Georg Kulenkampff
| Georg Kulenkampff | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Alwin Georg Kulenkampff-Post 23 January 1898 Bremen, German Empire |
| Died |
4 October 1948 (aged 50) Schaffhausen, Switzerland |
| Occupation | Violinist |
Alwin Georg Kulenkampff-Post (23 January 1898 – 4 October 1948) was a German virtuoso violinist. One of the most popular German concert violinists of the 1930s and 1940s, he was considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century.
Kulenkampff was best known for his interpretations of works from the Romantic period. He gave the premiere performance of Robert Schumann's violin concerto and made the first recording of the piece. Additionally, his performances of the violin concertos of Bruch, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Glazunov are considered among the finest on record, but his early death from encephalitis and the fact that his recording career coincided with the Nazi era have prevented his name from being better known to modern listeners.
Georg Kulenkampff was the son of a well-to-do merchant family in Bremen. He took an interest in the violin from a very young age, and from 1904 (aged 6) began to receive instruction from the concertmaster of the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, and afterwards with its conductor Ernst Wendel. He then received lessons and encouragement from Leopold Auer (teacher of Mischa Elman, Efrem Zimbalist, Nathan Milstein and others) in Dresden, and made a concert debut in 1912 as solo violinist. On Auer's recommendation he was sent to study with Willy Heß at the Berlin Music Hochschule and became in time director of the Hochschule Orchestra.
Kulenkampff suffered health problems in his early life, and towards the end of the First World War he returned to his home town to become concert-master of the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra. However he made rapid progress, especially as a soloist, and in 1923 he became a professor-in-ordinary at the Berlin Music Hochschule. He taught there until 1926, when his solo career became all-absorbing, but resumed teaching there in 1931 until his departure from Germany in 1944. At the same time he gave concerts throughout Germany and, increasingly, in various parts of Europe, and had a busy broadcasting career. In 1927, he performed the Bach Double Violin Concerto in D minor with Alma Moodie (a student of Carl Flesch) and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO)
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