DESCRIPTION :  Up for sale is an original  BEAUTIFULY HAND SIGNED AUTOGRAPH ( With a blue pen ) of the Austrian Jewish female violinist ERICA MORINI which is beautifuly and professionaly matted beneath her reproduction action photo - Playing her violin  . The ORIGINAL AUTOGRAPH and the reproduction PHOTO are nicely matted together , Suitable for immediate framing or display . ( An image of a suggested framing is presented - The frame is not a part of this sale - An excellent framing - Buyer's choice - is possible for extra  $ 80).  The size of the mat is around 7 x 10  " . The size of the reproduction action photo is around  4 x 5 " . The size of the original hand signature -autograph is around 1 x 3 " . Very good condition of the hand signed autograph - signature , The reproduction photo and the decorative mat .  ( Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS images )  Authenticity guaranteed.  Will be sent inside a protective rigid packaging . 
 
PAYMENTS : Payment method accepted : Paypal & All credit cards .

SHIPPMENT :SHIPP worldwide via  registered airmail is $ 29  . Will be sent inside a protective packaging. Handling around 5-10 days after payment. 

Erika Morini, (January 5, 1904 - October 31, 1995) was a Jewish Austrian violinist. Family and Life Morini was born in Vienna, and received her first instruction from her father, Oscar Morini (originally spelled Oser or Ojser), who was the director of his own music school in the Imperial capital Vienna, and completed her studies under Otakar Ševčík. Hers was a case of remarkable precocity. Her mother was Malka Morini, née Weissmann (her father was born at Czernowitz). She had five siblings: Alice Morini, pianist Stella Morini, violinist Haydee Morini, dancer Frank Morini, art dealer Albert Morini (born 1902), impresario concert manager When she made her début in 1916, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra, under Arthur Nikisch, the critics made no allowance for her youth, but spoke of her work as the equal of that of the most famous of the younger generation of violinists. Her American début at the age of 17 in New York (January 26, 1921) was one of the musical sensations of the year, and since then she performed in the United States often, both in recital and with the foremost orchestras. Shortly after her New York début, she was presented with the Guadagnini violin which had been owned by the celebrated American Violinist Maud Powell, who had died in 1920. In March, 1921 Morini made her first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey, accompanied on the piano by her sister, Alice. She resided in New York after 1938, and began spelling her first name Erica. She made her first visit to London in 1923. Along with the Guadagnini violin, Morini also played a Davidoff. The instrument a Stradivarius from the year 1727, was named for the Russian cellist Karl Davydov. Morini’s father had purchased it for her in Paris in 1924. Morini retired in 1976 and reportedly never played the violin again. Morini's valuable Stradivarius (as well as paintings, letters, and her scores, complete with fingerings and other valuable notes) were stolen from her New York City apartment shortly before her death in October, 1995 at the age 91. She had been hospitalized with heart disease and was never told of the theft. As of July 2012, the crime remains unsolved.[1][2] Morini is believed to be the last surviving recording artist who made acoustic Red Seal Records for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Four months after her death, Erica Morini was described in the journal The Strad as the “most bewitching woman violinist of this century.” She was particularly admired for her performances of the concerto repertory, especially the concertos of Ludwig Spohr, which she helped restore to popularity. She also played and recorded the great concertos of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky.[3] Morini was honored with numerous awards and prizes. she received honorary doctorates from Smith College, Massachusetts, in 1955, and from the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, in 1963. The City of New York honored her lifetime achievement with a gold medal in 1976. Despite the respect in which she was held, Morini is largely forgotten today.[4] ****** Erica Morini and the Davidoff Stradivarius By Andy Fein, Violin Maker and Owner, Fein Violins, Ltd. In this era of so many great women violin soloists, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Rachel Barton Pine, Hilary Hahn, Lara St. John, Anne Akiko Meyers, Sarah Chang, Midori, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and many others, it's hard to imagine a time when being a woman violinist and trying to make it as a soloist was very, very difficult. Solely because you were female! That time was not very long ago. The first half of the twentieth century was a rough time for women violinists and it stayed that way at least through the 1960s! Erica Morini was one of the pioneer female violin soloists. Born into a very musically inclined Jewish family in Vienna in 1904, Erica entered the Vienna Conservatory as one of its first female students at age seven. She studied with the great teacher Otakar Sevcik. If you're a violinist, you probably have spent many an intimate moment with Otakar Sevcik's Violin Studies. Erica Morini made her Vienna stage debut at age 12. It resulted in invitations to solo