as he was still in the Army'a grasp. GrUmmerwanted the title, Busch-Gr~mmer Quartet but Doktor, with typical dry humour,aaid: "Why not the Busch-Doktor-GrUmIDer Quartet, or even the BU8ch-Andreasson­Doktor-GrUmmer Quartet?" After initial concerts with two friends of Busch' aas stand-ins, the Busch Guartet took on its definitive form with Doktor backin the violist's seat and GBsta Andreasson, Busch's Swedish pupil. as secondviolinist. By November, 1920, when Busch had his epooh-making meeting withthe l7-year-old Rudolf Serkin in Vienna, the circle was complete. Serkln11ved with Ad olfand Frieda Busch almost asa son. The rela t10nshlp becamefact in 1935 when he married their daughter Irene. With Serkln as pianist,the Busch ensemble could present a vast range of chamber music. At theironly appearanceln the new salzburg Festival, for instance, their all-Mozartprogramme consisted of a violin sonata, a plano quartet and a string quartet.Other concerts might include solo violin or piano works, trios or quintets.

The Busch ~uartet alone played a huge repertoire and during the season,concerts followed one another with dizzying rapidity. There were virtuallynone of the sum:ner a.ctivi ties with which musicians supplement their incomestoday; they had to live all y·ear on wha.t they· made from October to May. The'quartet -received J on average, the same fee for an entire ooncert that Buschcould ea.rn by playing one concerto; other chamber ensembles were even ltJorsepaid. A1thoughB usch spI1 t the quartet I 8 e arnlng s scrupulously into four, 1 twas a hard life playing chamber rnueic. Other musicians like Kreisler thoughtit astonishing that Busch and his colleagues devoted 80 much of their11fe tosuch an ill-rewarding task. Of course, they had to wake as much as they couldfrom tea.chine: and solo work; and Doktor was luckyln that his wife, GeorgineEngelmann, a singer born in Prague in 1892, enjoyed giving singing lessons.Indeed, Mrs. Doktor, a former pupil of the famous Rosa Pap1er-Paumgartner anda pianist as well as a singer, was teaching in New York until just recently.She lives there ina flat filled with the furn1ture,muslc, pictures andother mementoes of the apartment she and Karl had in Vienna.

In these days, when quartets go on tour with a mere handful of works pre­pared, it 1s interesting to look at a typical Busch Quartet tour in the lastthree. months of 1921. Thelr concerts included all 16 Beethoven quartets, plusthe Great Fugue; two Mozart quartets, plus both his piano quartets and hisAdegio and Fugue; two quartets by Reger, two by Haydn and one each by Dvorak,Brahms, Schubert and Schumann; and the string q.uintets of Schubert and Bruck­ner. They also lea.rnt and performed a new sextet by the swiss composerHermann suter. The Busch QUartet would rehearse four hours in the morningand four in the afternoon when preparing for a tour. Busch had always been aglutton for rehearsal but after he came under the spell of his friend Tosca­n1n1 in the early 19208, he became--in the opinion of several of his 001­leagues--even stricter than the Maestro.

The Busch Guartet shared a rather conservative taste in music but theycovered virtually all the classical masterpieces; they also played a fairamount of music from the Romantic era, especially Brahms and Dvorak. Modernmusic was represented by all Reger's chamber works, a number b:y Busch h.lm~

self a,nd by his friends Tovey, suter and ll~alker, and isolated works by suchas Bridge, Plzzettl, Buson1, Debussy, Ravel, Tooh, Raphael, Gregory Masonand Kahn. They pla~ed no Hlndemi th, Bartok or Kodaly, and no Russian or Frenchmusic except the Debussy and Ravel quartets. They actively disliked atonal and12-tone music. HO~Never, they made up for thalr lack of lIlodernity by the depthof their knowledge of the lr chosen repertolre--and by their ma.stery in playingit.

