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he death of violinist Norbert exactly the kind of violin playing TBrainin on April 10, 2005, which you need in order to play came as a shock, and is still Beethoven’s music,” said Brainin. difficult to grasp. He died at the “It means, producing a certain age of 82 in . With him the singing tone. It’s like the bel canto world loses one of those truly great technique in singing. And, like a artists and human beings, who, singer, you have to rehearse this because of their moral integrity every day. Every day.” Yet, aside and extraordinary charisma, are from all the talent and able to shape an entire epoch, since industriousness, as well as the they are able to successfully enthusiasm and joy in doing mediate in all cultures precisely creative work, the cultural and that which makes man unique: the personal background of the joy in creative work. Anyone who members of the has seen firsthand only once, how was also a decisive reason for its intensively, precisely, and success, and for that the career of rigorously—but never ever Norbert Brainin is exemplary. pedantically, always inspiring, EIRNS loose, and with a lot of jokes— The Development of a Great Norbert Brainin was capable of Musician teaching especially young IN MEMORIAM Born in 1923 in , Brainin’s musicians, how great Classical enthusiasm and talent for playing works are to be performed, so that the violin became clear already at the listeners can be reached and 2004—an interview which now the age of 6, when he saw the 12-year- ennobled in the best Schillerian sense, unfortunately has become the very last old prodigy Yehudi Menuhin perform understands the deeper meaning of of his life. in concert. Initially, Norbert was taught Beethoven’s famous challenge So streng “We simply listened into the music. by his uncle Max—an amateur wie frei (As rigorously, as free). This Again and again,” was his typical musician and later architect in New high moral challenge, which is not only answer to the question of how the York, who nevertheless played so well valid in Classical , but also in all Amadeus Quartet was able to reach this that he was allowed to play in quartets science, accompanied Norbert in his great mastery of interpretation. with professional string players, a long artistic life; with “his” Amadeus Similarly, his stating the fact, that he passion which he still indulged in at the Quartet, he consciously chose to take it was one of the last living violinists who age of 90. But when Norbert’s on—and fulfilled it. was educated in that very technique of extraordinary talent became evident, he “To bring out adequately in quartet violin playing, which had been was taken under the wing of Riccardo playing the great art of the four-part “authorized” by Beethoven himself, and Odnoposoff, the then (very young) setting,” of which Beethoven became an without which “you simply can’t play concert master of the Vienna unsurpassed master with his late Beethoven’s late quartets adequately.” Philharmonic, and violinist Rosa quartets—the very domain of the Brainin stood in this tradition with two Hochmann-Rosenfeld, who also legendary Amadeus Quartet—“so that of his teachers: Rosa Hochmann- introduced him—at the early age of the audience starts to understand this Rosenfeld in Vienna, as well as Carl 12—to playing string quartets. Later, concept, is, for an artist like me, the Flesch in London, were pupils of Jakob she arranged his contact with Carl raison d’être, the sense of an Grün, who in turn had been the pupil Flesch in London, who at the time was accomplished artistic life.” How often of Joseph Böhm in Vienna. Böhm, the by far the world’s most famous violin in our many discussions and interviews “father of the Viennese violinists,” and pedagogue. with Norbert did we hear this sentence founder of the so-called “German,” or After Hitler’s Anschluss, the from him, which he said very “Viennese School,” had worked with occupation of , in March 1938— deliberately at the end of his last Beethoven directly, especially right on Norbert’s sixteenth birthday— interview with Ibykus (the German concerning the interpretation of his late his family, being Jewish, decided to sister-publication of Fidelio) in July quartets. “Technically speaking, it is send their children to for their

