BIOGRAFIE AIDA STUCKI „And now plays a great violinist, namely

BIOGRAFIE AIDA STUCKI
autobiographic testify of thanks from O. Schoeckto the solist Aida Stucki after performance of his
violine-conceert in theabonnement concert of Winterthur, February 16th, 1949
„And now plays a great violinist, namely Aida Stucki“ The famous conductor Hermann Scherchen, who was then the
head of the Radio Orchestra in Zurich, insisted on this
particular announcement during the radio broadcast
transmission of the Beethoven's Violin Concerto, on 1949,
December 30th.
"You will speak about the young violinist Aida Stucki, which
playing struck me right away on the radio yesterday and for
which I have shed hot tears," wrote the exceptional pianist
Clara Haskil beginning of 1940.
Aida Stucki, better known under her married name Piraccini,
was well gifted to the same degree as soloist, chamber
musician and one of the most recognized and successful violin teacher in Europe.
In 1948, Aida Stucki started her teaching activities in Winterthur, Switzerland.
In 1992, a dedicated master class was particularly set up for the 71-year-old violinist, which didn’t happen
before at the Conservatory Winterthur. Result of a successful teaching of 47 years in total.
Aida Stucki was born in Cairo on February 19, 1921 as the third child of four daughters.
Her father, a Winterthur-based entrepreneur had established his business in Cairo, and her mother was
Italian and had a wonderful voice.
After returning to school in Winterthur, Aida urgently requested violin lessons from Ernst Wolters, the
concert master and conductor of the Winterthur City Orchestra.
After a period of three years, the precocious young violinist performed the Mozart violin concerto No. 3 in G
major, K. 216 with the Winterthur City Orchestra under the baton of Ernst Wolters, for which he specially
wrote a cadenza.
Biography Aida Stucki – page 1 / 8
Aida subsequently studied with the famous
Hungarian violinist Stefi Geyer (1888-1956)
in Zurich. Both regularly performed the
concerto for two violins in D minor (BWV
1043) by Bach
Stefi Geyer also granted Aida the
'performance rights' of Othmar Schoeck’s
violin concerto, which was once entrusted to
Geyer for the world première. This concerto
became a major piece in Aida’s repertoire.
It was also Stefi Geyer who introduced Aida
to Bela Bartok, in Zurich, where he lived in exile at this time. Aida later played all of his string quartets and
advised her pupils in Bartok’s entire composed work for violin.
With the assistance of Prof. Carl Flesch, Aida completed her artistic personality in Lucerne and acquired the
competence and knowledge for her own successful solo and teaching career.
As a prize winner of the Geneva Competition in 1940,
new opportunities were provided for various concerts
with well know Conductors in Europe (V. Andreae, P.
Colombo, V. Desarzens, W. Fortner, E. Inbal, A.
Jordan, H. Scherchen, J. Keilberth, PvKempen, H.
Münch, O. Nussio, H. G. Petrassi Rosbaud, M. Rossi,
H. Scherchen, E. Schmid, C. Zecchi) – mentioning just
a few names.
Aida Stucki's repertoire included all the major concerts
from baroque to modern times, the entire literature for
violin and piano and a large part of chamber music in
all kinds of groups and formations.
Aida Stucki: int. competition in Geneva 1940
Aida notably worked with the pianist Clara Haskil in
the period from 1945 till 1950. Both performed works,
that Clara Haskil otherwise never played with other
musicians: Trio Sonatas by Handel (along with
Giuseppe Piraccini), works by Franz Schubert, and
violin sonatas by Brahms and Schumann and a nonpublished early written sonatine by the gifted
Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti, which Haskil highly
admired.
Aida Stucki with her husband Giuseppe Piraccini
Other piano accompanists were Adrian Aeschbacher, Elly Ney (Schumann cycle in Zurich and Tutzing),
Walter Frey, the accompanist of Prof. Carl Flesch, with whom she often performed the sonata cycles by Bach
and Brahms, Christoph Lieske, a professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Both performed the entire sonata
repertoire by Mozart and Beethoven. Aida formed a well known duo with the spirited Italian born pianist
Pina Pozzi (1914-1966), who was a colleague in Winterthur. With this duo both performed frequently in
Europe and the USA with a large repertoire.
