Frederick Grinke
Encyclopedia
Frederick Grinke was a Canadian
-born violin
ist who had an international career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher. He was known especially for his performances of 20th century English music.
and others in Winnipeg. He made his first broadcast at the age of about 12 and formed a trio at age 15. In 1927 he won a Dominion of Canada scholarship award to the Royal Academy of Music
in London, where he studied with Rowsby Woof. He continued his studies (at age 21) for a summer with Adolf Busch
in Switzerland, and afterwards in Belgium and London with Carl Flesch
.
considered appointing him leader of the London Symphony Orchestra
at age 21, but finally the offer was not made on account of his youth. From around 1930 to 1936 Grinke was second violin of the Kutcher String Quartet (in which John Barbirolli
was for a time the 'cellist). In 1935, with pianist Dorothy Manley, he gave the premiere of the Canadian composer Hector Gratton
's Quatrieme danse canadienne. It was with Manley and Florence Hooton, both fellow-students at the Academy, that Grinke formed his trio, Kendall Taylor later replacing Manley.
. His first performance with them was at Salzburg Festival
in 1937, giving the premiere of Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
by Benjamin Britten
. He began teaching as Professor at the Royal Academy in 1939, and included among his pupils were many who went on to become leading British artists (including Sydney Humphreys (of the Aeolian Quartet
), Clarence Myerscough
and Rosemary Rapaport
).
In 1940 he volunteered for the Royal Air Force, joining its Royal Air Force Symphony Orchestra, and toured with them worldwide, notably in the United States. On one occasion he was flown back to England especially for a performance of the Arnold Bax
concerto (with which he was particularly associated) at the Royal Albert Hall
. He also performed before Winston Churchill
, Joseph Stalin
and Harry S. Truman
at the Potsdam Three-Power Conference
. In 1945 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.
. He resigned from it to pursue his solo career.
During the later 1940s Grinke made numerous recordings, mainly for Decca, many of which were originally released in the last years of 78rpm records. His recordings of John Ireland
's chamber music include the Phantasie Trio of 1908, the 1938 Trio no 3 in E major, and The Holy Boy (with Florence Hooton (cello) and Kendall Taylor (piano)), and the Violin Sonata no 1 of 1909 with the composer at the piano. The trio also recorded the Phantasy trio of Frank Bridge
and the Beethoven trio in E flat.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
dedicated his Sonata in A minor, written in 1952, to Grinke, who recorded the composer's Concerto Accademico in D minor, and The Lark Ascending
, with the Boyd Neel Orchestra. Grinke and David Martin (also a Canadian violinist) performed J.S. Bach's Concerto for two violins at Vaughan Williams's funeral. He made a broadcast of the Arnold Bax concerto from Australia.
Among other recordings from the 1940s were nos 3 and 9 from the 1697 set of 10 Sonatas by Henry Purcell
, with Jean Pougnet
and Boris Ord
, and that composer's sonata in G minor with Arnold Goldsbrough. He is heard with Kendall Taylor in the Dvořák
G major Sonatina op 100, and with Watson Forbes
(violist of the Stratton Quartet
and Aeolian Quartet
) in Mozart duos. He also recorded works by Arthur Benjamin
, Benjamin Dale
, Lennox Berkeley
, Edmund Rubbra
, York Bowen
, Howard Ferguson
, Arthur Bliss
, Bela Bartok
, Beethoven, Handel
, Rachmaninoff and Smetana
, often accompanied by Ivor Newton
. He recorded a complete Brandenburg Concertos
with the Boyd Neel.
at Stoke D'Abernon
, Surrey. He frequently sat on juries for international competitions. He retired from the Royal Academy of Music in 1978, and was awarded the CBE in 1979, but continued teaching until his death, which occurred in 1987. The National Portrait Gallery lists 8 portraits of Grinke in its collections.
Grinke played an instrument by J. B. Rogerius of 1686, with aluminium-covered D and A, and silver-covered G and steel E strings, but also often played a Stradivarius
dated 1718, lent by the Royal Academy of Music. He was married in 1942 to Dorothy Sirr Sheldon and had one son.
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...
-born 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 who had an international career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher. He was known especially for his performances of 20th century English music.
Training
Frederick Grinke started learning to play violin at the age of 9, and studied with John WaterhouseJohn Waterhouse (violinist)
John Fereday Preston Waterhouse was a Canadian violinist, conductor, and music educator of English birth. Born in Bilston, West Midlands, he was educated at the Royal Academy of Music where he was a pupil of Émile Sauret , Ebenezer Prout , and Stewart Macpherson . He was later named a Fellow of...
and others in Winnipeg. He made his first broadcast at the age of about 12 and formed a trio at age 15. In 1927 he won a Dominion of Canada scholarship award to the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
in London, where he studied with Rowsby Woof. He continued his studies (at age 21) for a summer with Adolf Busch
Adolf Busch
Adolf Georg Wilhelm Busch was a German-born violinist and composer.Busch was born in Siegen in Westphalia. He studied at the Cologne Conservatory with Willy Hess and Bram Eldering...
in Switzerland, and afterwards in Belgium and London with Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch was a violinist and teacher.Carl Flesch was born in Moson in Hungary in 1873. He began playing the violin at seven years of age. At 10, he was taken to Vienna, and began to study with Jakob Grün. At 17, he left for Paris, and joined the Paris Conservatoire...