with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1920, Erica came to the U.S. for the first time and played four highly praised recitals at Carnegie Hall. From New York she embarked on a highly successful U.S. concert tour. Maud Powell, a pioneer American female violin soloist, had passed away in 1920 and stated in her will that her great Guadagnini violin "must be given to a great artist". Maud Powell's husband heard Erica Morini and almost immediately presented her with his late wife's violin. Earlier, Erica's father had purchased the 1727 'Davidoff' Antonius Stradivarius violin. The 'Davidoff' Stradivarius was the violin that Erica loved throughout her life. After the U.S. concert tour, she returned to Europe and Vienna and continued to concertize. When the Nazi takeover of Austria occurred in 1938, Erica Morini luckily escaped to her friends and patrons in New York. Erica Morini playing the 3rd movement of the Bruch Violin Concerto in 1963 Through the 1940s and 1950s Erica Morini played with almost every major orchestra and gave recitals throughout the world. By the 1960s Erica had developed heart ailments and other health problems. She continued to play with such enthusiasm that her doctors were afraid she would die on stage. That fear is not without precedent. Erica Morini gave her last concert in 1976. Erica had become fairly wealthy during her long career and retired quite nicely, but not without bitterness. She once said about her music career, "No one wants women violinists". (Thankfully that has changed! Tremendously!) In retirement she enjoyed her close friends, her husband Felice Siracusano, her brother and sister, and her beloved Stradivarius violin. Erica lived until 1995. In the month or so before her death a strange and disturbing theft happened. Her beloved (and very valuable!) 1727 'Davidoff' Stradivarius violin was stolen from her apartment while she lay in a hospital bed! In a very humane and loving way, her friends and family decided not to tell her about the theft. Even more strange, the thief must have had keys to her apartment and the cabinet where she kept her violin. There was absolutely no sign of forced entry. The violin has not yet been recovered. It is listed as one of the FBI's Top Ten Art Thefts. In a lesson on how small the violin world is, the violin maker/repairer that Erica sought out in her later years to maintain her Stradivarius, Brian Skarstad, is a fellow Wesleyan University alum. Brian and I worked in a very rudimentary instrument workshop course at Wesleyan. After graduation, he went on to the Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City. There is a wonderful play, The Morini Strad by Willy Holtzman (who happens to be another Wesleyan alum). Much of the play centers on the relationship between Brian, Erica and her violin. I think it's a horrible travesty that this wonderful violin has now been out of the public's ears and eyes for close to twenty years. One of the beautiful things about owning any great instrument is sharing the history, beauty, and sound of it with an audience. When an instrument is stolen, especially one as well known as the Davidoff Stradivarius, none of those things can happen. What possible purpose does the holder of this stolen property have? He or she can not share it with the public and can't even maintain it. Any violin maker/restorer would recognize this violin and would surely want to return it to its owners. It is time for the holder of this beautiful violin to return it. If you have seen the Davidoff Stradivarius violin or you know where it is, CONTACT THE FBI . I'm not kidding. A small spelling note: Davidoff and Davidov are both accepted spellings. They refer to the great Russian cellist Karl Davidoff who owned that violin and the very wonderful Davidoff Stradivarius cello (currently played by Yo-Yo Ma). I have used the Davidoff spelling here to conform with the FBI's listing. The venerable magazine The Strad uses the Davidov spelling. The New York Times ran a very informative obituary of Erica Morini. The Jewish Women's Archive has a very informative article on Erica Morini.****** According to official records, violinist Erica Morini was born in Vienna on January 5, 1904, although the year of her birth was sometimes cited as 1908—apparently in an effort to stress her precocity. Her father, Oiser (Oskar) Morini, was the proprietor of a music school in Vienna’s Second District. A student of both Jakob Grün and Joseph Joachim, he was a well-regarded and experienced musician and teacher. His wife Malka (née Weissman), who like him was a native of Chernovtsy (Czernowitz), was a trained pianist and worked as a piano teacher. Several of their children—the exact number of whom is not known—were also active in the arts. One daughter, Alice, was a pianist; another, Stella, a violinist; Haydee was a dancer. A son, Frank, was a doctor who, during Erica’s later years, was always available to her backstage. Albert Morini, born in 1902, a pianist and later a manger, who went into exile in 1938, may have been another son. Morini received her first musical training from her father. Her parents became aware of her musical talent even before she started taking violin lessons. As a little girl Erica listened to the lessons her father gave, and if a student played a wrong note, she immediately sang the correct note or pressed the appropriate key on the piano. During ballet lessons, people noticed