Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

death. An amateur musician, Carlos oversaw José’s early musical training, which began with violin lessons on December 12, 1840, two and a half weeks before his fifth birthday. When the boy’s abilities surpassed his own, Carlos en- gaged local musician José Miguel Román, then Belgian-Cuban violinist Pedro Lacerff, to guide his music education. Carlos sketched a brief biography of “José Sylvestre White” on Janu- ary 1, 1855, describing his son’s early violin training, dance compositions and arrange- ments, piano tuning abilities, and the 15 instru- ments he could play capably. José White, as he came to be known, clearly stood on a path leading to a musical career. As explained by Cuban violinist Yavet Boyadjiev, whose recent research has contributed greatly to our knowledge of White’s life and career, “In racially conscious [19th-century] Cuba, music was one of the few professions at which colored people could excel”—outnumbering white mu- sicians more than two to one. White founded and directed his own orchestra in Matanzas, the Orquesta José White, in 1953. The follow- ing year brought his formal recital debut at the city’s Teatro Principal on March 21, 1854. The brilliant American pianist-composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk served as his accompanist. Their repertoire included two of White’s original compositions, Carnaval de Venise and Pot-pour- ri sobre aires cubanas , as well as Charles Auguste de Bériot’s Fantaisie brillante composée sur des motifs de ‘Guillaume Tell’ de Rossini , op. 53. This auspicious recital debut in collaboration with a major international artist, the inclusion of a virtuosic composition by a member of the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing, and his father’s biographical profile all must have con- stituted preparations for White’s first voyage to Paris. The young musician departed Cuba on May 27, 1855, with the goal of studying at the Paris Conservatory under French violinist-com- poser Jean-Delphin Alard (1815–1888). Sixty violinists auditioned for admission that year. José White Lafitte (c.1865, Paris) White was accepted unanimously and formal- ly entered the conservatory on June 14. While it remains speculation, the October 16 amend- ment to his birth record—acknowledging pa- ternity and adding his mother’s French-derived surname—might have been intended to confirm his “legitimacy” and prove his French nation- ality, which the conservatory required of most students. White’s talent remained unquestioned. After one year of study, he earned the presti- gious premiere prix for his rendition of Giovanni Battista Viotti’s Concerto in B minor. The prize included a violin by the newly established firm Gand Frères in Paris, an instrument that White treasured and donated to the conservatory to- ward the end of his life. Reviews of the premiere prix concert predicted a brilliant future: “If he continues in this direction, Mr. White will soon be unquestionably one of the greatest violinists of our time,” wrote critic P-A. Fiorentino in Le Constitutionnel (December 8, 1856). His career on the rise, White returned to Cuba on November 13, 1858, to attend to his ailing fa- ther. The Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini, then living in Paris, wrote a glowing letter to White on the eve of his departure: “The warmth of your execution, the feeling, the elegance, the brilliance of the school to which you belong, show qualities in you as an artist of which the French school may be proud. … Accept my blessing. Sir, I wish you a happy journey and a speedy return.” White remained in Cuba for two years. His father’s death did not deter José from concertizing and composing new music. Seventy-three-year-old Carlos White, who was legally considered single, named the four “nat- ural” children his heirs and María the executor of his will. In 1860, White returned to France with his mother and two of his sisters, re-establishing Paris as the center of his professional activi- ty. The press consistently covered his Parisian concerts, which included solo appearances with orchestra (Société des Concerts du Con- servatoire, Société Philharmonique d’Abbeville, Société Sainte Cécile, and Concert Institute Musicale) and chamber music recitals. White co-founded three music societies in the 1860s and 1870s: Société Ancient et Moderne, Société Schumann, and Société de Musique de Chambre White-Delahaye. He married the violinist Au- gustine Rosalie Sophie Marie Adèle Vivien on June 7, 1866, and became a naturalized French citizen on February 10, 1870. International concert tours took him to Spain (1863; Queen Isabella II appointed him Knight of the Order of Isabel the Catholic), Cuba (1874– 75), Mexico City (1875), and New York City (1875–76). The New York excursion featured White in recital performances at Steinway Hall, Chickering Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and various churches, plus as a guest artist with the German-American Liederkranz Society and Madrigal Society of Brooklyn. Renowned Polish violin virtuoso Henryk Wieniawski de- scribed White as “the best performer on his es- pecial instrument who has visited America of late” after attending his third and final Steinway Hall recital on October 26, 1875. The high point of the tour came with his history-making per- formance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the Philharmonic Society of New York (now the New York Philharmonic) under Theodore Thomas on December 11, 1875—the first time any performer of African descent had soloed with the orchestra. White reprised the Mendelssohn concerto with The Brooklyn Philharmonic Society, also under the direction of Theodore Thomas, on January 15, 1876. Amid his heavy performance and teaching commitments, José White continued to cre- ate new music. The jewel in his composer’s crown was the Violin Concerto in F-sharp mi- nor, which he completed in 1864 but did not premiere until February 26, 1867, at a concert held in the Salle des Concerts Herz. Its three continuous movements adopt the traditional fast–slow–fast sequence and strike a balance between musical substance and virtuosic dis- play, as several reviewers observed. Critics lav- ished praise on the concerto, describing it as “brilliant,” “a beautiful work,” and “one of the best modern conceptions in this genre.” The Allegro combines the brooding quality as- sociated with its minor key and a graceful lyr- icism characteristic of White’s writing for his own instrument. The music continues without break into the Adagio ma non troppo , whose proliferation of musical ideas, orchestra col- orations, and moods might have prompted the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris (March 3, 1867) to call the concerto “one of the most idea- filled works in modern style.” The Allegro mod- erato follows immediately in an exotic mode— Romani, perhaps, or a rondo alla turca , as one reviewer described it—highlighting the violin’s virtuosity. White provided two contrasting ep- isodes, each lightly scored and emphasizing dif- ferent violin techniques. In the end, virtuoso tradition prevails as the music drives toward the final punctuating chord. NICCOLÒ PAGANINI (1782–1840) “La campanella” from Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, op. 7 Scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, serpent (tuba), timpani, bass drum, bell, strings, and solo violin The most influential violin virtuoso of the 19th century, Niccolò Paganini grew up the son of a poor but music-loving shop owner in Genoa, Italy. His father taught him to play the mando- lin. Later, the boy took up the violin, rapidly progressing as a performer and composer. Pa- ganini wrote his first violin sonata at the age of 8 and appeared in his first public performance at RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 89