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© 2005 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. safety. Flesch accepted Norbert as a was wide open. While preparing for quartets—above all Beethoven’s late pupil and everything seemed to develop this concert, he often played string quartets, the raison d’être of these four “normally,” until World War II ended quartets with his friends Peter and musicians. Until the premature death of his studies with Flesch. When the Nazis “Siggie,” who were joined by the cellist its violist in 1987, the started to bomb England, Flesch fled —“because through this I Amadeus Quartet played together with from London to the Dutch harbor of wanted to develop myself further no changes in its personnel, which is a Rotterdam, which was later largely musically and artistically. But then unique record in the history of music. destroyed in a terrible bombardment. something decisive happened, in my This part of Brainin’s In London, Norbert initially head, my soul, and my heart; and this extraordinarily successful artistic and continued his studies with Flesch’s was entirely caused by the music we equally influential cultural-political life, assistant , but as an “enemy played. Above all, by Beethoven’s which secures him an acknowledged alien,” he soon was put into an quartets, but also by those of Schubert, place in the history of music, is internment camp, where he met Peter Mozart, and Haydn. . . . I couldn’t generally known. The London Times, Schidlof, who was also a young Jewish think about anything else. . . . Already in its obituary on April 12, honored refugee from Vienna who played the in 1947 I sensed, that playing string Brainin’s extraordinary artistic and violin. Through joint performances of quartets would become the purpose of moral qualities, and did not forget to Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in the my life.” mention his appropriate use of jokes. camp (Schidlof playing the solo part, And this is exactly what happened. (Once, in order to loosen up his Brainin “the orchestra”), the two boys The (unofficial) debut of the “Brainin colleagues, Brainin suddenly became inseparable friends—for life. Quartet” in 1947 was already a huge interrupted the Amadeus rehearsal of When Brainin was able to resume his success; the proper debut of the Schubert’s Quintet, and told a joke studies with Rostal, his teacher Amadeus Quartet on April 10, 1948 in about the conversation of two street announced that he was ready to teach London was even a sensation. So, too, violinists in New York: “What’s your two Jewish violin students without any its 1950 debut on German soil, in violin?” “Strad, 1699.” “Boy, that’s means—Peter Schidlof and Siegmund Hamburg, where “the audience in its cheap!”) Nissel, who had also emigrated from enthusiasm almost smashed the entire But also another part of Norbert’s Vienna—for free. Three of the future hall.” life deserves to be told, because it members of the Amadeus Quartet Since that time, Norbert Brainin and demonstrates in an exemplary way, that became close friends because of their “his” quartet developed more and more for him the question of morality and joint fate as refugees and their life in the into a powerful musical institution, absolutely strict artistic rigor and internment camp; artistically, they which set international standards in integrity—his constant truth seeking— became close later in Max Rostal’s terms of adequate interpretation of the was not only a matter of “pure art,” but chamber orchestra, and while playing great Classical works for string also of practical everyday life—i.e., string quartets together. In addition, there was another challenge to be mastered: the duty to undertake “war- related activity.” Up to eight hours’ work in an armament factory, and about four hours studying the violin— that was the typical wartime “day of study” for these future outstanding musicians. After this tough education, Norbert accepted another challenge, a true baptism by fire for the musicians: In 1946 he took part in the Carl Flesch Competition, founded in memory of his recently deceased teacher, with the firm intention to win it. His interpretation of Brahms’ Violin Concerto fully convinced the jury. The first prize being a concert with the BBC Symphony in London, Brainin chose (typically for him) Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, and with that, the door to a great international career as a soloist The Amadeus Quartet in performance.

112 politics. We are talking tuning in opposition to about his relationship today’s absurdly high with the American “Karajan tuning” of A politician Lyndon well above 440 Hz, LaRouche, with whom Brainin, who of course he developed a close had grasped the friendship over the last meaning of this twenty years. question for singers immediately, studied Friendship with this problem intensely. LaRouche Using the Adagio from The basis for this was Bach’s Sonata for Violin laid, as usual in such solo in G-minor, he matters, with the demonstrated for the intensive exchange of first time in a private great ideas. Before setting with LaRouche, their first meeting in his wife Helga Zepp the Spring of 1986, LaRouche, and some