Biography Aida Stucki – page 2 / 8
left: A. Stucki together with P. Pozzi, middle: A. Stucki with W. Frey, right: C. Lieske
In 1959, Aida founded the Piraccini-Stucki String Quartet with her husband, Giuseppe Piraccini, first concert
master in Zurich, Hermann Friedrich, initial violist, his successor Gerhard Wieser, violist and Walter Haefeli,
cellist. They all acquired soon an international reputation.
Both violinists often changed between first and second violin, which was unusually at that time and provided
different sound productions.
The Piraccini-Stucki. String Quartet premiered contemporary works and helped many Swiss composers to
achieve a breakthrough.
left and right: Piraccini-Stucki-Quartett; the Piraccini-Stucki-Quartett is playing on instruments of A.Stradivarius;
middle: program for this quartett on instruments of A. Stradivarus
Aida Stucki has been awarded several times:
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1973 Foundation “pro Arte” Bern (Federal House)
1975 Art Prize “Carl Heinrich Ernst Art Foundation”
(Winterthur)
1992 Art Award “Dr.K.und H.Hintermeister-Gyger
Foundation (Zollikon)
Both broken wrists caused by a severe fall in her newly acquired
house in Winterthur in 1983 terminated Aida’s violin playing
abruptly. However her art remains available, on the one hand
through her former pupils, on the other hand through her
recordings, which will be released in the upcoming months.
Biography Aida Stucki – page 3 / 8
Her most famous pupil is the world-famous violinist Anne-Sophie
Mutter, which began to study with Aida at the age of nine years and
still keeps a close friendship to her teacher.
Many of her pupils play as string quartet members, as concertmasters
of great orchestras, as members of the Berlin Philharmonic and as
soloists.
21 students graduated as soloists in her master class called “Stucki
Piraccini” at the Zurich University of the Arts:
Rahel Cunz, Roberto Baraldi, Francesco Borali, Roman Conrad,
Josiane Clematide Heugen, Matthias Enderle, Susanne Frank,
Catherine Gubler Kobelt, Stephan Hänggeli, Gabriele Künzler, Jens
Lohmann, Vera Novakowa Brodmann, Manrico Padovani, Noemi
Schindler Cavanna, Christoph Streuli, Sibylle Tschopp, Mirjam
Tschopp, Markus Wieser, Rainer Wolters, Bettina Sartorius and
Walter Probst.
Aida Stucki with Anne-Sophie Mutter
1979 Salzburg (photo: private)
Also Ursula Bagdarjasanz studied with Aida Stucki.
There have been a lot of questions about Aida Stucki’s violin teaching
approach.
Anne-Sophie Mutter stated recently about Aida: "In every respect a
point of reference, an incomparable violinist, a noble human being
and a marvellous woman. As a teacher, what distinguishes Aida
Stucki are her great empathy and her intuitive knowledge of the
giftedness of her pupils. Each pupil was thus given the best-possible,
personal encouragement. In us pupils she was quick to instil humility
towards the work and stimulate our never-ending search for the ideal
interpretation.
Aida Stucki is crucial artistic advisory board member of the "Friends
of Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation" based in Munich. Among her
tasks is the evaluation of potential candidates and recommendations
to the foundation committee.
portrait Aida Stucki and Anne-Sophie Mutter
(by coutesy of Atelier Beat Pfändler,
Swiss Guest Book 2007)
Aida Stucki concentrated mainly on concerts in Switzerland due to
family and educational commitments and couldn’t pursue interesting
opportunities with Sir Georg Solti (international recitals), Hermann
Scherchen or an invitation to perform in Israel in 1975.
Anne-Sophie Mutter stated in the booklet about her Beethoven sonata recordings:
"In the history of the gramophone record and of female instrumentalists, women's equality has only been
achieved in my generation. Although there is no lack of wonderful female instrumentalists in the history of
music, they are certainly poorly represented in the history of
the record. Significantly, my first memory of the Beethoven sonatas is associated with a FEMALE
PERFORMER, my teacher Aida Stucki. She played the entire cycle of sonatas for piano and violin, which was
very rare for a woman of her time."
