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Joseph Joachim was born on June 28th, 1831, in Kittsee, near Pressburg (Austria-Hungary) , the son of a Jewish merchant family. In 1833, the family moved to Budapest, where the child was given his first violin lessons by the Polish concert master of the Pest Royal Opera. His talents were immediately apparent and it became clear that music was to be his future.
At the age of seven, Joachim was sent to Vienna, where he studied with Joseph Böhm. He played in Joseph Hellmesberger’s »Children’s Quartett«, attended the Vienna Conservatory and finished his studies at the tender age of twelve.
The following years in Leipzig, where Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy became his mentor and role-model, formed Joachim’s artistic personality. Mendelssohn saw to it that his pupil was instructed not only on the violin but also in the humanities and in the art of composition. He took Joachim to London, where the latter first performed Beethoven’s violin concerto to wide critical acclaim. Mendelssohn’s extensive concept of art and the artistic personality provided the young violinist and composer clear orientation in both his musical and personal development.
Joseph Joachim was 16 years old when Mendelssohn suddenly died. The loss of his revered mentor devastated him, and the subsequent period was a difficult one. In 1849 he went to Weimar, where he met Liszt and Wagner, became concert master and composed. Here, his determination to dedicate himself to Mendelssohn’s musical ideals grew.
In the fall of 1852, Joachim signed a contract to go to Hannover. The city was to be his home base for the next 15 years. He influenced the musical life of the city as concert master and general music director and as solist and good friend of King George the Fifth, who served as godfather at his baptism. The years in Hannover also marked his close friendships with Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann (Robert Schumann died in 1856), his marriage to the opera singer Amalie Schneeweiss and a personal musical development which, in the words of a contemporary critic, »elevated him high above today’s virtuosity … to the service of genuine, true art.« He dared to present Johann Sebastian Bach’s solo works for violin in public; he played not only his own compositions but those of young composers of his time (most of whom were his friends); he was the true incarnation of »the musician, above all«, the performer in the service of music itself.
In 1866 Hannover was turned over to the Prussians. Joachim left the orchestra. Two years later, he accepted the position of founding director of the Royal Academy of Music in Berlin. There, he established his own orchestra and the legendary Joachim Quartett. He was active as a performer and teacher for almost 40 years, until his death on August 15, 1907. The academy honored its late teacher with a grand funeral (the sculptor Otto Lessing quickly finished a portrait bust of Joachim for the occasion). In June 1913 a Joachim monument was installed in the foyer of the Academy Concert Hall. In 1936 and 1938, the Nazis removed both the bust and the monument from the academy in a -- pointless -- attempt to erase from memory the great artist, teacher and composer.
In 1991, the Hannover International Violin Competition of the Foundation of Lower Saxony was »Dedicated to Joseph Joachim«.