her phenomenal ear and her extraordinary rhythmic soundness. She maintained her enthusiasm for dance her whole life. At the age of five, she played for Emperor Franz Joseph at a surprise party for the emperor, at which she played behind a screen. Dumbstruck by the child’s unbelievable talent, the emperor offered to give her whatever she wanted. Little Morini wished for a doll with eyes that opened and shut, which, naturally, she received. Morini apparently began her formal institutional instruction on the violin when she was accepted into the master class of Otakar Ševčik at the Vienna Conservatory at age eight, “as one of the first female students.” The youngest student who had ever passed the entrance examination, she passed the final examination when she was only eight. Morini supplemented her studies with private lessons from Jakob Grün and, after his death, from his student Rosa Hochmann, who had studied all three Bruch concertos with the composer. Morini liked to refer to this authority when asked about her interpretation. She took private lessons with Alma Rose and with Adolf Busch. Her studies with Ševčik informed her playing, especially his unique method of teaching left-hand technique, which was an important complement to the Grün and Joachim method for the right hand that her father had passed on to her. “When it comes to my training as a violinist, I am a mixture. … My right, bowing arm is Joachim, my left hand Ševčik.” During the period of her training with Ševčik she took part in the competition for the state prize, emerging from the public performance as the clear winner. The prize money was nonetheless withheld from her, as she reported in an interview for Who Is Who in Music. “Before I was able to collect it, however, it was pointed out that the wording of the terms of the award specified its being given ‘to the man who …’ and for this reason the Prize Committee felt itself obliged to withhold the bestowal.” In 1916 Morini gave her first orchestral concert in Vienna. Josef Krips, who was three years older than she, was in the audience: “She was a very young thing, I can still see her with the blue bow in her hair. She interpreted the A-Major Violin Concerto of Mozart wonderfully. … I remember in the second movement she was suddenly playing all alone. The orchestra had taken a break, so to speak. She refused to be deterred and just kept playing. After about ten seconds, the orchestra found its place again.” Arthur Nikisch heard the young girl and invited her to Berlin, where she appeared two years later under Wilhelm Furtwängler. She described her concert under Nikisch with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1919 as “the most important experience of my life. I was the only child who had been allowed to play there.” After this concert, Nikisch expressed his profound admiration: “This is not a Wunderkind, it is a wonder—and a child.” This catchy comment was quoted again and again in concert reviews. On January 5, 1921, her sixteenth birthday, Morini embarked on her first trip to America accompanied by her father and her sister Alice. She had been engaged for sixty concerts in North and South America. Her American debut took place on January 26, 1921, in New York’s Carnegie Hall under Artur Bodanzky. According to the Neues Wiener Tagblatt, Morini received “unheard-of fees.” The image of the Wunderkind was obviously consciously cultivated and clothing selected with this in mind. A photograph from this period shows a dark-haired girl with large dark eyes. A big white bow holds her hair back from her temples, and a lace collar emphasizes the childlike appearance. After her critically acclaimed concert debut in Carnegie Hall, Morini was presented with the Guadagnini violin of the American violinist Maud Powell, who had died the previous year. Powell had specified in her will that the violin was to go to the “next great female violinist.” Another honor she received, from the Society of Music in Madrid, was the embroidered handkerchief that Sarasate wore in his breast pocket when he appeared in concert and which he had left, in his will, to the best interpreter of his Spanish Dances. In 1932, Morini married Felice Siracusano, a manager, art dealer and music lover from Messina, Italy. The marriage remained childless. She was of the opinion that family and an artistic career were incompatible. After leaving Vienna for Budapest in September 1937, Erica Morini left Europe in 1938 together with her husband and settled in New York, where Morini, as a world-famous musician, belonged to the artistic elite and found herself in a privileged position; nor did she suffer any financial strains. The new place of residence that she had involuntarily chosen did not hamper her international career. In 1949 Morini returned to her native city of Vienna for the first time in twelve years. She was deeply moved by the return to her birthplace: “I wept with excitement as I walked the streets of Vienna.” On October 3 and 8 Morini gave concerts in the Großer Saal of the Musikverein. She performed a solo concert with Otto Schulhof at the piano and an orchestral concert with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Rudolf Moralt. The critics were unanimous in their mention of her silken tone and musical vitality. From the 1950s on only a few scattered mentions of her concert activities are to be found. In 1951, at the Casals Festival in Perpignan, she