Luigi von Kunits
Encyclopedia
Luigi von Kunits was an Austria
n conductor
, composer
, violin
ist, and pedagogue. He was the founding conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
in 1922.
Dr. Kunits was born Ludwig Paul Maria in Vienna
, Austria
, where he studied with Jakob Grün, Otakar Ševčík
, Anton Bruckner
, and Eduard Hanslick
. He died in Toronto
, Canada
.
It was in musical Vienna that Luigi von Kunits (Germanized from Serbia
n Kunich) was born in 1870.
As its name suggests, the family was originally Serbian
—something that has, and had, to be reckoned with, given the circumstances of the time. It had a bearing on Luigi's background and inheritance, as it also did now and then, on the course of his career.
When the name of Luigi von Kunits came to the ears of the musical world, in 1881, he was a mere teenager. Never before had a young talent received so many laurels in advance as he. Even the great Johannes Brahms
became so enthralled by the child prodigy and his musical precocity that he proclaimed him a musician who was destined to achieve the highest expression of his time in the ideal manner. He was invited by Brahms himself to play second violin in one of his quartets at the age of 11, an unprecedented honor for one so young.
Luigi's mother though a kindly woman was rather imposing and when her son began to show an interest in music as a profession she discouraged him, preferring that the he devote himself to more serious pursuits, such as the Church, rather than follow the precarious career of a musician. However, she did at least consent to have him attend university and be taught music properly at a conservatory. He completed his academic training at the University of Vienna and the world-renowned Vienna Conservatory almost simultaneously. Academic training included classical Greek, Latin, law and philosophy. At the conservatory he studied violin under such greats as Johann Kral (1823–1912), Jacob Grun, and Otakar Sevcik
; musical history with Eduard Hanslick
, composition with Jacksch and harmony with Anton Bruckner
. After his graduation with honors, no less, at the age of 21 he, for a time, led the String Quartet for the Wiener Tonkuenstlerverein when Brahms was its president.
After playing with the Austrian Orchestra at the Chicago World's Fair
, and taking the first prize trophy in an open competition, he decided to remain in the U.S. The people of America took him to their heart as few nations did—certainly more quickly and generously than his native Austria, and not less so than Canada where he was to settle down later on in life.
In Chicago he taught violin
and composition
and led a String Quartet
he personally founded. He came to Pittsburgh which had been without a professional symphony orchestra until 1895 when British conductor Frederic Archer
took the baton. With Archer at the helm, von Kunits had organized and shaped an ensemble into a respectable orchestra. During the next 14 years, von Kunits was the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's concertmaster, first violin, and assistant conductor to Frederic Archer (from 1896 to 1898), Victor Herbert
(from 1898 to 1904), and finally Emil Pauer (from 1904 to 1910) when the orchestra came into financial difficulties and was dissolved.
Also, it was in the United States that he first became aware of his Serbian roots. At Chicago's Columbian Exposition he witnessed Nikola Tesla
's alternating current
system running everything mechanical, not to mention the illumination of the entire exposition itself. In Pittsburgh he saw Serbian steelworkers forming one of the oldest Serbian fraternal organizations (the Serb National Federation) in 1901, and in 1907, merging with Michael I. Pupin's Sloga (Unity). From then on, von Kunits always maintained that he was by descent a Serbian though his training was Austrian. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire of which Vienna was the capital, was a multi-national assemblage, yet there is no question that 'Austrian' can be used to denote certain characteristics shared by these twenty-five million different nationals.
His honeymoon was in the offing and von Kunits decided to take a trip with his new bride to introduce her to his parents. Last but not least, von Kunits could foresee that he might need some free time to settle some unresolved family affairs in Vienna. On returning for the first time since he left in 1893, he found his father and mother sorely strained by the seven years between them. His parents, from whom he had never before in his life been parted for so long were delighted with the news that he was married and awaiting a family, and that he had accomplished so much in Pittsburgh. His relations with his mother and father were now of the friendliest, as though he had never left. And his father even invited Mrs. von Kunits to see the family estate, Luigi's inheritance.
After a long honeymoon, they returned to Pittsburgh, where their two daughters were born. As an enthusiastic Greek scholar and a bit of an eccentric he had them duly christened Nausicaa
, for the daughter of Alcinous
in Homer
's Odyssey
, and Aglaea
, for the youngest of the Three Charities (Graces) in Classical mythology.
