Identity area
Reference code
GB GB1179 AB-AB/929
Title
Photocopy of an autograph letter signed from Adolph Brodsky to Edward Elgar
Date(s)
- [20th cent] (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
1 item, 2 folios
Context area
Name of creator
(1851-1929)
Biographical history
Adolph Brodsky was born in 1851 in Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. At the age of not quite five, he began to play the violin and later became a pupil of Hellmesberger at the Vienna Conservatoire. In 1880 he married Anna Tskadowska in Sebastopol in the Crimea. The following year Brodsky became the first person to play the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, declared unplayable by Leopold Auer to whom the original dedication was made. From 1883 to 1891 Brodsky taught at the Leipzig Conservatoire and established the Brodsky Quartet. In October 1891 Adolph and Anna Brodsky sailed for New York . After a very strenuous three years as concertmaster and soloist with the New York Symphony Orchestra under Walter Damrosch, Brodsky decided to return to Europe. When in Berlin, Adolph Brodsky received a letter from Sir Charles Hallé inviting him to teach at the recently founded Royal Manchester College of Music and to lead the Hallé Orchestra. Although Brodsky received offers of work from St. Petersburg, Berlin and Cologne and despite his wife's misgivings, Brodsky accepted the Manchester post. Within weeks of Brodsky's arrival in Manchester in 1895, Hallé died and Brodsky took over as principal of the College, a position which he held until his death in 1929.
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Scope and content
Brodsky is very sorry to hear from Mr. Griffiths about Elgar's attack of bronchitis and thinks he was very wise not to take "any risques" as Elgar's health is very precious to all who love his music. Brodsky wonders what Elgar would think of their playing of his Quartet. Brodsky's wife, Anna, who has been an invalid since 1921, when her left limbs were paralysed, asks Brodsky to play the Elgar Violin Concerto almost every evening. After Brodsky's work at the college is done and when he is not professionally engaged, he is mostly at home with Anna. The original is dated 6 Nov 1925, and it is unclear when this photocopy was made.
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Conditions governing access
Open
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
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Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
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Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Brodsky, Adolph Davidovich (1851-1929), Violinist, Principal of the Royal Manchester College of Music (Creator)
- Elgar, Edward William (1857-1934), Knight, 1st Baronet, composer (Subject)
- Griffith, Arthur Troyte (1864-1942), architect (Subject)
- Brodsky, Anna (c.1855-1929), scientist, President of RMCM Club, writer (Subject)