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{{Short description|Czech violinist}}
[[Image:Halir.jpg|thumb|Karel Halíř]]
'''Karel Halíř''' (1 February 1859 – 21 December 1909) was a [[Czechs|Czech]] violinist who lived mainly in Germany. "Karel" is also given as '''Karol''', '''Karl''' or '''Carl'''; "Halíř" is also given as '''Halir''' or '''Haliř'''.

== Life ==
[[Image:Schumann - Halir - Dechert Trio.jpg|thumb|Trio of [[Georg Schumann (composer)|Georg Schumann]], Hugo Dechert and Karel Halíř]]

Karel Halíř was born in Hohenelbe, [[Bohemia]] (now [[Vrchlabí]], [[Czech Republic]]), and studied with [[Antonín Bennewitz]] at the Prague Conservatory (1867–73) and with [[Joseph Joachim]] in Berlin (1874–76). For the next four years (1876-1879) he was [[concertmaster]] of the [[Benjamin Bilse]] Kapelle in Berlin. After short periods as concertmaster of the orchestras at [[Königsberg]] (1879) and [[Mannheim]] (1881), he spent ten years at [[Weimar]] (1884–94). He first attracted widespread notice in Germany as a soloist with his playing of Bach's [[Concerto for Two Violins (Bach)|Double Concerto]] with [[Joseph Joachim]] at the Bach Festival at [[Eisenach]] in 1884.<ref>W. L. Hubbard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YbxEWUzk2VkC&pg=RA1-PA344 The American History and Encyclopedia of Music] via books.google.com</ref> In 1894 Halíř took over as concertmaster of the Berlin opera orchestra, the Königliche Kapelle, and joined the faculty of the Berlin [[Königliche Hochschule für Musik]]. At that time he started his own quartet in Berlin with Carl Markees, Adolf Müller, and {{ill|Hugo Dechert|de}}, which had a subscription series for fifteen years.<ref>A. Ehrlich, [https://archive.org/details/dasstreichquarte0000ehrl/page/46/mode/2up?q=Halir Das Streich-Quartett in Wort und Bild] (Leipzig, 1898),46-7.</ref> Later he also founded a Piano Trio group with his Hochschule colleague [[Georg Schumann (composer)|Georg Schumann]] on piano and Hugo Dechert on cello. Halíř additionally joined the Joachim Quartet in 1897, playing second violin with [[Joseph Joachim]], Emanuel Wirth on viola, and [[Robert Hausmann]] on cello.

Halíř maintained his career as a soloist while playing in orchestras and ensembles all his life. He toured the [[United States]] in 1896 and 1897, and admired particularly for his playing of the Beethoven's [[Violin Concerto (Beethoven)|Violin Concerto in D major]],<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C0DE0DC1738E233A25754C1A96F9C94679ED7CF New York Times archives] nytimes.com</ref> which he performed at his debut with the New York Philharmonic on 13 November 1896;<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/9405b7f9-6fcb-49fe-8328-12802ff1f541-0.1/fullview#page/1/mode/2up |title=New York Philharmonic Program 13,14 November 1896 |date=1896 |website=New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives |access-date=27 August 2018 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> his performance was described as "one of the most interesting and admirable pieces of violin playing that have been heard in New York". The performance was compared favorably to the previous performance of the work in New York by [[Eugène Ysaÿe]], and the review concluded, "To hear Herr Halir play ... is to understand what is meant by classical violin playing".<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/11/14/108262469.pdf New York Times: THE PHILHARMONIC CONCERT.; American Debut of Carl Halir -- A Fine Programme] nytimes.com</ref> On 4 December 1896 he gave the first performance in [[Carnegie Hall]] of [[Louis Spohr]]’s Violin Concerto No. 8, with the New York Symphony Orchestra conducted by [[Walter Damrosch]].<ref>D Kurganov [http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?ID=8073 Spohr 8] Violinist.com</ref>

[[Image:Joachim Quartett.jpg|thumb|Joachim Quartet: (from left to right) [[Robert Hausmann]] (cello), [[Joseph Joachim]] (1st violin), [[Emanuel Wirth]] (viola) and Karel Halíř (2nd violin)]]