The foundation between her and Aida Stucki, felt A.S.Mutter already after the first semester:
"I still remember as if it were yesterday my first summer holiday as a pupil of Aida Stucki's master class. I
Biography Aida Stucki – page 4 / 8
wasn't looking forward to it because I knew that I would now be deprived for weeks of the exchange of views
with my wonderful teacher and of the human warmth that enveloped me during each lesson.
My joyful anticipation of the autumn semester, on the other hand, was simply enormous."
Also Noemi Schindler, one of the last graduates of her master class, emphasized that every lesson with her
was a sort of being utterly rewarded.
In the history of the violin playing, no other violinist has comparably managed a similar broad life's work:
Aida Stucki was active and successful as a soloist, chamber musician, member of a string quartet, teacher,
wife and mother.
Fortunately, many studio recordings, radio productions and live recordings of over 90 works have been
preserved and transferred to CD.
Several official releases are in preparation with Aida Stucki and they will be published by
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Doremi(complete cycle of concerts and sonatas by Mozart) and
Tahra (Beethoven's Violin Concerto under H. Scherchen in 1949)
Aida Stucki’s violin playing is available after 25 years in regard to this website.
For you, dear readers and listeners,
- As stated by Hermann Scherchens 60 years ago -
“A major Swiss violinist”
performs works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Schoeck and Martinu.
You may feel “being utterly rewarded”
Aida Stucki
__________________________
Dr. Christof Honecker
Biography Aida Stucki – page 5 / 8
Im Augsut 2009 erschien in der Winterthurer Tageszeitung "Der Landbote" anläßlich der
Wiederveröffentlichung des Beethovenschen Violinkonzertes bei TAHRA (Bezug/Download möglich über
Amazon oder iTunes) und Mozarts Gesamtwerk für Solovioline in einem 6 CD-Set bei DOREMI folgende
Würdigung der Geigerin und Pädagogin Aida Stucki durch die Musikschriftstellerin Rita Wolfensberger:
Dem Mimen (im Bereich der Musik: dem Interpreten) wird zwar laut Schiller nachgesagt. dass ihm die
Nachwelt keine Kränze widme. Das mag, verglichen mit dem Nachruhm grosser Komponisten und deren
anscheinend unsterblicher Meisterwerke seine Richtigkeit haben. dafür aber kommt ihm die kostbare
Aufgabe zu, diese und immer neue Werke dem jeweils gegenwärtigen Publikum und dem musizierendcn
Nachwuchs - gleichsam als Fackelträger - weiterzureichen und damit lebendig zu erhalten. Aida Stucki hat
beides auf eine einzigartig fruchtbare Weise vermocht. Zunächst trat sie als Solistin in beeindruckender
Weise in Erscheinung: In Kairo als Kind eines Winterthurer Unternehmers und einer italienischen Sängerin
geboren. kam sie als Siebenjährige nach Winterthur und gelangte hier in die berufenen Hände ihres Lehrers
und Dirigenten Ernst Wolters. der das verlässliche Fundament zu ihrer späteren geigerischen Meisterschaft
legte. Dann wurde Stefi Geyer ihre auf neue Art prägende Lehrerin, mit der zusammen sie schon als Teenager
Bachs Doppelkonzert mehrfach aufführen konnte.
Den letzten künstlerischen Schliff holte sich Aida Stucki beim hochverehrten Meister Carl Flesch in Luzern.
