Georg Kulenkampff

Who was Georg Kulenkampff?

Georg Kulenkampff was a concert violinist, one of the best-known German virtuosi of the 1930s and 1940s. Considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Kulenkampff was known for his interpretations of works from the Romantic period. Kulenkampff gave the premiere performance of Robert Schumann's violin concerto and made the first recording of the piece; additionally, his performances of the violin concertos of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Glazunov, and Bruch are considered among the finest on record. Only the fact that his recording career coincided with the Nazi era, coupled with his early death from encephalitis, has prevented his name from being better known to modern listeners.

Georg Kulenkampff was the son of a well-to-do merchant family in Bremen. He took an interest in the violin from a very young age, and from 1904 began to receive instruction from the concertmaster of the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, and afterwards with its conductor Ernst Wendel. He then received lessons and encouragement from Leopold Auer in Dresden, and made a concert debut in 1912 as solo violinist.