The virtuoso and world-famous violinist Ivry Gitlis died on Thursday at the age of 98 in Paris, his family announced to AFP.
The death of this musician who played in the most prestigious venues, in front of a varied audience and with the largest orchestras, took place on this Thursday morning, said David Gitlis, one of his four children.
Unesco’s Goodwill Ambassador, this Israeli living in France had a special place in the world of classical music: known for his sometimes atypical repertoire performances, he was also comfortable with jazz or gypsy music.
Cellist Gautier Capuçon expressed on social networks his “immense sadness” after the death of this “legend of the violin”, while his brother Renaud Capuçon hailed: “a star for all violinists”, “the last of the violin czars who won the twentieth century “.
He was born on August 25, 1922 in Haifa, present-day Israel and then under British rule, where his parents had immigrated from Ukraine.
“When I was 5 years old, they raised the money to buy me a violin. Ever since, the violin has been a part of me,” he wrote in his autobiography “The Soul and the String”.
He was the first Israeli artist to perform in the USSR (in 1955), the founder of numerous festivals, and was also a staunch supporter of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
With thick white hair and piercing blue eyes, a charismatic, whimsical, fierce and narcissistic personality, Ivry Gitlis generally played motionless and with her eyes closed. His violin: a 1713 Stradivarius, bought in 1964.
He assured that ’emotion’ was the driving force behind his art, but that it was ‘beyond emotion’ to pass on such a legacy of beauty to the public in these times of ideological manipulation. ‘