Brainin had read some EIRNS/Philip Ulanowsky friends, in August 1988 of LaRouche’s writings Norbert Brainin with Lyndon LaRouche after a 1987 concert. in his beautiful summer on music, philosophy, house in northern and—naturally—also politics. When stood by his friend LaRouche, when the Tuscany, the fact that a Classical they met in the vicinity of Wiesbaden, latter was put on trial a second time—in composition (and also his Strad) , Schubert’s String Quintet— practically the same case—at the end of sounded much better—i.e., “fuller” and at the time one of LaRouche’s “music 1988 in Alexandria, Virginia, and was more transparent at the same time—in projects”—was at the center of sentenced to 15 years in prison, after a the “low tuning.” Spontaneously over discussion. For more than two hours “rocket docket trial,” which had lunch the decision was made, to repeat Norbert demonstrated (without a nothing to do with a fair trial according this experiment on stage, which score), with gestures, singing, and at the to normal legal standards. occurred in December of that same year piano, the connection of all five voices Several times in the U.S. capital, but with extraordinary success in Munich, of this great work of art, which he also in many European cities—among Germany. knew by heart. After that, the them Paris, Milan, Munich, Hamburg, Before that, though, Brainin “paid discussion—over a good dinner— and Wiesbaden—Brainin played his tribute to science.” In order to continued with philosophical and solidarity concerts for LaRouche in the demonstrate the superiority of the “low political questions, but also with a lot of years that followed; he also visited his tuning,” in a parliamentary hearing in jokes and anecdotes. Out of that first friend twice in prison in Rochester, Rome, which became the basis for a discussion grew an extraordinarily Minnesota, where the two discussed, parliamentary initiative to pass a law on fruitful intellectual cooperation, which in a very noisy environment, questions the “Verdi A,” Prof. Bruno Barosi, the went far beyond “musical projects” as of Classical composition—above all director of the world-renowned such. the principle of motivic thorough- International Institute of Violin In December 1987, Brainin together composition, which was very close to Making, in Cremona, Italy, invited with Cologne pianist Günter Ludwig Norbert’s heart. Brainin to his laboratory, recorded gave their first “solidarity concert for certain tones (and their octaves) both in LaRouche” in Boston’s famous Jordan Fight for ‘Scientific Tuning’ the low and high tuning, did a spectral Hall, with sonatas from Mozart, Norbert was especially interested in analysis, and finally evaluated the Brahms, and Beethoven, when cooperating with LaRouche in the field findings. At first, Barosi and his LaRouche was put on trial for purely of the science of music. At the end of the assistent were totally baffled at the political reasons. The concert was 1980’s, this meant above all the fight for absolute precision of Brainin’s reviewed very favorably in the leading the “low tuning” of C=256 Hz, the so- intonation: “I have had almost all of the Boston newspaper—a testimony to called “Verdi A” of 432 Hz, a proposal world’s top violinists in my lab, but Norbert’s courageous engagement. The which the famous Italian soprano something like this, I have never seen. U.S. government some months later Renata Tebaldi had made in a Brainin is precise to the very Hertz, and was forced to declare a mistrial, since discussion with LaRouche. After long that always. Again, and again. That is the political fallout for then-U.S. Vice conversations concerning the scientific truly unique.” The other findings were President Bush, Sr. threatened to relevance—and not only the obvious not so surprising, but equally clear: The become too damaging. Brainin again practical one—of a unified (lower) lower tuning created a larger sum of

113 overtones, which explains Rochester also dealt with this question, the fuller sound; it was also which in 1992 led to the essay “Mozart’s proven, that Brainin’s Strad 1782-86 Revolution in Music,” one of had its best resonance by far many philosophical essays written by at exactly C=256 Hz, which LaRouche under extremely difficult is about A=432 Hz. This is conditions during his 1989-94 clear that Antonio imprisonment. Stradivari understood the A result of this close cooperation superiority of the “low were several demonstrations of this tuning,” and had built his principle of composition, which Brainin instruments accordingly. explained at master classes with young Said Barosi laconically: string quartets. With the Munich-based “That I expected; in this lab Henschel Quartet, he produced a film we have tested all the Strads for the Schiller Institute, in which he we could get hold of, and demonstrated this principle using the result is always the works from Haydn and Mozart. At the same.” Not only these tests, master class at Dolná Krupá, he worked but also Brainin’s ensuing for almost a week with the Slovakian demonstration (including Moyzes Quartet, and the Hungarian Bach’s Adagio as an Auer Quartet, and demonstrated with “encore”) were videotaped, Beethoven quartets the significance of and broadcast on Italian Motivführung. The intensity—but also regional television that same ease—of Brainin’s teaching is best evening; the video was shown by a caricature drawn by the