performed Mozart’s A-Major Concerto under Pablo Casals; in 1959, she appeared at the Salzburg Festival under George Szell. Strenuous tours to South America, Australia and the Far East followed. In 1968 she was invited to Israel to give twelve concerts. Her success was so overwhelming that she was forced to add two more. In 1970 Josef Krips invited Morini to play in San Francisco. A letter from Morini to the conductor, dated January 20, 1970, confirms that the collaboration was harmonious. “Dear Kripschen, I believe this is my first real ‘fan’ letter, but I must tell you how much I enjoyed the concerts with you and how happy you have made me.” The list of conductors under whom Morini performed is impressive. Along with Krips they included Leonard Bernstein, Ference Fricsay, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Erich Kleiber, Otto Klemperer, Willem Mengelberg, Igor Stravinsky, George Szell and Bruno Walter. Her accompanists included Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Pommers and Ignaz Friedman. Many of Morini’s partners became mentors and friends. One of them was the violinist Bronislav Hubermann, who had played Bach’s D-Minor Violin Concerto for two violins with her in Budapest and Vienna. After a rehearsal he is said to have cried in admiration: “She played that so beautifully, that I have hard time [sic] to play it like she does.” Jascha Heifetz, another of her admirers, was especially fascinated by her staccato technique. He asked her to initiate him into the secret of this technique. His request embarrassed her, for although she had mastered staccato playing, she did not know how to convey it. From this experience she drew a lesson—it was necessary to pay individual attention to each of her students. It is no coincidence that Heifetz became her model. Her repertoire was built around the well-known solo concertos of the romantic period, but also included less frequently played works—for example, all of the violin concertos of Ludwig Spohr, which she advised every violinist to learn. Works from the twentieth century, on the other hand, seldom appeared on her concert program. Morini gave her farewell concert in 1976, after withdrawing from concert life years before. It is thought that she never again touched her violin. She had repeatedly complained of disappointment that due to the narrow-mindedness and prejudice of many managers, women had a much more difficult time achieving success. Along with the Guadagnini violin, Morini also played a Davidoff. The instrument, a Stradivarius from the year 1727, was named for a Russian cellist. Morini’s father had purchased it for her in Paris in 1924. Shortly before her death, as she lay in the hospital at the age of ninety-one, the instrument (as well as paintings, letters, and her scores, complete with fingerings and other valuable notes) were stolen from her apartment on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Morini was suffering from heart disease and in order not to excite her, the break-in was kept a secret. To this day, the theft has not been solved. Morini’s wish had been to divide the profit from the sale of the valuable instrument among three Jewish charitable organizations. Four months after her death, Erica Morini was described in the journal The Strad as the “most bewitching woman violinist of this century.” Despite her phenomenal concert reviews and numerous prizes and awards—she received honorary doctorates from Smith College, Massachusetts, in 1955, and from the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, in 1963, while the City of New York honored her lifetime achievement with a gold medal in 1976—and despite the respect in which she was held, Morini was soon forgotten. Paul Kletzki (21 March 1900 – 5 March 1973) was a Polish conductor and composer. Born Paweł Klecki in Łódź, Poland, he later adopted the German spelling Paul Kletzki. He joined its Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of fifteen. After serving in the First World War, he studied philosophy at the University of Warsaw before moving to Berlin in 1921 to continue his studies. During the 1920s his compositions were championed by Arturo Toscanini; and Wilhelm Furtwängler, who permitted Kletzki to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1925. Because he was Jewish, he left Nazi Germany in 1933 and moved to Italy, however due to the anti-semitism of the Italian Fascist regime he moved to the Soviet Union in 1936. He later went to live in Switzerland. Kletzki's most notable work is his Third Symphony, completed in October 1939, with the subtitle 'In memoriam'. It is an elegiac work interpreted as a moving monument to the victims of Nazism. Other works include three string quartets,[1] a Sinfonietta for strings, a Fantasy for piano, and a sonata for violin and piano. From 1942 onwards Kletzki wrote no more compositions; he argued that Nazism had destroyed his spirit and his will to compose. During the Holocaust a number of Kletzki's family were murdered by the Nazis including his parents and his sister. In the post-war years Kletzki was a renowned conductor, especially of Gustav Mahler. In 1954 he was appointed chief conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Between 1958 and 1961 he was principal conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. From 1966 until 1970 he was the General Music Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.    ebay2369/69