.
Career
Hamilton HartyHamilton Harty
Sir Hamilton Harty was an Irish and British composer, conductor, pianist and organist. In his capacity as a conductor, he was particularly noted as an interpreter of the music of Berlioz and he was much respected as a piano accompanist of exceptional prowess...
considered appointing him leader of the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
at age 21, but finally the offer was not made on account of his youth. From around 1930 to 1936 Grinke was second violin of the Kutcher String Quartet (in which John Barbirolli
John Barbirolli
Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
was for a time the 'cellist). In 1935, with pianist Dorothy Manley, he gave the premiere of the Canadian composer Hector Gratton
Hector Gratton
Joseph Thomas Hector Gratton was a Canadian composer, arranger, conductor, pianist, and music educator. As a composer his music is written in an essentially folkloric and popular style which avoids harmonic sophistication. His compositional output includes several orchestral works, chamber workss,...
's Quatrieme danse canadienne. It was with Manley and Florence Hooton, both fellow-students at the Academy, that Grinke formed his trio, Kendall Taylor later replacing Manley.
Boyd Neel Orchestra
In 1937 he became concertmaster of the Boyd Neel OrchestraBoyd Neel
Louis Boyd Neel was an English conductor and academic. He is perhaps best known for revitalizing the genre of the chamber orchestra.-Early years:...
. His first performance with them was at Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
in 1937, giving the premiere of Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10, is a work for string orchestra by Benjamin Britten. It was written in 1937 at the request of Boyd Neel, who conducted his orchestra at the premiere of the work at that year's Salzburg Festival. It was the work that brought Britten to international...
by Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
. He began teaching as Professor at the Royal Academy in 1939, and included among his pupils were many who went on to become leading British artists (including Sydney Humphreys (of the Aeolian Quartet
Aeolian Quartet
The Aeolian Quartet was a highly reputed string quartet based in London , with a long international touring history and presence, an important recording and broadcasting profile. It was the successor of the pre-War Stratton Quartet...
), Clarence Myerscough
Clarence Myerscough
Clarence Myerscough was a British violinist.After studying at the Royal Academy of Music and the Paris Conservatoire under Frederick Grinke and Rene Benedetti, he won the All England Violin Competition in the Festival of Britain and came second in the Carl Flesch Competition .He later formed the...
and Rosemary Rapaport
Rosemary Rapaport
Rosemary Rapaport was a violinist and music teacher who founded the Purcell School for musically gifted children.-Early years:...
).
In 1940 he volunteered for the Royal Air Force, joining its Royal Air Force Symphony Orchestra, and toured with them worldwide, notably in the United States. On one occasion he was flown back to England especially for a performance of the Arnold Bax
Arnold Bax
Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of romanticism and impressionism, often with influences from Irish literature and landscape. His orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colourful instrumentation...
concerto (with which he was particularly associated) at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
. He also performed before Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
at the Potsdam Three-Power Conference
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 16 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States...
. In 1945 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.
Post-war: concerts and recordings
He remained concertmaster for the Boyd Neel Orchestra until 1947, performing in Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand (in 1947), and at the London Proms, Salzburg and the Edinburgh FestivalEdinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. He resigned from it to pursue his solo career.
During the later 1940s Grinke made numerous recordings, mainly for Decca, many of which were originally released in the last years of 78rpm records. His recordings of John Ireland
John Ireland (composer)
John Nicholson Ireland was an English composer.- Life :John Ireland was born in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Manchester, into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His father, Alexander Ireland, a publisher and newspaper proprietor, was aged 70 at John's birth...
's chamber music include the Phantasie Trio of 1908, the 1938 Trio no 3 in E major, and The Holy Boy (with Florence Hooton (cello) and Kendall Taylor (piano)), and the Violin Sonata no 1 of 1909 with the composer at the piano. The trio also recorded the Phantasy trio of Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge was an English composer and violist.-Life:Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others...
and the Beethoven trio in E flat.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
dedicated his Sonata in A minor, written in 1952, to Grinke, who recorded the composer's Concerto Accademico in D minor, and The Lark Ascending
The Lark Ascending
The Lark Ascending is a work by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, inspired by George Meredith's 122-line poem of the same name about the skylark. The work was written in two versions: violin and piano, written in 1914; and violin and orchestra, written in 1920. The orchestral version...