They were busy and fruitful years, devoted to raising a family and building a career. Besides the Pittsburgh Symphony, he directed a series of String Quartet concertos, taught at the Pittsburgh Conservatory, and later at his own school.
, Louis Rée (1861–1939), Vladimir de Pachman, Emil Pauer, Fritz Kreisler
and Eugène Ysaÿe
all came to pay homage to a fine musician as was customary in music circles of the day. Between recitals, he remained active by teaching at the world-famous Patony Conservatory in Vienna. Many of his closest friends from his childhood days came long distances to see him, but it was his father's presence that gave him the deepest pleasure. The start of the First Balkan War
in 1912, pitting Serbia and its Balkan allies against the Ottoman Empire
, suddenly awakened an intense fervor of patriotism, equally shared by his father.
In 1912, Dr. T. Alexander Davies, a Toronto doctor, who arrived for postgraduate studies at Vienna's Medical School, came with a faculty offer (head of the violin department) from Colonel Albert Gooderham
, president of the newly-established Canadian Academy of Music
. A more prestigious offer came at the same time, the Philadelphia Orchestra
needed a new conductor. Von Kunits, whose first love was conducting, was recovering from a mild heart attack, and so decided in favor of Toronto instead. (The man who accepted the Philadelphia position declined by von Kunits was Leopold Stokowski
.)
with their newly-born son, Astyanax
, aptly named in the Classical tradition. His daughters were left at a boarding school to complete their education. But with the outbreak of the First World War, von Kunits got the news that his estate was lost, confiscated by the Austrians who were at war with Serbia
. Von Kunits came from a line of Serbian Hussars who fought Ottoman occupiers at the border of Austria and Hungary. When Turks threatened to invade Western Europe, one of Kunich's ancestors rescued a prince of the realm who was badly wounded in battle, and consequently received a patent of nobility for his heroic action.
His daughters soon joined the family fold in Toronto
. He was at Toronto's Canadian Academy of Music, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his students, when World War I broke out in August 1914. When Canada entered the war, von Kunits found himself in an untenable position even in Toronto. He was considered an enemy alien even though he renounced his allegiance to Austria. Canada, gripped as it was in war fever, engaged in a fiercely hostile attack on anything or anyone Austrian and German. He persistently maintained that he was by descent a Serbian and had severed his ties with Austria for that reason. Abuse and antagonism was felt by von Kunits throughout the war years. It was a tragic time for him. He had to report in line with all the rest of alien born once or twice a week. It included not only Austrians, Hungarians, and Germans, but even Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Rumanians, Bulgarians and other nationalities who came from territories ruled by the Habsburg Monarchy. He was luckier than most, however, many ex-Austrian citizens were sent to concentration camps as "enemy aliens" to perform forced labor in steel mills, forestry, mines, etc. (Recently the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund was created to recognize this sad period in Canadian history.)
"He would arrive at home white and drawn after these sessions. It was not an easy task for a sensetive musician and scholar, man of honor and simple kindness to face this ordeal," so wrote von Kunits' daughter, Mrs. Aglaia Edwards, in Mayfair Magazine. "He never uttered a word of complaint. Stoically he realized he simply had to report and that was the thing to do." But he did not withdraw completely from his concert work, he played at concerts where and when he could. He lived a secluded life in Toronto which was to be his home for the rest of his life. During this period he founded The Canadian Music Journal, taught violin and harmony to his admiring students, instilling the love of chamber music in them all. The war over, von Kunits returned to the concert platform with a recital in Massey Hall
. The sorrowful waiting through the long years finally brought fruit. Von Kunits, who renounced his Austrian citizenship at the beginning of the war, finally became a Canadian citizen.
Although Toronto had been a major music centre in Canada until 1917, in 1922 it was still without a professional symphony orchestra. Two young musicians, Louis Gesensway and Abe Fenboque, decided to approach von Kunits to tackle the difficult task of establishing the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
. (check 12) The Toronto Star had, about that time, mentioned an attempt by Flora Eaton
to get Sergei Rachmaninoff
for the podium, but it all came to naught.
The sixty musicians who turned up for the first rehearsal were all from the orchestral pits of the silent-movie houses; the only free time they had for concerts was between matinees and evening shows. Von Kunits was assured that "there were sufficient skilled players, some of whom had played in Frank Welsman's Toronto Orchestra -- an organization founded in 1907 and which had become a casualty of the war in 1918 -- and some of whom, as von Kunits knew, were better musicians than their theatre jobs allowed them to show."
