Michael Rabin

Michael Rabin (May 2, 1936 – January 19, 1972) was an American virtuoso violinist of Romanian-Jewish descent.
He began to learn the violin when he was seven. His father George, a violinist in the New York Philharmonic, noticed his talent. A lesson with Jascha Heifetz was arranged and the master advised him to study with Ivan Galamian, who said he had "no weaknesses, never." His mother Jeanne was a Juilliard-trained and successful pianist. He began studies with Galamian in New York and at the Meadowmount School of Music and the Juilliard School, and went on to appear with a number of American orchestras before his Carnegie Hall debut on 29 November 1951 in the Paganini D major Concerto, with Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting the New York Philharmonic. He was aged only 15. He first appeared in London on 13 December 1954, still aged only 18, playing the Tchaikovsky Concerto in D at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.



Michael Rabin recorded concertos by Mendelssohn, Glazunov, Paganini (No. 1 in D major; 2 recordings), Wieniawski (No. 1 in F-sharp minor, No. 2 in D minor), and Tchaikovsky, as well as Bruch's Scottish Fantasy and the Paganini Caprices for solo violin. He recorded the Bach Sonata in C major for solo violin and the Third and Fourth sonatas for solo violin by Eugène Ysaÿe, as well as virtuoso pieces, including an album with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Rabin played in a bel canto style. He toured widely, playing in all the major cities of the U.S., Europe, South America and Australia. He even appeared on a 1951 episode of the variety television series "Texaco Star Theatre". During a recital in Carnegie Hall, he suddenly fell forward and momentarily lost his balance, and this was the beginning of a neurological condition which was to affect his career adversely. He died prematurely at the age of 35 from a head injury sustained in a fall at his New York apartment.



He performed for many years on the "Kubelik" Guarnerius del Gesu of 1735. The master craftsman, Giuseppe Guarneri, who fashioned this violin is known as del Gesù because his labels incorporated the nomina sacra, I.H.S. (In Hoc Signo) and a Roman cross.

In January 1950 he also appeared in Carnegie Hall, as soloist with the National Orchestral Association under the direction of Leon Barzin.

Gidon Kremer

Entre os principais violinistas internacionais, Gidon Kremer desenvolveu uma das carreiras certamente menos convencionais. Nascido em Riga,(27/02/1947) na Letónia, começou os seus estudos aos quatro anos de idade com o seu pai e o seu avô, ambos exímios executantes de instrumentos de cordas. Aos sete anos iniciou a sua aprendizagem formal, ingressando na Escola de Música de Riga. Aos dezasseis anos foi-lhe atribuído o Primeiro Prémio da República da Letónia e dois anos mais tarde começou a estudar com David Oistrach no Conservatório de Moscovo. Em 1967 ganhou o Concurso Queen Elizabeth, seguindo-se Primeiros Prémios nos Concursos Internacionais Paganini e Tchaikovsky.



Estes sucessos lançaram a distinta carreira de Gidon Kremer, estabelecendo a sua reputação mundial como uma dos mais originais e completos artistas da sua geração. Apresentou-se em todos os grandes palcos mundiais de concertos, com as mais prestigiadas orquestras da Europa e da América. Colaborou com os mais destacados maestros, incluindo Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Christoph Eschenbach, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Claudio Abbado e Sir Neville Marriner, entre outros.

O repertório de Gidon Kremer é invulgarmente extenso, englobando todas as principais obras para violino dos períodos clássico e romântico, bem como a música de compositores do século XX, como Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Aribert Reimann, Peteris Vasks, John Adams e Astor Piazzolla.



O catálogo discográfico de Gidon Kremer é extremamente extenso, contendo mais de 100 álbuns, muitos dos quais receberam importantes prémios internacionais em reconhecimento pelos seus excepcionais dotes interpretativos; entre eles contam-se os prestigiantes Grand Prix du Disque, Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, Ernst-von-Siemens Musikpreis, Bundesverdienstkreuz, Premio dell'Accademia Musicale Ghigiana, Triumph Prize 2000 (Moscovo) e, em 2001, o Prémio da UNESCO. Em Fevereiro de 2002, Gidon Kremer e a Kremerata Baltica receberam um Grammy pela disco intitulado After Mozart (Nonsuch), na categoria ''Best small Ensemble Performance''.

