Violinist, instrument collector, bow maker, restorer and
jeweller – these are the many lives of Henryk Kaston, one of the
most venerable figures on the New York music scene. An extremely
fit 95-year-old, he happily reveals the secret of his longevity and
youthful vigour by demonstrating his morning exercise routine,
which includes 60 press-ups and sets of violent kicking and
shoulder-shrugging moves.
Kaston was born in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland, in 1910 and began
studying the violin with his father and grandfather at the age of
eight. When he was 15 he spent a year as a member of a local
ensemble that provided musical accompaniment for silent films,
though within two years he had abandoned music – temporarily, it
transpired – and joined a circus as an acrobat, one of many
colourful occupations he pursued in his youth.
In 1937 Kaston resumed his musical studies and, with the
encouragement of his family, travelled to Paris to have lessons
with Enescu. He arrived with his wife, Maryna, on the day of
Ravel's funeral, which they attended. While studying in Paris,
Kaston became close to many musicians, among them the famous Polish
harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, whose harpsichord he tuned, and the
pianist, composer and future prime minister of Poland Ignacy
Paderewski. He also befriended Chagall, Picasso and Maillol, and
has ended up a lifelong friend of Maillol's curvaceous muse Dina
Vierny.
When the Second World War broke out, Kaston volunteered for a
special Polish cavalry regiment of the French army and, true to
form, took his violin with him to the front. He was wounded and
captured by the Germans, but he disguised himself and escaped from
the little French farmhouse where he was being held by dressing in
the farmer's work clothes.
He was officially demobilised in 1941 and, along with his wife, was
taken under the wing of the Emergency Rescue Committee. This was
headed by the American humanitarian Varian Fry, whose personal
mission was to relocate artists, writers, intellectuals and
musicians who were threatened by the Nazis. They set sail for New
York from Marseille, but the journey was not without event, and
their son Joseph was born during the dangerous transatlantic
passage.
Kaston soon secured a violin position in the Cleveland Orchestra,
playing under Artur Rodzinski and Erich Leinsdorf. Rodzinski would
carry a pistol to rehearsals. 'Not to intimidate the orchestra,'
Kaston points out. 'Quite the contrary – he was not on good terms
with the players and was deathly afraid of them.'
As a chamber musician, Kaston has performed with many distinguished
artists, but none more eminent than when, one day in 1947, he was
asked to make up an informal foursome at a friend's Manhattan
apartment and found himself playing quartets with Isaac Stern,
Alexander Schneider and Albert Einstein – the towering pillar of
20th-century science and an enthusiastic, if not superbly talented,
amateur violinist. 'Einstein would take the train from Princeton to
join in on these sessions,' remembers Kaston. 'He had a special
love of Mozart but unfortunately he was not a very good player – he
was always lagging behind the other musicians. Finally one day the
violist lost his temper and roared: 'The trouble with you, Mr
Einstein, is that you can't count! It's one, two, three,
four!''
Kaston had joined the orchestra of New York's Metropolitan Opera in
1943 and played in the violin section for more than 35 years,
living in a studio apartment above the opera house until the
company moved to the Lincoln Center in 1966. He recalls how the
tempestuous Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, if he was not happy
with the orchestra's playing during rehearsal, would pull out his
pocket watch and hurl it to the floor, sending pieces flying
everywhere. Kaston witnessed this drama many times and was amazed
by the spectacle – until he discovered that Toscanini bought the
watches in bulk at a five-and-dime store.
The most memorable evening Kaston ever spent in the opera pit of
the Metropolitan Opera was probably 4 March 1960, when Leonard
Warren was singing the role of Don Carlo in Verdi's La forza del
destino. 'He was a good friend and a fine baritone,' Kaston
recalls. 'While singing the title aria, 'It is my destiny to die,'
he suddenly clutched his chest and dropped dead on the stage from a
heart attack. It was the only time I can remember that the show did
not go on. It was the one night they closed the opera.'
While living in New York, Kaston developed his interest in violin
bows and became a highly respected maker and restorer. He worked
part-time at the Wurlitzer shop during the 1960s, rehairing bows,
making skilful repairs and serving as the firm's resident bow
expert. Many of the replacement fittings that he made at
Wurlitzer's were so well crafted that they later passed, or were
passed off, as original. His reputation has suffered somewhat as a
result, although he insists it was never his intention to deceive,
but rather to provide convincing replicas of fittings when the
originals were missing or beyond repair. Where possible, as when
making a new frog for an old bow, he has always engraved his
initials in some discreet recess to aid future identification. This
is not failsafe, however, and Kaston recalls that he was once asked
to authenticate a Tourte bow which he certified as original in all
its parts. After purchasing it, the new owner brought it back to
Kaston for rehairing, who was shocked to discover his own initials
in it when he removed the frog – he had misidentified his own work
as Tourte! An unfortunate consequence of Kaston’s remarkable skill
has been the downgrading of some authentic Tourte bows as Kaston
copies.
As his restoration work went on, Kaston developed a special
interest in Tourte. Surprisingly little was then known about this
important figure, credited with the design of the modern violin
bow, and Kaston and his wife began an exhaustive search in the
French archives for biographical information on the Tourte family.
They discovered over 30 unpublished documents, which became the
basis of a magazine article (The Strad, April 1999) and a scholarly
book – Francois-Xavier Tourte: Bow Maker – which I co-authored with
Mary Laing (published in 2001 by Machold Rare Violins).
Kaston has made bows for some of the great violin virtuosos,
including Heifetz, Kreisler, Stern and Shlomo Mintz, and a quartet
of his presentation bows is in
the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution. In 2003
one of Isaac Stern's Tourte bows with a replacement tortoiseshell
and gold-mounted frog made by Kaston was sold at Tarisio Auctions.
It had been estimated to go under the hammer at $40,000–50,000, but
fetched $102,500, an auction record for a Tourte bow – and a
composite one at that.
The bow maker has vivid memories of Heifetz, a notoriously
difficult peron. 'He was very secretive and did not want anyone to
know his business,' says Kaston. 'He was estranged from his
children and other members of his family, and he had few close
friends. Herbie Katzman once asked me to secure Heifetz's help in
advancing the career of the young Isaac Stern, but he flatly
refused.' Heifetz was fond of Kaston, however. 'Why he liked me, I
do not know. He would sometimes let me carry his violin case for
him; no one else was ever allowed to do that. I invented a little
rubber mute which we patented together and marketed as the Heifetz
mute. It's a very successful design that is still widely used. He
bequeathed his Guarneri violin to the San Francisco Museum of Fine
Arts along with a special presentation bow I made for him. I am
very proud of that.'
Kaston's knowledge of bows is prodigious and many dealers and
violinists have relied upon his expertise. The late Jacques
Francais frequently called upon him to help identify or
authenticate a bow and Stern would never have considered purchasing
a bow without first asking him to look at it.
As well as bows,
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