EINSTEIN, ALBERTBiblio.com
Avidom, Menachem[Albert Einstein]Biblio.com
Symphony No. 2 “David” Dedicated to Albert Einstein.
1951ref. 153420Tel-Aviv: Israeli Music Publications 1951. First edition of the published facsimile score of Menachem Avidom’s Symphony No. 2 “David” together with the painted calligraphic broadside dedicating the symphony to Albert Einstein. Folio the manuscript orchestral score reproduced in facsimile spiral bound in plain black boards published by Israeli Music Publications of Tel-Aviv. Accompanied by an elaborate painted calligraphic presentation broadside by the artist Sol Nodel reading “Symphony No. 2 ‘David’ dedicated to Albert Einstein for his inspiration to the Jewish people and to all humanity by the composer Menahem Avidom and presented by the American Fund for Israel Institutions on the occasion of the American tour of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra January February March 1951.” The broadside is additionally inscribed by the composer in black ink at the top left corner “To the greatest man in our generation Prof. A. Einstein humbly from the Composer M. Avidom Princeton 10/1/51.” The symphony was dedicated to Albert Einstein for his inspiration to the Jewish people and to all humanity. Einstein the most celebrated scientist of the twentieth century was also a lifelong and devoted musician a gifted violinist who adored Mozart and revered Bach and who once said that had he not been a scientist he would have become a musician and that the greatest joy of his life had come to him from his violin. A passionate champion of Jewish cultural and educational causes and of the young State of Israel he was among the founders of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and lent his name and moral authority to the building of its institutions. The presentation of Avidom’s score took place during the first American tour of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in the opening months of 1951 when the orchestra led by Leonard Bernstein and Serge Koussevitzky gave fifty-three concerts in forty cities. Together with an original photograph showing the composer presenting the broadside to Einstein and a photocopy of a 1986 letter recording that the score and broadside were the gift of Einstein’s daughter Margot Einstein. In very good condition with light toning and soiling the front cover of the spiral-bound score detached. A remarkable Einstein association uniting a dedicated symphonic score its presentation broadside and a photograph of the moment it was given to him. Menachem Avidom 1908-1995 was one of the founding figures of modern Israeli classical music. Born Menahem Mahler-Kalkstein in Stanislaviv then part of Austria-Hungary he was reportedly a cousin of the composer Gustav Mahler. He studied in Paris and spent several years in Egypt an experience that led him to look beyond the European traditions in which he had been trained. In 1939 he wrote arrangements for the Yemenite-Jewish singer Bracha Zefira and the encounter kindled a lasting interest in fusing Middle Eastern and European musical idioms. In 1944 he produced a series of works in this new style that shaped the rest of his career and helped lay the groundwork for later Mizrahi and Sephardic composers in Israel. From 1945 he served as general secretary of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1955 he was named director of ACUM the Israeli performing rights society. His Symphony No. 2 “David” drawing on the biblical shepherd king is among his best-known works and the present copy presented and inscribed to Albert Einstein is the most storied of its kind. Israeli Music Publications hardcover
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