Joachim, Joseph (EN)

Joachim József, Joseph, *28 June 1831 Köpcseny (now. Kittsee, Austria), †15 August 1907 Berlin, Hungarian violinist, teacher, composer and conductor. Seventh of eight children of Juliusz and Fanny Joachim. In 1836, he became a student of S. Serwaczyński, concertmaster of the Pest Opera; he performed in public already in 1839, playing with his teacher J.F. Eck’s Symphonie concertante for two violins. He studied in Vienna from 1839, first with M. Hauser, then with G. Hellmesberger, and finally for three years with J. Böhm, under whose supervision he achieved the basics of violin technique, mastered the art of free, elegant leading of the right hand and perfected his intonation. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1843, where he was influenced by Mendelssohn; at his instigation, Joachim began composition studies with M. Hauptmann; he perfected his violin technique under the supervision of F. David. During his seven-year stay in Leipzig, Joachim studied most of the classical violin concertos (Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Spohr, Bach) with David, which later became the basis of his repertoire. Together with David, he held the position of concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. During this time, he became acquainted with Spohr, the Schumanns, Lipinski, Liszt, and Berlioz. The years 1843–44 marked the beginning of his brilliant virtuoso career., He achieved great success when he played Adagio and Rondo by Ch.-A. de Bériot with Mendelssohn at the Gewandhaus on 19 August 1843; P. Viardot and K. Schumann also performed at this concert. Joachim’s high position in the violin playing of that time is evidenced by his participation in the performance of L. Maurer’s Concertante for 4 violins in 1844, alongside the leading violinists of the era: H. Ernst, A. Bazzini and David. His European fame was established by his first concert trip to England. He performed with I. Moscheles at the Drury Lane Theatre in London on 28 March 1844, at a concert by J. Benedict on 19 May and at a concert of the London Philharmonic on 27 May, where he performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. From then on, Joachim’s interpretation of this work was considered exemplary in England. He maintained contact with the English audience throughout his life; he performed in England several times in 1847–59, and from 1862, he was a regular guest there every year. His performances in London and other English cities became a characteristic feature of musical life in England in the second half of the 19^th century. Joachim lived in Weimar in 1849–53, where he was concertmaster of the prince’s orchestra led by Liszt; there he met H. v. Bülow, P. Cornelius, and J. Raff, among others. He accepted the position of concertmaster and soloist at the court of the King of Hanover, George V in 1853. He was also active as a teacher. His students in Hanover included L. Auer and R. Barth.

At that time, Joachim became even more closely associated with the Schumanns and established a new friendship with Brahms, unknown to the general public, whom he helped significantly at the beginning of his artistic career. Joachim’s letters of recommendation opened the way for the young composer to many personalities of musical life and the best concert halls. For many years, Brahms consulted with Joachim on the final form and instrumentation of his compositions. Joachim was the co-creator of the violin parts in practically all of Brahms’s works for this instrument. The polarisation of musical life in Germany led to the severance of relations with Liszt in 1857 and to the publication in the Berlin “Echo” in 1860 – together with Brahms, J.O. Grimm and B. Scholz – of an open letter to Liszt and the supporters of the New German School, containing a protest against their understanding of “music of the future” and their denial of the raison d’être of other directions of music. In 1863, Joachim married the famous mezzo-soprano Amalia Weiss, who later caused a cooling of the friendship between Joachim and Brahms. Amalia used Brahms’s letter in the divorce proceedings in 1880, in which he wrote, among other things, about Joachim’s explosive temperament and his morbid jealousy of his wife. Despite this, Joachim’s fondness for Brahms’s music remained unshaken; during his numerous concert tours around Europe, he constantly popularised his music and was particularly credited with establishing Brahms’s reputation in England. A kind of expression of the musicians’ reconciliation was Brahms’s Double Concerto for violin and cello, written with Joachim in mind and with his cooperation.