Und mit neunzehn Jahren gewann sie den Preis am Internationalen Musikwettbewerb in Genf, wonach ihre
Karriere raketenhaft aufstieg. Kein Geringerer als Hermann Scherchen, der damalige Dirigent des
Winterthurer Stadtorchesters, kündigte schon die Zwanzigjährige als «grosse Schweizer Geigerin» an. Aus
dieser ersten Erfolgsphase sind nun sämtliche Violinkonzerte von Mozart sowie das Violinkonzert von
Beethoven auf sehr guten CD-Reproduktionen wieder greifbar. Von Aida Stuckis eminenter
Interpretationskunst - sie spielte eine herrliche Guadagnini und sogar eine Stradivari, vom St. Gallener
Mäzen Rolf Habisreutinger ausgeliehen - künden nun blühende Musikalität, perfekte Präzision, mitunter die
mitreissende Jugendlichkeit, auch die einzigartige Beherrschung des Détaché (schnelle, ungemein prägnant
geführte Bogenwechsel bei schnellen Passagen) und eine Ausdruckswärme von spontaner Natürlichkeit. An
Solokadenzen benützte Aida Stucki damals mit Vorliebe jene von Joseph Joachim, die bis heute gelegentlich
gespielt werden, sowie von Stefi Geyer, Sitt, Auer und vor allem Enesco, der geschickte Zweistimmigkeiten
mit guter Motivverarbeitung in eine kluge knappe Form zu fassen verstand. Zur Solokadenz im Allgemeinen
sagt Aida Stucki, sie bevorzuge nicht allzu weitschweifige, die sich vom eigentlichen Konzertstil nicht zu weit
fortbewegen und auch nicht einer übertriebenen Selbstdarstellung des Spielers dienen sollten.
Rasch baute die erfolgreiche Solistin auch ihre vielfältigen kammermusikalischen Aktivitäten aus, für die ihr
ein nicht weniger grosses Talent geschenkt war. Nebst Klavierpartnern von ebenbürtigem Niveau wie Clara
Haskil, Walter Frey und Pina Pozzi war es dann vor allem Christoph Lieske, mit dem sie etliche Integrale
aufführte, von denen jetzt die Klavier/Violin-Sonaten von Mozart beglückendes Zeugnis ablegen. Mit Pina
Pozzi und Esther Nyffenegger unterhielt sie auch einige Zeit ein erfolgreiches Damen-Klaviertrio, und mit
ihrem Gatten Giuseppe Piraccini, dem Bratschisten Hermann Friedrich und Walter Haefeli am Cello gewann
das Piraccini-Stucki-Quartett höchstes internationales Ansehen. Dann aber entfaltete Aida Piraccini - Stucki
ihre dritte, ihre wohl nachhaltigste musikalische Berufung als Fackelträgerin. So wie sie von ihren
Lehrmeistern künstlerische Erkenntnis und spieltechnisches Können empfangen hatte, so begann sie, ans
Winterthurer Konservatorium als Lehrkraft berufen, ihrerseits die gewonnenen Erfahrungen - auch
diejenigen auf dem internationalen Konzertpodium - weiterzugeben. Bereits 1948 nahm sie ihre Lehrtätigkeit
in Winterthur auf, 1992 wurde für die bereits 71-jährige Geigerin am Konservatorium erstmals überhaupt
eine Meisterklasse geschaffen.
Ihr offenes, spontanes, menschenfreundliches Wesen wirkte mit der instrumentalspezifischen Kompetenz
auf überaus glückliche Weise zusammen, sodass es ihr gelang, allerhöchste Qualität zu fordern (und vielfach
zu erzielen), aber auch ihre Studenten gleichzeitig auf den Weg zum eigenen Stil und zu voller
Selbstsicherheit zu weisen. Die Liste hervorragender Violinisten der Stucki-Schule ist imponierend lang.
Unter ihnen seien vor allem diejenigen, die mit Winterthur speziell verbunden sind, erwähnt: Rainer Wolters
etwa, der Enkel von Aida Stuckis erstem Lehrer Ernst Wolters, Rahel Cunz, Konzertmeisterin beim
Musikkollegium, Roman Conrad (mit eigenem Quartett), Matthias Enderle und Susanne Frank, die beiden
Geiger des Carmina-Quartettes, Noëmie Schindler, die Schwestern Mirjam und Sibylle Tschopp. Zu nennen
ist aber natürlich vor allem auch Anne-Sophie Mutter, die den eigenen und den Namen der genialen
Lehrerin, die in Winterthur wirkte und hier auch heute noch wohnt, in alle Welt getragen hat. Und auch sie
tragen jetzt als Interpreten und als Lehrer die Fackel der Musik unermüdlich weiter im Wissen. dass die
Tonkunst nicht wie die Bildende Kunst sicht- und greifbar erhalten bleibt, sondern nur dann zum erlebten
Ereignis wird, wenn sie gespielt und gehört wird. Aida Stucki hat zu solcher Verwirklichung aufs Generöseste
beigetragen.