Em 1981, Gidon Kremer fundou em Lockenhaus, na Áustria, um festival de música de câmara que tem lugar todos os verões. Durante dois anos, 1997-98, assumiu a liderança artística do Festival de Gstaad, sucedendo a Sir Yehudi Menuhin, o seu fundador. Em 1997 fundou a orquestra de câmara Kremerata Baltica que reúne jovens músicos de talento dos três Estados Bálticos. Desde então, Gidon Kremer tem realizado frequentes digressões com esta orquestra, apresentando-se nas principais salas de concertos e festivais internacionais. Gravou também vários CDs com a Kremerata Baltica, para as etiquetas Teldec e Nonesuch, tendo o primeiro sido dedicado à música de Peteris Vasks e Astor Piazzolla. A partir de 2002, Gidon Kremer é o Director Artístico de um novo festival em Basileia - ''les muséiques''.



Gidon Kremer toca um violino Guarnerius del Gesù ''ex-David'', datado de 1730. É também o autor de três livros, publicados em alemão, que reflectem as suas orientações artísticas.

Eduardo Hernández Asiaín

Eduardo Hernández Asiain
(La Habana, 17 de mayo de 1911 — Corella, Navarra,11 de Mayo de 2010 )

Violinista cubano, discípulo de Enrique Fernández Arbós y compañero de Ataúlfo Argenta, uno de los mejores violinistas del siglo XX. Sus interpretaciones de los grandes clásicos han destacado no solo por su técnica, sino por el sentimiento transmitido en su manera de tocar y de vivir la música.

Ha brillado especialmente por sus interpretaciones de las obras de Pablo Sarasate y por piezas clásicas como son las Sonatas para violín y piano de Johann Sebastian Bach.

Nace en La Habana en 1911, en el seno de una familia española. Siguiendo los pasos de su padre (compositor y violinista natural de Corella - Navarra España), se inicia en el aprendizaje del violín, en cuya interpretación ha llegado a alcanzar un relevante lugar que le sitúa entre los mejores violinistas del siglo XX.

Inicia sus estudios musicales a muy temprana edad y ofrece su primer concierto en público a los siete años.

A los catorce obtiene el primer premio de Violín en el Conservatorio Nacional de La Habana, siendo nombrado concertino de la Orquesta Sinfónica de La Habana.

En 1932 se traslada con su familia a Madrid, profundizando sus estudios con los maestros Arbós y Bordas.

Obtiene el premio extraordinario Pablo Sarasate en el Real Conservatorio de Música de Madrid. También logra galardones en el Certamen Internacional de Violinistas, organizado por Unión Radio; en el Concurso Nacional de Violinistas y el Concurso de Música de Cámara, promovidos por el Ministerio de Educación.

Pensionado por la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Madrid, amplía sus estudios en el extranjero y ofrece numerosos conciertos de gran éxito en Europa y América.

A partir de 1954, actúa como solista con la Orquesta de la Sociedad de Conciertos Pasdeloup de París, Radiodifusión Francesa y Belga, Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, Orquesta de Cámara de Madrid y Orquesta Sinfónica y de Cámara de San Sebastián, de la que es su creador.

En 1968 fue nombrado Primer Violín del Cuarteto Clásico de RTVE con el que realizó un gran número de conciertos y grabaciones, en España y en otros países.

Realiza giras por Estados Unidos de América, destacando su actuación con la Long Beach Symphony Orchestra de California, donde obtiene un gran éxito interpretando el Concierto para violín en Re de Tchaikovsky.

Don Eduardo Hernández Asiaín, murio el dia 11 de Mayo de 2010 en Corella, Navarra donde paso sus ultimos años.

Oscar Shumsky

Oscar Shumsky
(March 23, 1917 – July 24, 2000)
American violinist and conductor, born in Philadelphia
to Russian-Jewish family.

Oscar Shumsky started learning the violin at the age of three, and made his concert debut at the age of seven with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski, who declared him to be "the most astounding genius I have ever heard". Fritz Kreisler took a special interest in him, and he played Kreisler's own cadenzas to the Beethoven violin concerto to him after learning them by ear. He was a pupil of Leopold Auer from 1925 and studied at the Curtis Institute from 1928 to 1936, continuing his studies with Efrem Zimbalist after Auer's death in 1930. His New York debut was in 1934 and his Vienna debut was in 1936. He played first violin in the Primrose Quartet from 1939, and the same year joined the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini. During the 2nd world war, he served in the U.S. Navy.