Karl Doktor went along with his colleagues' preferences. It must be re­membered that he was already 12 when Brahms died and 19 when Dvorak died, 80

their music was relatively new: He played all the accepted masterpieces forthe vlo1a--hls wire was first introduced to him after he had performed Haroldin Ita1:i particularly successfully. "My father was also active in finding11 terature for the viola J tt says Paul Doktor, nand he made many arrangements

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for that instrument, including Vitali's Ciaconna. For many years, on andoff, he v.Jor,ke<1 on ebb 11gato vi ala part s for 'the 24 Paganin1 Caprice s." Hepremiered sonatas by Kornauth and Raphael. He also, of course, played a vastamount of the violin repertoire from Bach through to Reger.

ttMy father and Reger were very good friends and often, after rehearsals orsocial gatherings, walked each other home, telling stories or jokes and, whenarriving at the one's door in the m1ddleof a story, would simply turn aroundand \ATalk be.ck to'iVards the other' B home. continuing to do so sometimes untilthe sma.11 hours of the morning,tt says Paul. Reger promised Doktor a soloviola suite (in addition to those he had alresdy written) but hlsearly deathin 1916 1nterven·ed. Some five years later, on a train journey in Italy, Doktorand Busch were remlnisc·lng about Reger, when Doktor mentioned. the lost Bui teeEusch immediately toqk out manuscript paper and 8ta~ted a Regerlan suite infour movements, completing it on the return journey.

Paul Doktor still plays this suite from the unpublished manuscript. headed:"To my dear Karl Doktor, in memory of VicenzaJ:.-Padua (here Doktor has inserted"Firs tela ss! tt) and back--Sulte in A minor for Vi ola--Adolf Busch--Op. O. 75m. nThe opus number wa·s a combination of an old joke by Busch--he had called hisfirst complet~d work OPe O.75·:.....and a dig at Reger's rid·1..culously complexopus numbers.1Doktor's insertion indicates that the Busch Quartet didn'toften treat themselves to first class journeys: The four movements, very muchin Reger's Bach-influenced style, are Lento, Scherzo (G1ga), Andante tran­qul110 (sarabande), and Allegro (Bourree). 2

Through the 1920s, the Busch Quartet gathered a reputation as thef1neatqua.rtet in E·urope. But there were tensions with GrUmmer, whose set ideas and' .enthusiasm for Nazism caus·ed the others ev~entua-lly,-.:to ask him to leave thequartet. Busch wanted his brother Herman as cel11st--and this was endorsedby Doktor even though 1t meant the end of his Vienna Trio. The trl0 wouldnot have lasted long anyway, as llftlhrer also be.came an enthuslastlc Nazi. So,the Doktors bro~wlth their closest friends; their son had been named Pauland Frledrlchafter Gr~mmer and W~hrer.Had he been a girl, he would havebeen named Hl1daa.ft~r Gr~mmer' s 1,l\f1fe. Karl Doktor himself \'1as of Jewishparentage, butllke so many central European Jews, he had virtually forgottenthe fact until Hitler came along. Hav1ng married a Catholic, he had even hadhis son brought up as a Catholic.

The new\ quartet line-up was Ii success from the start. Rehearsals went muchbetter--Toscanlnl came to some and wept in the Cavatlna of Beethoven's OPe130--and the first public conoerts in England were an augury of the acclaimthey were to have in that country. A special society was formed to promotetheir London concerts a.nd they· were taken up by EM! as the spea.rhead of Hl\iIV'schamber music ca.talogue, their first recording being made late in 1933.

Meanwhile Hitler had become Chancellor of Germany in January, 1933 and the·Reichstag Fire in' February had shown the way things were going. On April 1,the day of the boycott of Jewish shops,. with its attendant looting and v1o~

lence, the Busch Q,uartet found :-1·tself - playing Haydn's Seven Last Wordsfro~· the Cross in st. Mary's Church in Berlin. Only days earlier, there hadbeen anti-semitic demonstrations against Serk1n at a concert he and Buschhad given in D~sseldorf. In a mood of deep depression, all four members of .the quartet agreed that they could no longer play in Germany. They cancelledall their engagements there forthwith. .

In spite of 'the1r Jewish connectlons--Busc'h's '",ife was half Jewish and.Herman Busch's wife was Jewiah--they could l'lave continued to perform inGermany, at least for the time being. Their decl.s.1~on was based entirely onfeelings of decency; it cost them dear. The Doktors could, still live inVienna but Andreasson and Herma'n Busch had to give up luor~tlve teachingjobs and move to Switzerland. Adolf Busch had been living in Basel since1927, but he, like the others, lost two-thirds of his income and infinitelymore, psycholog1cally--by severing his German ties.