Den kompletten Artikel als als PDF-Datei downloaden
Biography Aida Stucki – page 6 / 8
"Die englische Musikzeitschrift "The Strad" veröffentlichte
im Septem ber 2009 ein Spezialheft mit dem Titel:
VIOLIN HEROES
Top violinists of today look back on the players who have
influenced them".
Anne-Sophie Mutter schreibt darin über den prägenden
Einfluß ihrer Lehrerin Aida Stucki:"
THE FIRST MEMORY I HAVE of a string player was of
Yehudi Menuhin, from his recording of Mendelssohn and
Beethoven concertos, which was my parents wedding gift to
each other, so we must have heard it a million times as
children. His early recordings are the most fascinating ones:
I'm not sure if I could hear that wonderful tonal beauty and
intensity of sound later on.
I wanted to have violin lessons for my fifth birthday and the
first concert I heard, a year later, was with David Olstrakh.
I remember it as if it was yesterday - he played the three
Brahms sonatas with Frida Bauer and his stage presence and
sound were unforgettable. I suddenly understood that music
is more tahn playing the notes, that it can transform and
transpose the people who are listening to it. That was a
magical moment in my life and from then on I realised I
wanted to become some sort of musical sculptor.
My greatest influence form a teacher was Aida Stucki. My
family and I had been looking for a pedagogue who would go
on schooling me in the tradition of Carl Flesch, because that
was the way I started my musical life and it seemed to work
well for my personality.
I auditioned for her but she refused to become my teacher
because she asid she couldn't take the responsibility of takin
gme through the important teenage years and the transition
between being a very well-trained young musician to beeing a
fully euipped, analytical young musician.
DURING THE PERIOD OF STILL HOPING that Stucki
would take me on, I went to get advice from Henryk
Szeryng, who was a guiding light in terms of his technical
precision and his classical approach to interpretation. I went
to Geneva to audition for him.
I remember the morning I went: we had an appointment at
ten or eleven but he wasn't there, so I waited a few hours. I'd
prepared some music with the piano, but nobody had
thought of the possibility that there might not be apiano in
his hotel room. He asked me, "How about some solo Bach?"
At the age of ten I was already aware that he was the god of
Bach's solo sonatas, but what could I do?
I did my best to resurrect what I knew and remembered the
Bach E major Partita, and he was perfectly nice after that. He
said he would always be there in case I needed some musical
advice, but he would advise me to return to Stucki - they
studied in the same class under Flesch.
Biography Aida Stucki – page 7 / 8
We went back and Stucki agreed that we would try to collaborate. We started in January and with summer
around the cornder I was one of the few students in the wordl who didn't look forward to the summer break.
This was not only because she was an inspiration but also because we had such a grand time, so not seeing
her for eight or ten weks seemed tob be horrible, and I really looked forward to the autumn.
Stucki has a razor-sharp analytical brain with which she can tell immediately where the storng aspects of
someone's artistic capacity are. Therefore over the decades that she was a teacher she taught generations of
wonderful violinists who ended up as concertmasters, soloists or chamber musicians. She was able to give us
the gift of curiositiy and self-analysis.
When I was 16 or 17, I started to give concerts much more and finished my studies so I didn't go to regular
sessions with her, but we stayed in regular concat and do even now. The transition between being a pupil and
admirer of her art to also being a friend was a very natural one, which speaks for her character.
She also has teh ability to let her pupils live their own lives. They sometimes played with a different viewpiont
from the one she had, but she would be able to appreciate it, even though she would have played it differently
herself. That's something I learnt to take on as a teacher: you should never try to model a pupil after your
own personality - it's deadly.
INTERVIEW BY ARIANE TODES
Biography Aida Stucki – page 8 / 8