His violin was a Stradivari of 1715 known as 'Ex-Pierre Rode' or the 'Duke of Cambridge' (it had been owned by Rode and Shumsky recorded his complete caprices on it). He tells how he came to acquire the instrument:

“ It was a case of "love at first sound". During the period of readjustment after the "war to end all wars" we were trying to pick up our lives where we had left them, and I was in the throes of trying to better my instrument. I realized that if I were to pursue a concert career I needed something considerably more outstanding than the Camillo Camilli (an excellent violin in its class) on which I was performing. In the process I had been through many Guadagninis and some lesser Strads, but always came away disappointed.

Then on one of my innumerable visits to the atelier of Emil Hermann, I spotted a violin lying on the long felt-covered table. A quick glance told me that the violin was not only a Stradivarius but one of the finest examples I had seen. Thrilled and discouraged at the same time (I knew that such an instrument was out of my financial range) I nevertheless had a strong curiosity to examine and try it. Permission was granted, and after a few passages from different fragments of the repertory I just knew I had to have it! I won't flood readers with all the information about my huge bank loan, but I have never had a moment's cause for regret. The fact that it somehow came by way of my old teacher Leopold Auer is a fascinating bit of mysticism.
”

—Oscar Shumsky, The Strad, April 1985

He taught at the Curtis Institute, Philadelphia, Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore, Yale University, and, from 1953, the Juilliard School in New York. From 1959 to 1967, he co-directed the Stratford Festival (in Ontario) with Glenn Gould, with whom he played regularly at the festival and made some recordings for T.V. broadcast. Around this time, he appeared regularly as a soloist with American orchestras. His conducting debut was in 1959 with the Canadian National Festival Orchestra; he later conducted the Westchester Symphony Orchestra and Empire Sinfonietta in New York, and the New Jersey Colonial Symphony Orchestra. He joined the Bach Aria Group in the early 1960s. He was granted a Ford Foundation Award in 1965.

He returned to concerts and recordings in 1981, performing in the USA and in Britain for the first time in 30 years; a programme he gave for solo violin led to great acclaim:
“ It is not common practice here for audience members to leap on their feet in acknowledgement of outstanding playing and it is a mark of Oscar Shumsky's achievement at the Queen Elizabeth Hall that so many did spontaneously do just that. ”

—The Daily Telegraph

He recorded Ysaÿe's solo violin sonatas op.27 and Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin, the Beethoven violin concerto, Bach's single and double violin concertos, Mozart's 4th and 5th violin concertos, and other works, many of which have not been released on CD. He died in Rye, New York.

Many fellow violinists consider him to be one of the great violinists of the century; David Oistrakh called him "one of the world's greatest violinists" and the New Grove dictionary says of him: 'He was a player of virtuoso technique, pure style and refined taste; yet never sought recognition as a soloist, preferring to concentrate on teaching, chamber music playing and conducting.'

Wikipedia

Ivry Gitlis

Ivry Gitlis

Was born on August 22, 1922, in Haifa, Israel,
to Russian parents. He received his first violin at the age of five and gave his first concert at age ten. When violinist Bronislav Huberman heard him play, he sent him to study at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he won a first prize at age 13. After graduation, he studied with George Enesco and Jacques Thibaud, among others.

In 1939, he went to England, and when World War II broke out, he worked in a British munitions factory and later in the entertainment unit of the British army.

In 1951, he made his debut in Paris; he has gone on to give concerts all over the world. He has played with the most prestigious orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Philharmonic, and Israel Philharmonic.

Ivry Gitlis is considered one of the most talented musicians of his generation, and many of his recordings are considered classics. His first recording, "Le Concerto à La mémoire d'un ange," by Alban Berg, won the Grand Prix du Disque (Grand Record Prize) in France. Bruno Maderna wrote "Piece for Ivry" for him, and in 1972, Ivry Gitlis premiered "Mikka" by Xenakis.

Ivry Gitlis: Kreisler's Schon Rosmarin.





Ivry Gitlis: Elgar - La capricieuse, Op.17

Nathan Milstein

Nathan Mironovich Milstein

was born on the 31st of December 1903 in Odessa as son of the merchant Miron Milstein. Out of his two sisters and four brothers, Milstein mentioned his sister Sara, who played the piano.
He got his first musical impressions through his mother Marija, who took Nathan to a concert of Jascha Heifetz, in 1911 already a famous violinist and "Wunderkind".

