Sudden death of violin legend, 88
RIPWe have been notified of the death this morning in Hungary of the outstanding violinist and beloved teacher György Pauk. He turned 88 last month and was still teaching a course at the Liszt Academy the week before last.
Pauk fled Hungary for Holland in 1956. Five years later he was persuaded by Yehudi Menuhin to live in London, where he played with all the major orchestras and their chief conductors, while also acting as a fulcrum for the city’s chamber music scene. A charming man with a ready smile and gentle wit, he was professor of violin at the Royal Academy of Music from 1987. He retired from the stage in 2007.
He suffered a fall in Budapest nine days ago and never recovered from the effects.
His recorded legacy is immense, his personality ireplaceable.
An outstanding musician. Rest in peace.
Such wonderful playing! The “Old School” style and interpretation is so much more gratifying than that of present generation players, with very few exceptions, who play like automatons, hardly different than an A.I. version.
Sudden? He’s 88
There were articles just weeks ago of him loaning his Strad to a former student of his.
He has still been a relatively active violin teacher.
You might think you were clever to point out his age, but for those of us who knew and admired Prof. Pauk he was young and brimming with enthusiasm, despite his age. How many 80+ year old teachers on the US East Coast wear such Adidas trainers?
I cherish his recording of the Tippett Triple Concerto. I was there.
Read the article. He had a fall and was still teaching last week
Very sorry to read this. He was an amazing musician and teacher. One phrase he taught me during our chamber music rehearsal with Truls Mork of Barton’s “Contrasts” was this: “Short notes short, long notes long.” It works for everything. Aside, he was one of the most respected violinists and teachers. Incredible legacy.
I guess if it’s “the” rehearsal instead of “a” rehearsal, “short notes short, long notes long” makes a bit of sense. But that sort of reductive approach sets a pretty low bar in the ideal world we aim for.
Perhaps so, Jerome, but note in the masterclass excerpt how resistant the violinist is to that very precept presumably because her preparation of that Beethoven Sonata was by then too embedded to change. She resists Pauk’s repeated efforts to demonstrate what he means on his fiddle so he eventually resorts to that “reductive” wording. And even then, he has to demonstrate some more. She’s still fighting it.
The pianist is more a more nimble thinker and catches on comparatively quickly. Only near the end does the violinist adapt.
Having said all that plenty of violinists and plenty of recordings phrase that passage more like her way than like Pauk’s. Or putting it another way, his advice is not generic — which is the very point of a masterclass.
Indeed, and it’s often diametrically the wrong approach. I knew Pauk quite well. He was not easy to admire.
Terrible news re the passing of Gyorgy Pauk. A wonderful and inspiring violinist, teacher and all-round human being. He gave a detailed and moving account of his long life, including his childhood in Budapest in WW2, in a presentation at St Mary’s Perivale in 2021. One of the most remarkable men I ever met. May he rest in peace. https://youtu.be/U_CAN3Tx-Zs
Very sad news.
RIP, maestro.
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Out of this world. Marty Simon
we are devastated to hear about the loss of our friend and mentor György Pauk. As last representant of the great old hungarian violin school his commitment to give on to us this unique tradition in the tradition of Joseph Joachim was overwhelming. We feel very blessed to have been part his world, his loss lets us without words.
Our condolence to his wife and his family.
While I was at school I had to collect some music from my trombone teacher from the old BBC SSO studio on Queen Margaret Drive, Glasgow. They were about to record Berg’s Violin Concerto with Maestro Pauk for Radio 3, and I was invited to sit in on the session. I’ve never known a more intense performance. I was the only person in the audience, and it felt like the soloist was playing just for me. A wonderful memory. A few years later I bumped into Mr Pauk while a student at the RAM, and told him what a profound experience the session had been. He remembered it, and told me he was glad to have me there, someone to focus his performance on. In spite of his incredible stature, still friendly and approachable. A great musician: a great man.
Wonderful memory of his performance of the Brahms Double Concerto with Ralph Kirshbaum at the Proms in 1983.
As from ~ Elisabeth Matesky, US Violinist & very much aware of Georgy Pauk, once moved from Los Angeles to London now long ago. Although I did not know his playing truly well, one heard many ongoing compliments about his rare presence and musical ideas as portrayed on the violin … I am truly saddened to learn of the passing of one who gave so much to many and carried on despite wounds which ran deep after WWII … Life as it became for all of our ‘Greatest Generation’ in both the US and All in Europe Changed yet All who loved the Freedoms gifted by Western Ideas & living the dreams of such, were the Pioneer’s of All Culture never destroyed in WWII but in fact, rising up even in the worst unthinkable places yet the Spirit of those akin to Georgy Pauk not only survived but prospered to endure and survive the beastly oppressions which were the Goal of a Mad Man. It is even all the more stunning Georgy Pauk did survive & later thrive giving all of his wounds to the depths of sorrow’s therein contained in the music of Titans of Composition of Bach, Mozart, LvB, Brahms and Hungarian compatriot Composers plus the vast violin concerto and violin/piano Chamber Duo Repertoire with plumbed depths of the sufferings which were prior etched in scores of LvB and earlier Bach and Brahms plus Art of the Greats prior & after WWII. Taking this path to honour Georgy Pauk, not just as musician but a keen observer of The Bizarre, ‘stained’ by the jolts of War, his approach to given violin musical ‘standard’ fabled interpretations may have surprised those pupil’s in a frozen idea or ‘model’ yet his Lived It could Never be ignored and by colleagues internationally …
My sincere condolences to the Pauk Family and to All Lover’s of Georgy Pauk, a rare Hungarian Artist who followed fellow Hungarian compatriots in the tradition of unique interpretation even if not ‘standard’ in nature but from the depths of his survived WWII Heart ~ *If memory serves me correctly, I think he was a fellow Violinist on the Roster of Violinists in my London Concert Artist Mgmt in the early 1970s … Rest In Peace for Now God is Your Protector and in whom He is Well Pleased … 20th November, 2024 ~ So sorry to lose Hungary’s Gem in its Crown on Global Artists of both Twentieth & Twenty First Centuries yet the Impressions of People revering Georgy Pauk shall never cease ~