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Henceforth, the Busch Q,uartet concentrated on Britain and ltaly, ~Nhere

they had enthusiastic followings. In 1935, the Busoh Chamber Players wasformed, with the quartet as the nucleus of a little orchestra. Their con­certs of Bach's Brandenburg ·Concertos and orohestral suites caused a sensa­tion wherever they were given, and gradually the repertoire was expanded toinclude other works by Bach and a number by Mozart. Karl Doktor made a keycontribution to the1rsucce'ss and despite the troubled times, the 19308brought the highpoint of his career.

He and his family would spend the Bummer, months in a. rented house inTraunk1rchen on the beautiful la.ke of Gmunden. It was about an hour's drivefrom salzburg and the Doktors would hold open house for musicians, paintersand writers. Paul Doktor remembers that the visitors included Rudolf Serkinand hlsw1fe Irene, the pla·n1st Paul Vveingarten,the cellist Friedrich Bux­baum--sololst 'of the Vienna Ph11harmon1'c and. member of the Rose Qua'rtet--andthe painter Axel Leskoachek, who loved to ·hear l~rs. 'Doktor a1ngWolf Lieder.tilt was 8. gorgeous placewhlch gave my father not only a leisurely vaoationplace but also one where he could tinker with a. motor boat ,develop and printhis own photographs B.nd me-ke music with our friends. He also taught at thenearby 'AlUrttemberg Castle, where we all performed at tIle sumUler institute. t

'.

At the Doktors' home in Vienna ,uHausmuslk" also played an important rolewhen Karl was not on tour or in Basel for rehearsals with his quartet col­leagues. Perhaps tha most unusual musical evening he ever organized was in1931, when the great Albert Einstein, who had known the Doktorsand Buschesfor years, was visl ting Vienna. Einstein, who playadthe violin appallinglybut enthusiastically, had asked to play some chamber music ana Karl dulyasked some fr1endsround. One of ·these WB.S the stratosphere flier P1ccard 'whc w'as 80 much in the nell\re at the time. P1ccard towered over Einstein, wholooked up and said, tI~rtell, you didn't hav·e so far to go!U

.. The Anschlus.slnAustrla in March, 1938 meant that Vienna was no longersafe for a musician with Jewish connections. ttLuokily, my father was inswitzerland for concerts at that time," recalls Pa.ul, ttbut it was by luckmore than anything else that I J my mother a.nd grandmother managed to leaveVienna more or less unscathed in August for Basel--and from there for Londonwhere we lived until just before the war. tt so, after 53 yea.rs KB.rl Doktorwa s exiled for ever from the c1 ty where he had. 11ved and worked wi thoutinterruption since blrth.Later ,that y'ear, the Busch Q,uartet renounced allits concerts in Italy because of Mussolln1's espousal of Hitler's ant1-sem1­t1sm. so, two more countries were closed to them.

Some consolation came ,~lth the first Lucerne Festival, founded by AdolfBusch and others in the summer of 1938. TOBoanlnl conducted Bome of the con­certs, including the famous open-ai~ one at wagner's former villa Trlbschen.Doktor led the violas in the all-star orchestra which was led by Busch. InSeptember came the concert 1n switzerland at '~'hlch Busoh gave the 21-year­old Paul Doktor the second viola part in a Mendelssohn quintet at a week'snotice. Paul already played the violin with the Busch Cha.mber PIa.yare, butthat· concert with the quartet sealed his fata and like his father, he becamea violist. Other concerts followed and Paul and the Busch Quartet were con­tracted by ElvlI to record a whole series of string quintets--one of the greatmight-have-beens of recording history.

Early in 1939 the Busch Guartet made its first proper tour of Americaand the rave reviews they garnered undoubtedly influenced Busch in his decisionto emigrate to America. The 1939 Lucerne Festival was held under the shadow ofwar, with musicians actuallybelng called. UP for Army serv'ice during rehearsalsfor tIle final concerts. In Nove.mber, the Busch family left Switzerland forAmerica and Karl Doktor had to ma.ke a quick decision. He gambled on t·he ,Ajarbeing a s1:1ort one. Leaving 11.is '",ife and son in Sv~1tzerland, he set off forGenoa., where he, GBsta Andreasson and Herman Busch and -their families hadbooked passage to America. At the last moment they discovered that Jews wereno longer allowed to travel through Italy. so, the party separated, the

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Andreassons following the original plan while Karl with Herman and LotteBusch and their daughter Trud1, ma.defor Lisbon. After a nal1b1tlng,tlme,during which Adolf Busch1n New york pulled every string he could; theywere allo~ed to catch the very last ship for the New World.