He is widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, well known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works, and for works from the Romantic period. He was also known for his long career: he performed at a high level of excellence in public into his mid-80s, only to retire after suffering a broken hand.

Milstein started violin studies with the eminent violin pedagogue Piotr Stolyarsky. Among Milstein's other teachers were two celebrated violinists, Leopold Auer in St. Petersburg and Eugène Ysaÿe in Belgium. He told film-maker Christopher Nupen, director of Nathan Milstein - A Portrait, that he learned almost nothing from Ysaÿe but enjoyed his company enormously. In a 1977 interview printed in High Fidelity, he said, "I went to Ysaÿe in 1926 but he never paid any attention to me. I think it might have been better this way. I had to think for myself." He was obsessed with articulating each note perfectly and would often spend long periods of time working out fingerings which would make passages sound more articulated.

Milstein may in fact have been the last of the great Russian violinists to have had personal contact with Auer. Auer did not name Milstein in his memoirs but mentions "two boys from Odessa ... both of whom disappeared after I left St. Petersburg in June 1917." Neither is Milstein's name in the registry of the St Petersburg Conservatory.

When Auer went to Norway in 1917, Milstein went back to Odessa. He met Vladimir Horowitz and his pianist sister Regina in 1921 when he played a recital in Kiev. They invited him for tea at their parents' home. Milstein later said, "I came for tea and stayed three years." Milstein and Horowitz performed together, as "children of the revolution," throughout the Soviet Union and struck up a life-long friendship. In 1925, they went on a concert tour of Western Europe together.

Milstein made his American debut in 1929 with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He eventually settled in New York and became an American citizen. He continuted to tour repeatedly throughout Europe, maintaining residences in London and Paris.

A transcriber and composer, Milstein arranged many works for violin and writing his own cadenzas for many concertos. One of his best known compositions is Paganiniana, a set of variations on various themes from the works of Niccolò Paganini.

In 1948, his recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, with Bruno Walter conducting the New York Philharmonic, had the distinction of being the first catalogue item in Columbia's newly introduced long-playing twelve-inch 33.333 rpm vinyl records, Columbia ML 4001.

He received a Grammy Award in 1975 for his recording of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas, and was awarded the Legion of Honour by France in 1968. He was also awarded Kennedy Center honors by President Ronald Reagan.

A recital he gave in Stockholm in July 1986 proved to be his final performance. An accident shortly afterwards ended his career.

For most of his career he performed on the "Milstein(Maria Teresa), Goldman" Stradivarius of 1716 and for a short period the "Dancla" Stradivarius of 1710.

During the late 1980s, Milstein published his memoirs, From Russia to the West, in which he discussed his life of constant performance and socializing. Milstein discusses the personalities of important composers such as Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Igor Stravinsky and conductors such as Arturo Toscanini and Leopold Stokowski, all of whom he knew personally. He also discusses his best friends, pianist Vladimir Horowitz, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and ballet director George Balanchine, as well as other violinists such as Fritz Kreisler and David Oistrakh. Milstein also expressed his generally right-wing, strongly anti-communist and anti-Soviet political beliefs. Milstein said that President Kennedy was a weak leader, admired President Reagan, and stated that he refused to return to the Soviet Union, even for a tour sponsored by the United States.

Milstein was married twice, remaining married to his second wife, Therese, until his death.
He died in London ten days before his 89th birthday

Josef Hassid

Josef Hassid (Polish: Józef Chasyd)

(December 28, 1923 - November 7, 1950) was a Polish violinist.

He was noted for his intense vibrato and temperament, causing Fritz Kreisler to say "A Heifetz violinist comes around every 100 years, a Hassid every 200.
" Furthermore pianist Gerard Moore called him "possibly the most incandescent prodigy after perhaps Yehudi Menuhin." He received an honorary diploma
in the 1935 Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Warsaw and traveled to London in 1938 with his father, since his mother had died when Hassid was young.
However, the start of World War II prevented their return to Poland.
He performed in London (where he suffered from a memory lapse while
playing the Tchaikovsky Concerto in Queen's Hall)
and recorded for HMV;
his great legacy to music is in the form of 9 recordings among which Joseph Achron's Hebrew Melody is notable. 2 of these recordings are the same piece; the second, later recording was made after undergoing roughly a year under Carl Flesch's teachings.