After some reflection, von Kunits accepted. Through the winter, he coached and encouraged some of his more advanced students so that they might be ready. He worked with theatre house musicians. And he spent sleepless nights re-scoring the music for his players and their instruments, keeping in mind their capacities.
By spring, von Kunits had brought the orchestra together, making it coalesce from its disparate elements was not easy. One musician of that time recalled a rehearsal when von Kunits could not get any kind of warmth and color from the cello section, even though the piece was marked appassionata.
"He tapped his music stand, looked solemnly at the whole string section, and said quietly: 'Would all those men under 60 please vibrate.' The difference at the next attempt was more notable."
, Canadian composers Harry Adaskin
and Murray Adaskin
. Indeed, von Kunits shaped a generation of string players, some of whom continued to play with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1980.
After nine years of struggle to win a place for a first-rate orchestra in Canada, von Kunits died on October 8, 1931.
Von Kunits left behind a tradition of dedicated musicianship and a solid framework of two protentially fine orchestras—the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Toronto Symphony—an achievement often overlooked today. Conductor Sir Adrian Boult of the London Philarmonic Orchestra once said of von Kunits that he was "rehearsaing a soul without a body."
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist, and pedagogue. He was the founding conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario.-History:The TSO was founded in 1922 as the New Symphony Orchestra, and gave its first concert at Massey Hall in April 1923. The orchestra changed its name to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1927. The TSO...
in 1922.
Dr. Kunits was born Ludwig Paul Maria in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, where he studied with Jakob Grün, Otakar Ševčík
Otakar Ševcík
Otakar Ševčík was a Czech violinist and influential teacher. He was known as a soloist and an ensemble player, including his occasional performances with Eugène Ysaÿe.-Biography:...
, Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
, and Eduard Hanslick
Eduard Hanslick
Eduard Hanslick was a Bohemian-Austrian music critic.-Biography:Hanslick was born in Prague, the son of Joseph Adolph Hanslick, a bibliographer and music teacher from a German-speaking family, and one of his piano pupils, the daughter of a Jewish merchant from Vienna...
. He died in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
It was in musical Vienna that Luigi von Kunits (Germanized from Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n Kunich) was born in 1870.
As its name suggests, the family was originally Serbian
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
—something that has, and had, to be reckoned with, given the circumstances of the time. It had a bearing on Luigi's background and inheritance, as it also did now and then, on the course of his career.
Early years
Von Kunits's musical talent showed itself early and spontaneously—at the age of three he first began experiencing musical longings. He listened raptly to the weekend performances of chamber music at his parents' palatial estate. At five he had little difficulty, if any, with classical pieces. Before he was nine years of age he mastered the violin fully.When the name of Luigi von Kunits came to the ears of the musical world, in 1881, he was a mere teenager. Never before had a young talent received so many laurels in advance as he. Even the great Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
became so enthralled by the child prodigy and his musical precocity that he proclaimed him a musician who was destined to achieve the highest expression of his time in the ideal manner. He was invited by Brahms himself to play second violin in one of his quartets at the age of 11, an unprecedented honor for one so young.
Luigi's mother though a kindly woman was rather imposing and when her son began to show an interest in music as a profession she discouraged him, preferring that the he devote himself to more serious pursuits, such as the Church, rather than follow the precarious career of a musician. However, she did at least consent to have him attend university and be taught music properly at a conservatory. He completed his academic training at the University of Vienna and the world-renowned Vienna Conservatory almost simultaneously. Academic training included classical Greek, Latin, law and philosophy. At the conservatory he studied violin under such greats as Johann Kral (1823–1912), Jacob Grun, and Otakar Sevcik
Otakar Ševcík
Otakar Ševčík was a Czech violinist and influential teacher. He was known as a soloist and an ensemble player, including his occasional performances with Eugène Ysaÿe.-Biography:...
; musical history with Eduard Hanslick
Eduard Hanslick
Eduard Hanslick was a Bohemian-Austrian music critic.-Biography:Hanslick was born in Prague, the son of Joseph Adolph Hanslick, a bibliographer and music teacher from a German-speaking family, and one of his piano pupils, the daughter of a Jewish merchant from Vienna...
