thumb|right|Leopold Auer.

'''Leopold Auer''' (In Hungarian: ''Auer Lipót''), (Hungarian conductor and composer.

== Life==
=== Prodigy ===
Auer was born in Mendelssohn concerto aroused the interest of some wealthy patrons, who sent him to quartet classes with Joseph Hellmesberger, Sr..

By the time Auer was 13, the scholarship money had run out. His father decided to launch his career. The income from provincial concerts was barely enough to keep father and son out of poverty. An audition with Henri Vieuxtemps in Graz was a failure. A visit to Paris proved equally unsuccessful. Auer decided to seek the advice of Joseph Joachim, then royal concertmaster at Hanover. The two years Auer spent with Joachim (1861-63) proved a turning point in his career. More than through lessons, he learned through observation and association. He was already well prepared as a violinist. What proved revelatory was exposure to the world of German music making—a world that stresses musical values over virtuoso glitter. Auer later wrote,

<blockquote>Joachim was an inspiration for me and opened before my eyes horizons of that greater art of which until then I had lived in ignorance. With him I worked not only with my hands but with my head, studying the scores of the great masters and endeavoring to penetrate the very heart of their works.... I [also] played a great deal of chamber music with my fellow students. <ref>Auer, leopold, ''My Long Life in Music'', 63-64. As quoted in Schwarz, Boris, ''Great Masters of the Violin'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), 414.</ref></blockquote>

Auer returned to the concert stage in 1864. Success led to his becoming concertmaster in Beethoven's ''Archduke'' Trio with pianist Anton Rubinstein and cellist Alfredo Piatti. Rubinstein was in search for a violin professor for the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and he suggested Auer. Auer agreed to a three year contract; he would actually stay for 49 years.

=== Russia ===
During that time he held the position of first violinist to the orchestra of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres. This included the principal venue of the Hermitage. For nearly 50 years, Auer performed almost all of the violin solos in the ballets performed by the Imperial Ballet, the majority of which were the work of the choreographer Marius Petipa. Many of the noted ballet composers of the day, such as Cesare Pugni, Ludwig Minkus, Riccardo Drigo, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Alexander Glazunov, wrote the violin solos of their scores especially for his talents.

Until 1906 he was also leader of the string quartet for the Russian Musical Society (RMS). This quartet's concerts were as integral a part of the Saint Petersburg musical scene as their counterparts led by Joachim in Berlin. Criticism arose in later years of less-than-perfect ensemble and insufficient attention to contemporary Russian music. Nevertheless, Auer's group performed quartets by Tchaikovsky, Alexander Borodin, Glazunov and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The group also played music by Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann, along with Louis Spohr, Joachim Raff and other secondary German composers.

Auer also continued performing sonatas with many great pianists. His favorite recital partner was Anna Yesipova, with whom he appeared until her death in 1914. Other partners included Anton Rubinstein, Theodor Leschetitzky, Raoul Pugno, Sergei Taneyev and Eugen d'Albert. In the 1890's, he performed cycles of all 10 Beethoven violin sonatas. He also introduced the violin and piano sonatas of Brahms.

=== America ===
In 1918 he moved to the Hartsdale, New York.

== Playing ==
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was especially taken with Auer's playing. Reviewing a 1874 appearance in Moscow, Tchaikovsky praised Auer's "great expressivity, the thoughtful finesse and poetry of the interpretation." <ref>As quoted in Scharz, 415.</ref> This finesse and poetry came at a tremendous price. Auer suffered as a performer from poorly built hands. He had to work incessantly, with an iron determination, just to keep his technique in shape. He wrote, "My hands are so weak and their conformation is so poor that when I have not played the violin for several successive days, and then take up the instrument, I feel as if I had altogether lost the facility of playing." <ref>Auer, Leopold, ''Violin Playing'', 46. As quoted in Scharz, 417.</ref>

Despite this handicap, Auer achieved much through constant work. His tone was small but ingratiating, his technique polished and elegant. His playing lacked fire, but he made up for it with a classic nobility. After he arrived in the United States, he made some recordings which bear this out. They show the violinist in excellent shape technically, with impeccable intonation, incisive rhythm and tasteful playing aside from some now unfashionable use of portamenti.

His musical tastes were conservative and refined. He liked virtuoso works by Bach. Neither did he ever assign any of Bach's solo concertos to a student. The Double Concerto, however, was one of his favorites.

== Conducting ==
Auer was also active as a conductor. He was in charge of the Russian Musical Society orchestral concerts intermittently in the 1880s and 90s. He was always willing to mount the podium to accompany a famous foreign soloist—as he did when Joachim visited Russia—and did the same for his students concertizing abroad.

== Teaching ==
Auer is remembered as one of the most important pedagogues of the violin, and was one of the most sought-after teachers for gifted pupils. Many famous virtuoso violinists were among his pupils, including Georges Boulanger, Benno Rabinof, Kathleen Parlow, and Oscar Shumsky.

thumb|left|180px|Leopold Auer
'''Leopold Auer''' ou '''Leopold von Auer''' est un 1845 à 1930.

== Biographie ==
Il étudie d'abord avec Vienne et enfin avec Conservatoire de Saint-Pétersbourg. Après la révolution d'octobre, il quitte la Russie pour les États-Unis où il devient professeur au Curtis Institute of Music à Philadelphie et au Institute of Musical Art à New York. Il adopte d'ailleurs la nationalité américaine en 1926.

Auer est considéré comme l'un des plus grands pédagogues du violon. Beaucoup de ses élèves sont devenus célèbres : Efrem Zimbalist, Nathan Milstein, Mischa Elman et Jascha Heifetz. 

De nombreux Glazounov, Taneïev, Arenski) lui ont dédicacé leurs œuvres, mais bien que dédicataire du concerto pour violon de Tchaïkovski, il refusa dans un premier temps de le jouer, le considérant comme injouable. Il se décidera pourtant à le mettre à son répertoire plus tard (en 1893), mais avec des modifications dans certains passages. Les interprétations de ce concerto par ses élèves (excepté Nathan Milstein) seront basées sur sa version.

Il s'éteint en 1930 à Loschwitz et est enterré au cimetière Ferncliff à Hartsdale (New York).