He was first placed in a psychiatric hospital in 1941 after suffering from a nervous breakdown at the age of 18. He was admitted again in 1943 and was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia. He was lobotomised in late 1950 and died at the age of 26.

Josef Hassid was one of several prodigies whose brilliant careers were short lived. Bruno Monsaingeon's The Art of Violin commemorates Hassid.



Hebrew Melody Op.33
Composer: Joseph Archron (1886 - 1943)
Gerald Moore (piano)
Recording Date 11/29/1940

Fritz Kreisler

Fritz Kreisler
(February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962)

Was an Austrian-born violinist and composer; one of the most famous violinists of his day. He is noted for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing.
Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound, which was immediately recognizable as his own. Although he was a violinist of the Franco-Belgian school, his style is nonetheless reminiscent of the gemütlich
(cozy) lifestyle of pre-war Vienna.

Kreisler was born in Vienna to a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother;
he was baptised at age twelve. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory and
in Paris, where his teachers included Anton Bruckner, Léo Delibes,
Jakob Dont, Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr., Joseph Massart, and Jules Massenet.
He made his United States debut at Steinway Hall in New York City
on November 10, 1888, and his first tour of the
United States in 1888/1889 with Moriz Rosenthal, then returned to Austria and applied for a position in the Vienna Philharmonic.
He was turned down by the concertmaster Arnold Rosé.
Hearing a recording of the Rosé Quartet it is easy to hear why - Rosé was sparing in his use of vibrato, and Kreisler would not have blended successfully with the orchestra's violin section. As a result, he left music to study medicine.
He spent a brief time in the army before returning to the violin in 1899,
giving a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Arthur Nikisch.
It was this concert and a series of American tours from 1901 to 1903 that brought him real acclaim.

In 1910, Kreisler gave the premiere of Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto,
a work dedicated to him.
He briefly served in the Austrian Army in World War I before being honourably discharged after he was wounded.
He spent the remaining years of the war in America.
He returned to Europe in 1924,
living first in Berlin, then moving to France in 1938.
Shortly thereafter, at the outbreak of World War II, he settled once again in the United States, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1943.
He lived in that country for the rest of his life.
He gave his last public concert in 1947 and broadcast performances for a few years after that.

On April 26th, 1941, he was involved in the first of two traffic accidents that marked his life. Struck by a truck while crossing a street in New York, he fractured his skull, and was in a coma for over a week, as reported by Life magazine on May 12, 1941 (pp. 32-33). Towards the end of his life, he was in another accident while traveling in an automobile, and spent his last days blind and deaf from that accident, but he "radiated a gentleness and refinement not unlike his music," according to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen who visited him frequently during that time (Kreisler and his wife were converts to Catholicism). He died in New York City in 1962 and was interred in a private mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY.
The mausoleum of Fritz Kreisler in Woodlawn Cemetery

Kreisler wrote a number of pieces for the violin, including solos for encores,
such as "Liebesleid" and "Liebesfreud". Some of Kreisler's compositions were pastiches in an ostensible style of other composers,
originally ascribed to earlier composers such as Gaetano Pugnani, Giuseppe Tartini, Jacques Marnier Companie, and Antonio Vivaldi.
When Kreisler revealed in 1935 that they were actually by him and critics complained, Kreisler answered that critics had already deemed the compositions worthy: "The name changes, the value remains" he said.
He also wrote operettas including Apple Blossoms in 1919 and Sissy in 1932,
a string quartet and cadenzas, including ones for the Brahms D major violin concerto, the Paganini D major violin concerto,
and the Beethoven D major violin concerto.
His cadenza for the Beethoven concerto is the one most often
employed by violinists today.

He performed and recorded his own version of the Paganini D major violin concerto-first movement. This version is rescored and in some places reharmonised. The orchestral introduction is completely rewritten in some places. The overall effect is of a late nineteenth century work.

Kreisler owned several antique violins by luthiers Antonio Stradivari,
Pietro Guarneri, Giuseppe Guarneri, and Carlo Bergonzi, most of which eventually came to bear his name.
He also owned a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin of 1860, which he often used as his second fiddle, and which he often loaned to the young prodigy Josef Hassid.

Kreisler's personal style of playing on record bears a resemblance
to Mischa Elman with a tendency towards expansive tempi,
a continuous and varied vibrato, remarkably expressive phrasing, and a melodic approach to passage work.
Kreisler employs considerable use of portamento and rubato
However considerable performance contrasts exist between Kreisler and Mischa Elman on the shared standard repertoire with the concerto
of Felix Mendelssohn serving as one example.