, composition with Jacksch and harmony with Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
. After his graduation with honors, no less, at the age of 21 he, for a time, led the String Quartet for the Wiener Tonkuenstlerverein when Brahms was its president.
Early career
During this time, however, he had composed a Violin Concerto and he had been asked to perform it with the Vienna Philarmonic Orchestra. It was so well received that he had no trouble obtaining a position with the Austrian Orchestra as it assistant conductor and concertmaster. It was also at this juncture that he decided to embark on a tour of the United States of America in 1893, abandoning the career chosen for him by his mother. His parents were heart-broken at his sudden departure.After playing with the Austrian Orchestra at the Chicago World's Fair
Chicago World's Fair
Chicago World's Fair may refer to:*World's Columbian Exposition of 1893*Century of Progress Exposition of 1933...
, and taking the first prize trophy in an open competition, he decided to remain in the U.S. The people of America took him to their heart as few nations did—certainly more quickly and generously than his native Austria, and not less so than Canada where he was to settle down later on in life.
In Chicago he taught violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and composition
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
and led a String Quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
he personally founded. He came to Pittsburgh which had been without a professional symphony orchestra until 1895 when British conductor Frederic Archer
Frederic Archer
Frederic Archer was a British, composer, conductor and organist, born at Oxford, England. He studied music in London and Leipzig, and held musical positions in England and Scotland until 1880, when he was became organist of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York...
took the baton. With Archer at the helm, von Kunits had organized and shaped an ensemble into a respectable orchestra. During the next 14 years, von Kunits was the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's concertmaster, first violin, and assistant conductor to Frederic Archer (from 1896 to 1898), Victor Herbert
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
(from 1898 to 1904), and finally Emil Pauer (from 1904 to 1910) when the orchestra came into financial difficulties and was dissolved.
Also, it was in the United States that he first became aware of his Serbian roots. At Chicago's Columbian Exposition he witnessed Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
's alternating current
Alternating current
In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....
system running everything mechanical, not to mention the illumination of the entire exposition itself. In Pittsburgh he saw Serbian steelworkers forming one of the oldest Serbian fraternal organizations (the Serb National Federation) in 1901, and in 1907, merging with Michael I. Pupin's Sloga (Unity). From then on, von Kunits always maintained that he was by descent a Serbian though his training was Austrian. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire of which Vienna was the capital, was a multi-national assemblage, yet there is no question that 'Austrian' can be used to denote certain characteristics shared by these twenty-five million different nationals.
Marriage and honeymoon
It was in Pittsburgh that he befriended Joseph Henry Gittings, a gifted organist and impresario, and Harriet Jane, his beautiful daughter. After a brief courtship marriage became a foregone conclusion.His honeymoon was in the offing and von Kunits decided to take a trip with his new bride to introduce her to his parents. Last but not least, von Kunits could foresee that he might need some free time to settle some unresolved family affairs in Vienna. On returning for the first time since he left in 1893, he found his father and mother sorely strained by the seven years between them. His parents, from whom he had never before in his life been parted for so long were delighted with the news that he was married and awaiting a family, and that he had accomplished so much in Pittsburgh. His relations with his mother and father were now of the friendliest, as though he had never left. And his father even invited Mrs. von Kunits to see the family estate, Luigi's inheritance.
After a long honeymoon, they returned to Pittsburgh, where their two daughters were born. As an enthusiastic Greek scholar and a bit of an eccentric he had them duly christened Nausicaa
Nausicaa
Nausicaa is a character in Homer's Odyssey . She is the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of Phaeacia. Her name, in Greek, means "burner of ships".-Role in the Odyssey:...
, for the daughter of Alcinous
Alcinous
Alcinous or Alkínoös was, in Greek mythology, a son of Nausithous, or of Phaeax , and father of Nausicaa, Halius, Clytoneus and Laodamas with Arete. His name literally means "mighty mind"...
in Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
, and Aglaea
Aglaea
Aglaea or Aglaïa is the name of several figures in Greek mythology.-Charis:The youngest of the Charites, Aglaea or Aglaia was one of three daughters of Zeus and the Oceanid Eurynome. Her other two sisters were Euphrosyne, and Thalia. Together they were known as the Three Graces, or the Charites...
, for the youngest of the Three Charities (Graces) in Classical mythology.
They were busy and fruitful years, devoted to raising a family and building a career. Besides the Pittsburgh Symphony, he directed a series of String Quartet concertos, taught at the Pittsburgh Conservatory, and later at his own school.
