Dr. Sanna Pederson, University of Oklahoma
An addendum to the subject of the last post on Joachim’s student Lili Schober Petschnikoff. Lili’s memoir tells of her whirlwind engagement to violinist Alexander Petschnikoff, who had become famous almost overnight after his debut in Berlin in October of 1895. She describes in her own unique language the first time she heard him: He … Read more
Lili Petschnikoff (1874-1957) was born Lili Schober in Chicago. She was the youngest daughter of German parents who moved to Berlin with her when she began studying at the Hochschule with Joachim. In her memoir, she admitted that “accepting this career was not of my own choosing; it was my dear mother who had placed … Read more
“It’s perfect now,” Kotek said. “It’s fine, it’s beautiful!” “You played it beautifully,” Peter Ilych said, with his arm around Kotek’s shoulder. “You could play it in public at a moment’s notice, my friend.”“Really, Peter Ilych? Do you really think so?” Kotek’s young sensitive face flushed almost scarlet with pride and gratitude. But presently he … Read more
Young women violinists from the United States made headlines such as this in the late nineteenth century. The most frequently profiled were Dora Valeska Becker (1870-1958), Maud Powell (1867-1920), Leonora Jackson (1879-1969), and Geraldine Morgan (1867-1918). While publicizing their very real achievements, these news items also emphasized their conventionally feminine charms. In the “American Girls” … Read more
After his death in August, there were an impressive number of concerts in the fall of 1907 dedicated to the memory of Joseph Joachim, and they all reinforced the same idea: Joachim belonged in the company of the three B’s. Three concerts featuring Joachim’s compositions at the Hochschule during the 1907-08 year emphasized Joachim’s connection … Read more
This item from the Musical News of 1902 reports on the Beethoven Society of Tokyo, a chamber music club founded by an English amateur, who has engaged as its leader “Herr Junker, a pupil of Joachim,” who was a teacher at the “Tokio Conservatoire,” where “he has turned out some excellent Japanese pupils as far … Read more
In the final year of the Joachim Quartet’s concerts, they were as popular as ever. However, they had plenty of local competition, mostly from members of their own Quartet. These were the new Klingler Quartet, the Halir Quartet, which had been playing since 1893, the relatively new Schumann-Halir-Dechert Trio, and the Barth-Wirth-Hausmann Trio, which had been … Read more