French musician, a violin prodigy of international renown. The son of two professional musicians, he inherited a unique tradition from his father, Fortune, of studying under a violinist known as “Sivori,” who was the only student of the legendary composer and violinist Nicolo Paganini. Taking the name of Zino early in his career, Francescatti had his professional debut at age ten with the Paris Opera and a full symphony orchestra performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Moving to Paris in 1924 he played professionally, sometimes with cellist Pablo Casals, and began teaching at the Ecole Normale de Musique.
During the ’30s he traveled to England with Maurice Ravel for a series of violin and piano duets and made his American debut in 1939 at the Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not the New York Philharmonic, as his publicists wrote. Actually, he played a half-dozen more concerts before making his debut with the Philharmonic.
While Francescatti was linked to the romantic tradition in the violin through his father’s tie to Paganini, he extended his concert repertoire beyond his traditional background, performing the works of contemporaries Leonard Bernstein, Darius Milhaud, and Ottorino Resphigi. He toured with pianist-composer Robert Casadesus, performing the sonatas of Claude Debussy and Caesar Franck.
The peak of his career was spent at a whirlwind pace, traveling from Europe to America to play with most of the world’s symphony orchestras. By 1974, his total record of performances was remarkable: 84 appearances with the New York Philharmonic in 24 seasons, 18 appearances in 16 seasons with the Philadelphia Orchestra, 30 in 15 seasons with the Pittsburgh Orchestra and 19 in seven seasons with the Los Angeles Orchestra. His conductors included Bruno Walter, Herbert von Karajan, Seiji Ozawa, Dimitri Mitropolous and Pierre Boulez.
He maintained homes in New York and La Ciotat, near Marseilles, France. By the late 1970, he reduced his travel due to his advancing age. A regimen of working out, eating lightly and sleeping long hours kept his health intact. In 1974, he said “To play an instrument with a bow and keep the sound beautiful is so difficult after 70.”
Francescatti had one marriage. He died on 9/17/1991 at his home of 50 years in La Ciotat, France.
Link to Wikipedia biography