Performing career
Then in 1910, he made a decision to return to Vienna to give concerts throughout Europe, appearing not only in recitals as a guest artist with orchestras, but also in chamber music concerts. Back from his concert tours, he was widely acclaimed by his peers. Moriz RosenthalMoriz Rosenthal
Moriz Rosenthal was a great Polish pianist. He was an outstanding pupil of Franz Liszt and a friend and colleague of some of the greatest musicians of his age, including Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss, Anton Rubinstein, Hans von Bülow, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jules Massenet and Isaac...
, Louis Rée (1861–1939), Vladimir de Pachman, Emil Pauer, Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
and Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...
all came to pay homage to a fine musician as was customary in music circles of the day. Between recitals, he remained active by teaching at the world-famous Patony Conservatory in Vienna. Many of his closest friends from his childhood days came long distances to see him, but it was his father's presence that gave him the deepest pleasure. The start of the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
in 1912, pitting Serbia and its Balkan allies against the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, suddenly awakened an intense fervor of patriotism, equally shared by his father.
In 1912, Dr. T. Alexander Davies, a Toronto doctor, who arrived for postgraduate studies at Vienna's Medical School, came with a faculty offer (head of the violin department) from Colonel Albert Gooderham
Albert Gooderham
Colonel Sir Albert Edward Gooderham, KCMG was a Canadian financier, soldier, and philanthropist. His grandfather was brewer William Gooderham....
, president of the newly-established Canadian Academy of Music
Canadian Academy of Music
The Canadian Academy of Music was a Canadian music conservatory in Toronto, Ontario that was actively providing higher education in music during the first half of the 20th century. The school was founded in 1911 by Albert Gooderham who financed the school out of his own personal fortune and served...
. A more prestigious offer came at the same time, the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
needed a new conductor. Von Kunits, whose first love was conducting, was recovering from a mild heart attack, and so decided in favor of Toronto instead. (The man who accepted the Philadelphia position declined by von Kunits was Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
.)
Back to North America
The von Kunitses sailed to CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
with their newly-born son, Astyanax
Astyanax
In Greek mythology, Astyanax was the son of Hector, Crown Prince of Troy and Princess Andromache of Cilician Thebe. His birth name was Scamandrius , but the people of Troy nicknamed him Astyanax In Greek mythology, Astyanax was the son of Hector, Crown Prince of Troy and Princess Andromache of...
, aptly named in the Classical tradition. His daughters were left at a boarding school to complete their education. But with the outbreak of the First World War, von Kunits got the news that his estate was lost, confiscated by the Austrians who were at war with Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. Von Kunits came from a line of Serbian Hussars who fought Ottoman occupiers at the border of Austria and Hungary. When Turks threatened to invade Western Europe, one of Kunich's ancestors rescued a prince of the realm who was badly wounded in battle, and consequently received a patent of nobility for his heroic action.
His daughters soon joined the family fold in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. He was at Toronto's Canadian Academy of Music, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his students, when World War I broke out in August 1914. When Canada entered the war, von Kunits found himself in an untenable position even in Toronto. He was considered an enemy alien even though he renounced his allegiance to Austria. Canada, gripped as it was in war fever, engaged in a fiercely hostile attack on anything or anyone Austrian and German. He persistently maintained that he was by descent a Serbian and had severed his ties with Austria for that reason. Abuse and antagonism was felt by von Kunits throughout the war years. It was a tragic time for him. He had to report in line with all the rest of alien born once or twice a week. It included not only Austrians, Hungarians, and Germans, but even Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Rumanians, Bulgarians and other nationalities who came from territories ruled by the Habsburg Monarchy. He was luckier than most, however, many ex-Austrian citizens were sent to concentration camps as "enemy aliens" to perform forced labor in steel mills, forestry, mines, etc. (Recently the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund was created to recognize this sad period in Canadian history.)
"He would arrive at home white and drawn after these sessions. It was not an easy task for a sensetive musician and scholar, man of honor and simple kindness to face this ordeal," so wrote von Kunits' daughter, Mrs. Aglaia Edwards, in Mayfair Magazine. "He never uttered a word of complaint. Stoically he realized he simply had to report and that was the thing to do." But he did not withdraw completely from his concert work, he played at concerts where and when he could. He lived a secluded life in Toronto which was to be his home for the rest of his life. During this period he founded The Canadian Music Journal, taught violin and harmony to his admiring students, instilling the love of chamber music in them all. The war over, von Kunits returned to the concert platform with a recital in Massey Hall
Massey Hall
Massey Hall is a venerable performing arts theatre in the Garden District of downtown Toronto. The theatre originally was designed to seat 3,500 patrons but, after extensive renovations in the 1940s, now seats up to 2,765....