Schön Rosmarin is yet another of the wonderful short pieces for violin and piano by Kreisler: a delightful pen-portrait of Rosmarin, who is clearly a beautiful and somewhat vivacious young girl. Fritz Kreisler with pianist Carl Lamson.

Leonid Kogan

Leonid Kogan plays Paganini´s Cantabile.

Leonid Borisovich Kogan

(November 17, 1924 - December 17, 1982)
(Hebrew: לאוניד בוריסוביץ' קוגן‎, Russian: Леонид Борисович Коган)
was a violin virtuoso, and one of the 20th century's most famous Soviet violinists. He ranked among the greatest representatives of the Soviet School of violin playing.

Kogan was born in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, the son of a photographer who was an amateur violinist.
After showing an early interest and ability for violin playing, his family moved to Moscow, where he was able to further his studies.
From age ten he studied there with the noted violin pedagogue Abram Yampolsky. In that same year, 1934, Jascha Heifetz played concerts in Moscow.
"I attended every one," Kogan later said, "and can remember until now every note he played. He was the ideal artist for me." When Kogan was 12, Jacques Thibaud was in Moscow and heard him play.
The French virtuoso predicted a great future for him.

Kogan first studied at the Central Music School in Moscow (1934-43) then at the Moscow Conservatory (1943-48) also as a postgraduate (1948-51).

At the age of 17, and while still a student, he performed throughout the USSR. While still a student, he was co-winner of the first prize at the World Youth Festival, in Prague. In 1951 Kogan won first prize at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels with a dazzling performance of Paganini's first concerto that included an outstanding interpretation of the Sauret Cadenza.

His official debut was in 1941, playing the Brahms Concerto with the Moscow Philharmonic in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

His international solo tours took him to Paris and London in 1955, and then South America and the USA in the following years. Kogan had a repertoire of over 18 concertos and a number of concertos by modern composers were dedicated to him.

In 1952, Kogan began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory, and in 1980 he was invited to teach at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy.

Kogan, a brilliant and compelling violinist, shunned publicity.
He lacked too some of the warmth and platform-charisma of David Oistrakh, his 16-year-older colleague. His career was always overshadowed by David Oistrakh, who in addition was strongly promoted by Soviet authorities. Kogan was made an Honoured Artist in 1955 and a People's Artist of the USSR in 1964, and received the Lenin Prize in 1965.

Kogan married Elizaveta Gilels (sister of the famous pianist Emil Gilels),
also a concert violinist. His son, Pavel Kogan, born in 1952, became a famous violinist and conductor.
His daughter, Nina Kogan, born 1954, is a concert pianist and became the accompanist and sonata partner of her father at an early age.

Kogan died of a heart attack (in the city of Mytishchi), while travelling by train between Moscow and Yaroslavl to a concert he was to perform with his son, Pavel.
Two days before, he had played the Beethoven Concerto in Vienna.

Boris Goldstein

Boris Goldstein performs Carl Flesch's transcription of Handel's 'Gebet' (Prayer) from Te Deum for violin and piano.

Boris Goldstein (Busya Goldshtein) (25 of December 1922, Odessa - 8 of November 1987, Hanover, Germany) was one of the brightest stars of violin.

A fantastically talented Soviet violinist whose music career was greatly hindered by the political situation in the USSR at that time.

As a young prodigy, he started violin studies in Odessa with the eminent pedagogue, Piotr Stolyarsky. As a teenager, Boris Goldstein, was singled out by Heifetz as being USSR's most brilliant violin talent.

He won the fourth prize of the 1935 Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Warsaw; Ginette Neveu from France came first, David Oistrakh second, and Josef Hassid from Poland received the honorary diploma.

In 1937, at one of the most prestigious international competitions of its time,
the International Ysaye Competition, Stoliarsky students caused a sensation.
Top prizes were garnered by David Oistrakh, Boris Goldshtein (Goldstein), Yelizaveta Gilels and Mikhail Fikhtengoltz. The Soviet Politburo was indeed riding the propaganda machine to its fullest. "The results of the sessions created a profound impression: the Soviet school, with an assurance that bordered on arrogance, carried off all the prizes from the first down.