Georgine and Paul Doktor spent the duration of the war in SW'ltzerland,without most of their belongings which were in their London flat. They en­dured. much hardship a,nduncertaintyand Paul wa.s deprived. of his rather'ssupport and encoura'gement at the most vulnerable point of his career. But,perhaps he turned out a more'l'nd'ependent musical personality as a result.Undoubtedly, the separation a-nd the worries about hlsfaml1y contributed tothe decline in Karl's health. By the time he saw the m ag.ain, he was alDcrtally sick man and he l1.ad his own problems in America.

The Busch Quartet was reunl ted in J una, 1940 but t11ey ha.d hardly startedbefore Adolf Busch had. a massive heart atta·ck in ·-·December. This would. keephim off the concert stage for a year and, in the meantime, his colleagueshad to find employment. They went first to an o~rchestra in South Carolina;then Fritz Reiner took them into the Pittsburgh Symphony.By May, Busch waswell enough to make some recordings with the quartet, and later, in 1941, .the new Busch Chamber Play'era wa·s formed. The Busch Chamber Players actuallymade recordings before they appeared in publio. Doktor played with them lllhenhe could and there were sporadic quartet conoerts throughout ·the war.

Ad.olf Busch was never accepted as a soloist in America, though. he had somenotable successes with his duo, quartet and orchestral re.c1tals. The Russianstyle of Heifetz and Milstein was all the rage; even1n chamber music, theBudapest Quartet (all Russians in spite ot their title) ruled supreme. KarlDoktor likewise found it hard to gain acceptance. The most 1ronlotactorwas the growing prejud,lce against ttGet'man" musioians in America, a·s thewar progressed. Doktor's hea.lth stea.dl1y deteriorated and by 1945 he wastoo 111 with heart d1sease to tour with the quartet. As Andreasson had teach~

Ing commltments, the ense mole was disbanded. The Busch brothersatarted itup again in 1946 with two new players. Meanwh1le, Doktor took up his firstinstitutional teaching job, at the Philadelphia Musical Academy. He alreadyhad. a number of private pupils.

"Mytather taught both violin andvlo1a but preferred not to teach violabeg.lnners., tt says Paul. ttHe pre fe rred. violinist S oha.nglng t'o the viola, In­s1stingthat theteehnlcal background of violin study was a must for atnoroughly tra1ned viola player. He a180 pleyed the piano, accompanying his .students J often making up p1ano pa.rts as he went along. His gift for devisingfingerings which were not ba.sed on the old-fashioned first-third posl tlonrule, extended even to thece 110; and lle was proba.bly the first vi ollst tosuggest using the thumb for the bottom note 1n the unplayable-looklng violapart of the Ravel Quartet." .

Doktor's last years were shadowed by illness and the irksomeness of hisenforced retirement frOlL conceI~t work. But 'at least he wa.·s ,·-reunited with hiswife and son in the autumn of 1947,and he lived to see Paul established as aviola soloist and. tea.cher in his own right. However, he could hardly haveforeseen the heights to which hlsownson and others would bring to thehlther­to humble viola. Karl Doktor was only one of many who fought for recognitionof the viola a.nd didn't live to see it realized. He died on 17 October, 1949in New York a ft'e r a happy 8 umrne r spent wi th hi S &Ion in Michigan J whe re Paultaught at the university.

Apart from his musical activities, Karl Doktor was a most inventive manwho shared with his friend Herman Busch a. passion ~or tinkering with mechani­cal things. The two used to vie with eaoh other in constructing elaboratemodels out of Meecano. At one sta.ge the Meccano oraze took over the entireBusch Quartet and Adolf Busch had a room set aside for Meccano. Doktor in-vented a contraption to make development and printing of films and photo'-

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graphs possible in daylight and he was an adept home e lectrlcla.n. He designeda wheel for military vehicles to achieve more traction and save rubber; itrepla.ced the lnfla ted tire wi th a se rle s of me ta 1 sprlng-s upp·ortfJd. ahos··.~··Mo.tof Vlenna'slarger streetcara, with double doorsleadlng into their centrecompartments, were equipped with a Doktor invention which made both doorsmove simultaneously when one or other door wa.~ opened or closed.