. The sorrowful waiting through the long years finally brought fruit. Von Kunits, who renounced his Austrian citizenship at the beginning of the war, finally became a Canadian citizen.
Although Toronto had been a major music centre in Canada until 1917, in 1922 it was still without a professional symphony orchestra. Two young musicians, Louis Gesensway and Abe Fenboque, decided to approach von Kunits to tackle the difficult task of establishing the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario.-History:The TSO was founded in 1922 as the New Symphony Orchestra, and gave its first concert at Massey Hall in April 1923. The orchestra changed its name to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1927. The TSO...
. (check 12) The Toronto Star had, about that time, mentioned an attempt by Flora Eaton
Flora Eaton
Flora McCrea Eaton, Lady Eaton was the wife of Toronto department store president and heir Sir John Craig Eaton.- Life and career :...
to get Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
for the podium, but it all came to naught.
The sixty musicians who turned up for the first rehearsal were all from the orchestral pits of the silent-movie houses; the only free time they had for concerts was between matinees and evening shows. Von Kunits was assured that "there were sufficient skilled players, some of whom had played in Frank Welsman's Toronto Orchestra -- an organization founded in 1907 and which had become a casualty of the war in 1918 -- and some of whom, as von Kunits knew, were better musicians than their theatre jobs allowed them to show."
After some reflection, von Kunits accepted. Through the winter, he coached and encouraged some of his more advanced students so that they might be ready. He worked with theatre house musicians. And he spent sleepless nights re-scoring the music for his players and their instruments, keeping in mind their capacities.
By spring, von Kunits had brought the orchestra together, making it coalesce from its disparate elements was not easy. One musician of that time recalled a rehearsal when von Kunits could not get any kind of warmth and color from the cello section, even though the piece was marked appassionata.
"He tapped his music stand, looked solemnly at the whole string section, and said quietly: 'Would all those men under 60 please vibrate.' The difference at the next attempt was more notable."
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra
On April 23, 1923, at five p.m. the New Symphony Orchestra, with von Kunits at the baton, made its debut in Massey Hall. With an initial complement of some sixty players, it soon became the eighty-five member Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1927, offering full-length concerts. After successful tours in Canada and the United States, audiences got bigger. Von Kunits brought the orchestra recognition and wide appeal. The excellence of his string section became the envy of other orchestras. Stokowski invited two of his pupils, Gesensway and Manny Roth, to join the Philadelphia Orchestra. By drawing into it some of the world's finest instrumentalists, Stokowski succeeded in creating the distinctive "Philadelphia sound" which brought his orchestra international acclaim. Another von Kunits's pupil of note was the U.S. composer Charles Wakefield CadmanCharles Wakefield Cadman
Charles Wakefield Cadman was an American composer.Cadman’s musical education, unlike that of most of his American contemporaries, was completely American. Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, he began piano lessons at 13...
, Canadian composers Harry Adaskin
Harry Adaskin
Harry Adaskin, was a Canadian violinist, academic, and radio broadcaster.-History:Born to a Jewish family in Riga, Latvia, he emigrated with his family to Toronto. At the age of twelve, he started at the Toronto Conservatory of Music, and at the age of 16 became a member of Frank Welsman's...
and Murray Adaskin
Murray Adaskin
-External links:*...
. Indeed, von Kunits shaped a generation of string players, some of whom continued to play with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1980.
After nine years of struggle to win a place for a first-rate orchestra in Canada, von Kunits died on October 8, 1931.
Von Kunits left behind a tradition of dedicated musicianship and a solid framework of two protentially fine orchestras—the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Toronto Symphony—an achievement often overlooked today. Conductor Sir Adrian Boult of the London Philarmonic Orchestra once said of von Kunits that he was "rehearsaing a soul without a body."
See also
- Music of CanadaMusic of CanadaThe music of Canada has influences that have shaped the country. Aboriginals, the British, and the French have all made unique contributions to the musical heritage of Canada. The music has subsequently been heavily influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between...
- List of Canadian composers