The latter was awarded without the slightest discussion to the great David Oistrakh. Everyone else had to be content with crumbs; the Belgian violin school, though still a source of pride, failed, and its absence at the final was much commented on; Arthur Grumiaux and Carlo Van Neste, both young and inexperienced, were not able to convince the jury."

Later he was forced to emigrate from Russia.....arriving in Germany, he taught and nurtured many budding musicians (but his solo career never recovered).

The composer Mikhail Goldstein was his brother.
Notable students of Boris Goldstein include Zakhar Bron and Alexander Skwortsow.

Itzhak Perlman

Itzhak Perlman (born August 31, 1945)
Is an Israeli-American violin virtuoso, conductor, and pedagogue.

Perlman was born in Tel Aviv, where he first became interested in the violin when he heard a classical music performance on the radio. He studied at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv before moving to the United States to study at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay. He made his debut at Carnegie Hall in 1963 and won the prestigious Leventritt Competition in 1964. Soon afterward he began to tour extensively. In addition to an extensive recording career, he has made occasional guest appearances on American television, starting in the 1970s on shows such as The Tonight Show and Sesame Street, as well as playing at a number of functions at the White House.

Perlman contracted polio at the age of four. He made a good recovery, learning to walk with the use of crutches. Today, he generally uses crutches or an Amigo POV/Scooter for mobility and plays the violin while seated.

Although he has never been billed or marketed as a singer, he sang the role of "Un carceriere" ("a jailer") on a 1981 EMI recording of Puccini's Tosca which featured Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo, and Renato Bruson, with James Levine conducting. He had earlier sung the role in an excerpt from the opera on a 1980 Pension Fund Benefit Concert telecast as part of the Live from Lincoln Center series, with Luciano Pavarotti as Cavaradossi, and Zubin Mehta conducting the New York Philharmonic. Perlman is a basso.

In 1987, he joined the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for their concerts in Warsaw and Budapest, as well as other Eastern bloc countries. He toured with the IPO in the spring of 1990 for their first-ever performance in the USSR, with concerts in Moscow and Leningrad, and toured with the IPO again in 1994, performing in China and India.

While primarily a solo artist, Perlman has performed with a number of other notable musicians, including Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman and Yuri Temirkanov at the 150th anniversary celebration of Tchaikovsky in Leningrad in December 1990. He has also performed (and recorded) with good friend and fellow Israeli violinist Pinchas Zukerman on numerous occasions over the years.

As well as playing and recording the classical music for which he is best known, Perlman has also played jazz, including an album made with jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, and klezmer. Perlman has been a soloist for a number of movie scores, notably the score of the 1993 film Schindler's List by John Williams, which subsequently won an Academy Award for best score. More recently, he was the violin soloist for the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha, along with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Perlman played selections from the musical scores of the movies nominated for "Best Original Score" at the 73rd Academy Awards with Yo-Yo Ma, and at the 78th Academy Awards.

Perlman plays on the antique Soil Stradivarius violin of 1714, considered to be one of the finest violins made during Stradivari's "golden period", as well as the Sauret Guarneri del Gesu of c.1743.

In recent years, Perlman has also begun to conduct, taking the post of principal guest conductor at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He served as music advisor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2002-2004. In November, 2007, the Westchester Philharmonic announced the appointment of Perlman as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. His first concert in these roles was on October 11, 2008, in an all-Beethoven program featuring pianist Leon Fleisher performing the Emperor Concerto.

Perlman also teaches, and in 1975 took a faculty post at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. In 2003, Mr. Perlman was named the holder of the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Chair in Violin Studies at the Juilliard School, succeeding his teacher, Dorothy DeLay.

Perlman played during the entertainment at the state dinner attended by Queen Elizabeth II on May 7, 2007, in the East Room at the White House.[1]

He performed John Williams' "Air and Simple Gifts" at the 2009 inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama, along with Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet). The quartet played along with a recording they had made of themselves two days earlier, since string instruments cannot reliably stay in tune in subfreezing temperatures.

Itzhak Perlman resides in New York City with his wife, Toby, also a classically trained violinist. They have five children, Noah, Navah, Leora, Rami (of the rock band, Something for Rockets) and Ariella. In 1995, the Perlmans founded the Perlman Music Program in Shelter Island, New York, offering gifted young string players a summer residential course in chamber music.



(Itzhak Perlman - play Serenade Melancolique Op 26 -Tchaikovsky )

Hagai Shaham

Hagai Shaham is an Israeli violin virtuoso. Born in 1966, he began studying the violin at the age of six and was the last student of the late Professor Ilona Feher.