shown to parliamentarians EIRNS/Kathy Wolfe young primarius of the Auer Quartet. in Rome some time later. Brainin rehearses with Günter Ludwig, This sketch was inspired especially by After that, Brainin Washington, D.C., 1990. the very first lesson these young demonstrated the students got from Brainin, when he superiority of the “low tuning” in many Motivic Thorough-Composition interrupted their playing with a “loud concerts, in which he also had the ‘Noooo,’ ” telling them that playing courage to explicitly tell the name of the At this time, Brainin was also engaged string quartets is not entertainment, but instigator of this international in studying an important principle of “a bloody serious affair, science”; and he campaign, Lyndon LaRouche. In the composition which he had been added: “At least a whole dimension is meantime, the superiority of the low thinking about “already for many missing here.” To grasp and adequately tuning had been acknowledged by years,” which for an artist who had perform this scientific dimension of many of his famous “instrumentalist studied, rehearsed, and performed all Classical music—i.e., to bring out the colleagues,” like his friend, the pianist the great Classical string quartets again real content of the music “behind the András Schiff, for instance. The singers and again for over 40 years is not notes” (Furtwängler), was Brainin’s were definitely in favor of the “low surprising at all: The principle of primary concern. In this respect, he tuning,” with only a very few Motivführung (motivic thorough- made no compromises, and could not exceptions. After the “debut” in Munich composition), as Brainin called it, was joke about it, no matter with how much with pianist Günter Ludwig, which is developed by Joseph Haydn. In 1995, Viennese charm he uttered his available on audio and video, Brainin while giving a master class at Dolná inspiring, or critical words. demonstrated the advantages of the Krupá, a castle near the Slovakian This uncompromising seriousness in “low tuning” with other ensembles: capital of Bratislava, where Beethoven deeply rooted human affairs was, to a with a piano trio, for example, and with is supposed to have stayed and very large degree, the basis of the a string quartet. In a truly memorable composed, Brainin said that so far enormous artistic charisma of Norbert concert with the Orlando Quartet, nobody had understood fully the Brainin. He gave one of the most which was also educated by members of extraordinary significance of this moving examples of this in early the Amadeus, in Wiesbaden in 1992, principle of composition—which December 1989, shortly after the fall of Brainin even played viola in the Mozart had further developed in a the Berlin Wall, when he played a performance of Mozart’s C-minor decisive way, and which Beethoven “Beethoven Matinee for German Unity” String Quintet, K. 406. He shut the then masterfully exploited to the in Berlin, especially for the people in mouths of many intransigent journalists fullest—whenever he had brought it up Eastern Germany, then the German by telling them with a smile, “My Strad for discussion, “except LaRouche.” His Democratic Republic. The many letters simply sounds much better this way.” talks with LaRouche in the prison at which the Schiller Institute, the

114 organizer of this concert, received before the event, already made clear that it would become a milestone: “Will come under any circumstances. But need a definite OK, since I still have to repair my Trabi.” (That was the little car most East Germans drove at that time.) Or: “Definitely need a ticket, since I have to drive 250 km to the concert,” and: “I am 10 years old, but I absolutely want to hear the Maestro.” More than 1,000 people came to the concert at the Berlin High School of Arts, among them about 800 G.D.R. citizens, who were not charged admission. The performance of three Beethoven sonatas (Op. 12, No. 3; Op. 96; as well as Op. 47, the “Kreutzer”) created real storms of

enthusiasm, but the reaction to Brainin’s EIRNS final encore became the biggest Brainin speaks with the Schiller Institute’s Anno Hellenbroich during master class, while compliment an artist can receive: first, a they performedthe young Moyzes César Franck’s Quartet rehearses, A-Major Dolnáattack, Krupá killing Castle, several Bratislava, children. Slovakia, Many 1995. of considerable silence, then a long Violin Sonata “because of its deep the listeners, some of whom even standing ovation, since Brainin with his religious character”—for a mainly brought their babies with them, had interpretation of the Adagio from African-American audience in never attended a Classical concert at all, Beethoven’s “Spring Sonata” in these Washington, D.C., in the Ebenezer but were thrilled, and deeply moved. turbulent times had hit exactly the right United Methodist Baptist Church, The Mayor of Birmingham declared tone. where America’s greatest President, this day to be “Dr. Norbert Brainin An equally moving example was his Abraham Lincoln, and the former slave Concert Day in Memory of Civil concert on March 24, 1993 in and freedom-fighter Frederick Rights,” and presented a certificate of Birmingham, Alabama, in honor of Douglass had spoken. In Birmingham, honor to him. Schiller Institute Vice Martin King, who had been the concert took place at the famous President Amelia Boynton Robinson, murdered 25 years earlier. Two days Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, the who during the 1960’s had fought before this concert, Brainin and Ludwig center of the activities of the Civil Rights successfully side by side with Martin had played the same program—besides movement there in the 1960’s, which in Luther King for the Voting Rights Act, sonatas from Beethoven and Handel, 1963 had been hit by a terrible bombing declared afterwards: “These concerts laid the seed for the coming together of the Civil Rights movement and Classical culture, which we have to bring to life again in America.” In every epoch there are sublime personalities in music, who because of their towering artistic capabilities and moral integrity are not only able to actually reach, inspire, and thrill people deep in their souls, but who also have the power to considerably shape their time. In the Twentieth century, among these personalities were undoubtedly Wilhelm Furtwängler, Pablo Casals, Yehudi Menuhin—and Norbert Brainin. —Hartmut Cramer EIRNS/Lynne Speed Signing autographs after a concert honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Montgomery, Alabama, March 1993.

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