Although not the soloist at the premiere (that was [[Adolph Brodsky]]), Karel Halíř championed Tchaikovsky’s [[Violin Concerto (Tchaikovsky)|Violin Concerto in D major]], which was not popular in its early years. When Tchaikovsky attended a performance of the work by Halíř in [[Leipzig]] in 1888, he called it "a memorable day".<ref>John Warrack, Tchaikovsky, p. 211</ref> On October 19, 1905, Halíř premiered the revised version of Sibelius’s [[Violin Concerto (Sibelius)|Violin Concerto in D minor]] in Berlin, with the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of [[Richard Strauss]]. That same program had Halíř playing the premiere of [[Charles Martin Loeffler]]’s ''Divertissement for violin and orchestra'', which [[Fritz Kreisler]] and Eugène Ysaÿe had declined to play owing to its technical demands. He premiered other works, such as the [[scores:Violin Concerto, Op.87 (Lassen, Eduard)|Violin Concerto]] by the Danish composer [[Eduard Lassen]], which was dedicated to him, in Frankfurt in 1889. He gave the European premiere of [[Amy Beach]]’s Violin Sonata in Berlin on 28 October 1899, with [[Teresa Carreño]].<ref>[http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04142005-224115/unrestricted/Hung_dis.pdf The Violin Sonata of Amy Beach] etd.lsu.edu {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100717075449/http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04142005-224115/unrestricted/Hung_dis.pdf |date=2010-07-17 }}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=o6HI1noueC4C&pg=RA1-PA99 Adrienne Fried Block, Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian] via books.google.com</ref> He wrote a cadenza for Brahms's [[Violin Concerto (Brahms)|Violin Concerto in D major]].<ref>[http://www.esm.rochester.edu/sibley/specialc/findaids/cadenzas.htm#BRAHMS Cadenza Collection] www.esm.rochester.edu {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229051140/http://www.esm.rochester.edu/sibley/specialc/findaids/cadenzas.htm |date=2008-12-29 }}</ref> As a member of the Joachim Quartet, Halíř toured extensively. They played a series of concerts every year in London, and were regulars at the bi-annual [[Beethoven House|Beethoven Haus]] Festival in [[Bonn]]. In 1905 they performed the complete Beethoven Quartets in London, Paris, and Rome.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1905 |title=Kritik |journal=Die Musik |volume=IV. 15. |pages=46, 223}}</ref> The Quartet disbanded after Joachim’s death in August 1907. Halíř died suddenly in Berlin on 21 December 1909, at age fifty.

Halíř’s successor at the Hochschule was the Joachim student [[Willy Hess (violinist)|Willy Hess]], who also took over Halíř’s Quartet and Trio ensembles.

In 1888 Karel Halíř married Therese Zerbst (1859-1910), a noted soprano from Berlin.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9-4-wJIuO7IC&pg=PA245 Theodore Baker, A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians] via books.google.com</ref> His pupils included [[David Mannes]], Arthur M. Abbell and [[Gustav Adolf Huber]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.adolf-huber.com/bioeng.html |title = Gustav Adolf Huber - composer, musician, educationist |website=www.adolf-huber.com}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed.
*[[Hugo Riemann]]. ''[[Riemann Musiklexikon]]'' 1919. [http://archive.org/details/RiemannMusiklexikon10tea1922 p. 453]. Accessed August 27, 2018.
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[https://etudemagazine.com/etude/1910/03/carl-halir.html Carl Halir Obituary] from the [https://etudemagazine.com/gallery/Etude_Covers/1910_03_001.jpg.html March, 1910, issue of "The Etude" Magazine]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halir, Karel}}
[[Category:1859 births]]
[[Category:1909 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Czech people]]
[[Category:19th-century classical violinists]]
[[Category:German male violinists]]
[[Category:Czech classical violinists]]
[[Category:German classical violinists]]
[[Category:Czech male classical violinists]]
[[Category:Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to Germany]]
[[Category:People from Vrchlabí]]
[[Category:19th-century German musicians]]
[[Category:19th-century German male musicians]]
[[Category:Musicians from Austria-Hungary]]
[[Category:Prague Conservatory alumni]]

Karel Halíř - Revision history

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