Doktor can be heard on all the recordings ma.de by the Busch Q.uartet fromthe early 19208 to 1942, and. on all the Busch. Chamber Players I recordingsfrom the 19308•.Special mention should. be made of Bach f sBrandenburg Con­certol No. 6- (where he plays the second solo viola) and No.3; and of Dvorak'sE-flat l~ajor Quartet, Ope 51, 1n which the vlo1a-playlngDvorak ~8.ve his fav­orite instrument many opportunities to shine •.

. During a oareer of more tha.n 40 years, he p·la.yed a variety of violas. asPa.ul Doktor expla.lns: liMy father's first viola 1s a lovely l1ttle unnamedItalian instrument which, however, proved to be too small in tone to completew1 thBusch' s strad. He a.lsoplayed abeautlful Anton1,us B.nd Hy'ron1mus Amatlwhich I still cherish highly. But, on the tours he most often played the1v1endelssohn-lent Stradivarius which later found i'ta wa.y into the Amerlcan­based Paganinl Quartet--so named beca.use. 1 t useda.llof Paganlnl t s Strads-­and a beautiful Amatl lent to my father by the one-armed pianist 'Paul W1ttg~n­

stein."Karl Doktor was not an extrovert musics.l personality, though he wa s the

only one of Adolf Busch's musical ass.ocla.·t.e 8 who d.a.red .to croBssword s withhim on musical points! He was wha.t1s 'oft'en dismissed as a tl mus lclan's musl- .cian," a_quiet man with a rea.dy sense of· humour who never tried to pushhlm­salf to the fore. He once gave up a performance of Harold in Italawi th BrunotN"alter because BU.sch hade. new vlo1~ made by his fa,ther anawante .the chanceto try it out in public. As a player, Doktor brIdged the gap between theolder, rB.ther wobbly and woofy violists aoo today' s more assertive pls,yers.He used portament 0 for expre ss1ve e freat, butve'ry ta ate fUlly and spa r1ngly.ttHlsplay1ns alwa.ys he.d a. kind of nobility',*' says the art historian Sir ErnstGombrlch, who knew Doktor well. You only have to look at the many photographsof him, and talk to his friends, to realize that the man himself ha.d t1 a kindof nobility. at

1 Busch said of it: tfWhl1e it isn't, 100%, it sur~ly 1s 75%:u In a later listingof BUsch.'s works, t1l1s Suite 1s ·Op. 16·.

2 The Suite in A Minor for Unaccompanied Viola has been published recently byAma.deus Verlag in Winterthur, Switzerland J 1980, edited by Paul Dokto:r (:EdltlonNumber BP-2688).

(Ed1tor's Note: This article was made possible by the constant help and en­oouragement of Mrs. Karl Doktor and Paul Doktor. TUlly Potter 18 currently en..gaged on 8. biography of Adolf' Busch and would be glad to hear from anyone whohas letters or photographs relating to Busch and his circle or from anyone 'whohas memor1es of them. Concert programs would also be helpful. Wr'ite to ~~r.

Potter at 4 Brook Cottages , Little Burstea.d, Bl11erlcay J Essex, England:. OM 129TA. The re 1s als 0 a BrUder-B usoh-Ge se llschaft, 5912 Hl1che nba.ch-Dahlbruch J

Postfach 4029,1,.,. Germany,that is dedioated' to keeping the memory of theBusch brothers and their associates alive.)

.. * * .... * *' * *RESULTS OF PROPOSED BY-LAWS VOTE: or those members of the AVa who responded andvoted ontbe proposed By-LawSTn the early part of this year, the res'ults are:

112 - Yes; 2 - No; 1 Abstentlli

1980 YEARBOOK: The second Yearbook of the IVFG was delayed, but should be enroute to all chapters about thIs time. A.s aoon as they arrive, each memberswill receive a copy.