, with the Boyd Neel Orchestra. Grinke and David Martin (also a Canadian violinist) performed J.S. Bach's Concerto for two violins at Vaughan Williams's funeral. He made a broadcast of the Arnold Bax concerto from Australia.
Among other recordings from the 1940s were nos 3 and 9 from the 1697 set of 10 Sonatas by Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
, with Jean Pougnet
Jean Pougnet
Jean Pougnet was a Mauritian-born concert violinist and orchestra leader, of British nationality, who was highly regarded in both the lighter and more serious classical repertoire during the first half of the twentieth century.- Origins and training :Jean Pougnet was born in Mauritius to British...
and Boris Ord
Boris Ord
Boris Ord , born Bernhard Ord, was an English organist, composer and musical director best known as the choir master of King's College, Cambridge....
, and that composer's sonata in G minor with Arnold Goldsbrough. He is heard with Kendall Taylor in the Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
G major Sonatina op 100, and with Watson Forbes
Watson Forbes
Watson Douglas Buchanan Forbes was a Scottish violist and classical music arranger...
(violist of the Stratton Quartet
Stratton Quartet
The Stratton String Quartet was a well known British musical ensemble active during the 1930s and 1940s. They were specially associated with the performance of British music, of which they gave numerous premieres, and were a prominent feature in the wartime calendar of concerts at the National...
and Aeolian Quartet
Aeolian Quartet
The Aeolian Quartet was a highly reputed string quartet based in London , with a long international touring history and presence, an important recording and broadcasting profile. It was the successor of the pre-War Stratton Quartet...
) in Mozart duos. He also recorded works by Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Leslie Benjamin was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of Jamaican Rhumba, composed in 1938.-Biography:...
, Benjamin Dale
Benjamin Dale
Benjamin James Dale was an English composer and academic who had a long association with the Royal Academy of Music. Dale showed compositional talent from an early age and went on to write a small but notable corpus of works...
, Lennox Berkeley
Lennox Berkeley
Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley was an English composer.- Biography :He was born in Oxford, England, and educated at the Dragon School, Gresham's School and Merton College, Oxford...
, Edmund Rubbra
Edmund Rubbra
Edmund Rubbra was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak of his fame in the mid-20th century. The most famous of his pieces are his eleven...
, York Bowen
York Bowen
Edwin York Bowen was an English composer and pianist. Bowen’s musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a talented conductor, organist, violist and horn player...
, Howard Ferguson
Howard Ferguson
George Howard Ferguson, PC was a Conservative politician and the ninth Premier of Ontario, Canada, from 1923 to 1930.-Background:He was the son of Charles Frederick Ferguson who served in the Canadian House of Commons...
, Arthur Bliss
Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...
, Bela Bartok
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Beethoven, Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
, Rachmaninoff and Smetana
Smetana
Smetana is a Slavic loanword in English for a dairy product that is produced by souring heavy cream. Smetana is from Central and Eastern Europe, sometimes perceived to be specifically of Russian origin. It is a soured cream product like crème fraîche , but nowadays mainly sold with 15% to 30%...
, often accompanied by Ivor Newton
Ivor Newton
Ivor Newton CBE was an English pianist who was particularly noted as an accompanist to international singers and string players. He was one of the first to bring a distinct personality to the accompanist's role. He toured extensively to all continents and appeared at music festivals such as...
. He recorded a complete Brandenburg Concertos
Brandenburg concertos
The Brandenburg concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 . They are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque era...
with the Boyd Neel.
Later teaching
Despite his work in Britain Grinke maintained connections with Canada through the 1960s. From 1963-1966 he taught at the Yehudi Menuhin SchoolYehudi Menuhin School
The Yehudi Menuhin School is a specialist music school in Surrey, England. It was founded in 1963 by the violinist Yehudi Menuhin.The School also gives pupils the best musical education any specialist schools can with a number of internationally main teachers, Simon Fischer , Natalya Boyarskaya ,...
at Stoke D'Abernon
Stoke d'Abernon
Stoke d'Abernon is a small village situated between Cobham and Leatherhead in the county of Surrey. The census area Oxshott and Stoke d'Abernon has a population of 6,100.-History:...
, Surrey. He frequently sat on juries for international competitions. He retired from the Royal Academy of Music in 1978, and was awarded the CBE in 1979, but continued teaching until his death, which occurred in 1987. The National Portrait Gallery lists 8 portraits of Grinke in its collections.
Grinke played an instrument by J. B. Rogerius of 1686, with aluminium-covered D and A, and silver-covered G and steel E strings, but also often played a Stradivarius
Stradivarius
The name Stradivarius is associated with violins built by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or reproduce, though this belief is controversial...
dated 1718, lent by the Royal Academy of Music. He was married in 1942 to Dorothy Sirr Sheldon and had one son.