Karl Klingler (7 December 1879 – 18 March 1971) was a German violinist, concertmaster, composer, music teacher and lecturer.
Life
Early years
Karl Klingler was born in Strasbourg, at that time in Germany, the fifth of his parents' six recorded children. His father, Theodor Klingler (1845–1905), was a professional viola player who taught at the conservatory. When he was still very young Klingler was receiving violin lessons from his father, and then from his father's colleague at the conservatory, Heinrich Schuster. Klingler began giving concerts at five years of age. In 1897, when he concluded his schooling in Strasbourg, he relocated to Berlin where he was a student at the city's University of the Arts ("Universität der Künste Berlin" / UdK) where, now aged 17, he studied the violin with Joseph Joachim, an inspiring teacher and, very soon, a close personal friend. For composition he was taught by Max Bruch and Robert Kahn. In 1899, still aged only 19, he won the Mendelssohn National Composition Prize.
Early success
He joined the Berlin Philharmonic (orchestra) in 1901. In (or before) 1904 he was appointed the orchestra's deputy concertmaster "Zweite Konzertmeister", serving under Arthur Nikisch. At the same time he was playing the viola in the "Joachim Quartet", founded back in 1869 by Klingler's friend and former teacher, Joseph Joachim. He accordingly acquired a high-profile among Berlin's top musicians while still in his early 20s. In addition, while still only 23, in 1903 he took on a violin class at the university, where in 1908 he was appointed to a regular teaching post and in 1910 became a full professor, "King of Prussia Professor" (in succession to Joseph Joachim). Broken only by his military service during the First World War, Klingler's teaching career at the UdK lasted more than 30 years, concluding in 1936. Along with performing and teaching, he also turned his talents to composition, producing songs, chamber music and a violin concerto in E-major which he premiered with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1907.
He also succeeded in getting hold of a Stradivarius violin – the "De Barreau" (1714) – which many years before had been owned by Joachim. During the years before the war he was receiving glowing reviews from the critics, notably in 1911 for a performance with the Welsh 'cellist Arthur Williams and the Galician pianist Artur Schnabel, in the United States, of Beethoven's Triple Concerto.
His career was interrupted by the outbreak, in July 1914, of the First World War: he was called up to fight as a soldier. Towards the end of the war he was able to transfer to musical work in support of the troops. He arranged regular musical evenings at his house in the Sophienstraße (today the Bellstraße), with fellow musicians such as Korngold, Wilhelm Kempff and Emil von Reznicek. In 1917 he married Margarethe von Gwinner, daughter of the well connected banker-aristocrat . The marriage produced four recorded children, Arthur, Wolfgang, Marianne and Charlotte, born between 1918 and 1926.
Shinichi Suzuki
In 1920 Klingler was sought out by a young Japanese musician called Shinichi Suzuki. For the next eight years Klingler taught Suzuki, for the first four years covering etudes and concertos, and for the next four years covering chamber music. Klingler had let it be known that did not normally extend his activities to private tuition, and accordingly Suzuki became his only private pupil. In this way, Klingler had a direct and positive influence on the Suzuki method of violin teaching.