Joachim moved to Berlin in 1868 to head the newly established Hochschule für Ausübende Tonkunst, which soon gained a reputation as the best violin school in Europe, alongside the Paris Conservatory. He founded the Joachim-Quartett in 1869, which became famous throughout Europe for its technical mastery and perfect sound, and especially for performing Beethoven’s last quartets; the ensemble, with its line-up changing several times, existed until Joachim’s death. In Berlin, apart from annual concert tours during the winter months (including two performances in Kraków: on 5 February 1880 and 3 January 1882), Joachim developed a wide range of teaching activities. His students included J. Kotek, J. Hubay, T. Nachéz, K. Gregorowicz, W. Burmester, and B. Huberman. Numerous honours were proof of the recognition of Joachim’s greatness; he received honorary doctorates from the universities of Cambridge (1877), Glasgow, Oxford and Göttingen, and was a knight of the Prussian order of Pour le Mérite. The measure of Joachim’s importance in the musical community is the violin concertos dedicated to him by Schumann, Bruch, Brahms, Dvořák and Gade.

Joachim had already gained an outstanding position in the musical world as a child and throughout his life enjoyed the reputation of one of the best violinists of his time. He was a successor to the masters of the French classical school derived from Italian bel canto – Viotti, Rode, and Kreutzer. Joachim’s interpretation consisted of a deep insight into the style of the piece being performed, subordinating the virtuoso technique to the musical integrity of the work. Joachim placed emphasis on the cantilena, the grand tone, his playing was distinguished by romantic lyricism, subtle use of vibrato, calmness and simplicity far from any affectation. His interpretations of Beethoven’s and Brahms’s violin concertos, Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin and Beethoven’s last quartets (performed by the Joachim-Quartett) gained universal opinions as exemplary and contributed to the introduction of these pieces permanently into the concert repertoire. In later years, the English press often criticised him for his incorrect intonation, but Helmholtz claimed (according to J.A. Fuller Maitland) that Joachim’s playing was beyond reproach in terms of purity. The gramophone recordings made by Joachim shortly before his death, although they indicate some intonation deficiencies, at the same time, confirm the nobility and great freedom of his playing. Towards the end of his life, Joachim sometimes had difficulty reaching high notes because of the weakness of the little finger of his left hand.

Joachim had a thorough education as a composer, a great knowledge of instrumentation and musical taste, as evidenced by his numerous pertinent remarks and suggestions, which Brahms used in composing his works. Joachim’s compositions also contain skilfully orchestrated fragments, but his talent was not as good as that of the European elite, and most of his works have been forgotten. In terms of style, Joachim was a successor to Schumann, with clear influences from Brahms. His concertos pose serious technical difficulties for performers. Joachim’s best-known composition is the Hungarian Concerto – a technically extremely complicated piece, still popular today, and received with great applause in its time.

Literature: J. Brahms im Briefwechsel mit J. Joachim, ed. A. Moser, 2 volumes, Berlin 1908; Briefe von und an J. Joachim, ed. A. Moser, 3 volumes, Berlin 1911–13; A. Moser J. Joachim. Ein Lebensbild, Berlin 1898, 5^th revised ed. 1910; K. Storck J. Joachim. Eine Studie, Leipzig 1902; J.A. Fuller Maitland J. Joachim, «Living Masters of Music», London 1905; L. Brieger-Wasservogel Joachim Gedenkbüchlein, Dresden 1907; H.J. Moser J. Joachim, “Neujahrsblatt der Allgemeinen Musikgesellschaft in Zürich” XCVI, 1908; W.J. v. Wasielewski Die Violine und ihre Meister, Leipzig 6^th ed. 1920; H. Kretzschmar J. Joachim, “Archiv für Musikwissenschaft” II, 1920; A. Moser Geschichte des Violinspiels, Berlin 1923; 2^nd extended ed., 3 volumes, Tutzing 1966–67; R. Pfohl J. Joachim und R. Wagner, “Die Musik” XX, 1927; S. Joachim-Chaigneau Trois épisodes de la vie de J. Joachim, “La Revue Musicale” 1940 No. 195; J.W. Reiss Skrzypce i skrzypkowie, Kraków 1955; J. Breitburg J. Joachim. Piedagog i ispołnitiel, Moscow 1967; L. Erhardt Brahms, Kraków 1969, 2^nd ed. 1975; K. Geiringer J. Brahms. Sein Leben und Schaffen, Kassel 3^rd ed. 1974; R.T. Oliver Brahms, Joachim and the Classical Tradition and R. Schwarz Joachim and the Genesis of Brahms’s Violin Concerto, book of the international congress on Brahms, Detroit 1980.