As a soloist he has performed with many of the world's major orchestras, including the English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Belgian National Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique Francais, Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra, SWF Baden-Baden Symphony Orchestra, Slovakian Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. In 1985 he was invited to join Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman in a gala concert at Carnegie Hall, following which Zubin Mehta invited him to perform Brahms' Double Concerto at Carnegie Hall.

He also performs as a recitalist and appears in chamber music performances. He regularly tours throughout Europe, and North and South America, performing at international recital series and festivals.

He has recorded on the Biddulph, Hyperion Records, Avie, Naxos Records, Talent, and more labels, music of Achron, Bloch, Brahms, Hubay, Grieg, Mozart, and more.

Hagai Shaham is on the faculty of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and conducts master classes primarily in Israel and Europe. In 2007, he joined the music faculty at the renowned Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.

In September 1990, Hagai Shaham and his duo partner Arnon Erez won the first prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in the Violin-Piano duo category, the first competitors to be awarded this coveted first prize since 1971. His other awards include first prizes at the Ilona Kornhouser competition, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority Young Artist competition, The Tel-Aviv Rubin Academy competition, four Clairmont Awards, and annual scholarship from the American-Israel Cultural Foundation.

He is a co-founder of the Ilona Feher Foundation. Mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham is his sister.

Shlomo Mintz

He was born on October 30, 1957 in Moscow,
is an Israeli violin virtuoso, violinist and conductor.


In 1959, at the age of two Shlomo Mintz emigrated with his family from Moscow to Israel, where he studied with the renowned Ilona Feher, one of the last representatives of the Central European Violin School.

Worldwide he is praised for his impeccable musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique alike.

Mintz regularly appears with leading orchestras and conductors and performs in recitals and chamber music concerts all around the world.

Mrs. Feher introduced Shlomo Mintz to Isaac Stern, who became his mentor.

He was also a student of Dorothy Delay in New York.

Mintz regularly appears with leading orchestras and conductors and performs in recitals and chamber music concerts all around the world.

In 1997 he played Paganini's famous "Il Cannone", a violin made by Italian luthier Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, in 1742, during a special concert in Maastricht in the Netherlands with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra and conductor Yoel Levi. This concert was an initiative of a Dutch television network (TROS) and aired on TV in December 1997.

Mintz began his career at age 11 as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Soon afterwards he was called on a week's notice by Zubin Mehta to play Paganini's first Violin Concerto with the orchestra when Itzhak Perlman fell ill. He made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of sixteen in a concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that was presented under the auspices of Isaac Stern and the American-Israel Cultural Foundation, and subsequently began his studies with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.


At the age of eighteen, Mintz added the role of conductor to his artistic endeavours and has since conducted acclaimed orchestras worldwide, such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (United Kingdom), the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Japan) and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

He was Music Advisor of the Israel Chamber Orchestra from 1989 to 1993 and in March 1994 he was named Artistic Advisor and Principal Guest Conductor of the Maastricht Symphony Orchestra (The Netherlands). He led the orchestra in weeks of concerts during four seasons, including some as both conductor and violin soloist.

In 2008 Mintz was named Principal Guest Conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mintz is patron and one of the founders of the Keshet Eilon International Violin Mastercourse in Israel, an advanced-level summer programme for young talented violinists from all around the world in kibbutz Eilon, Israel, and gives master classes worldwide.
He has been a member of the jury of several important international competitions, such as the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1993) and the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels (1993 and 2001).

In October 2001 Mintz was President of the Jury of the International Henryk Wieniawski Competition for the Violin in Poznań, Poland.

Since 2002 Mintz is Artistic Director of the Sion-Valais International Music Festival, and President of the Jury of the Sion Valais-International Violin Competition in Switzerland.

In order to bring a different insight into this Violin Competition, he cooperated with Swiss musician educator Nicole Coppey to create a Jury with children between 6 and 16.

In May 2006 Mintz was granted an Honorary Doctoral Degree by the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva, Israel.



Shlomo Mintz plays Sibelius violin concerto, 3rd movement.

Jascha Heifetz

Born in February 2, 1901(?)(1901-02-02) Vilna, Lithuania,Russian Empire.
Died in December 10, 1987 (aged 86)Los Angeles, California,United States.


Heifetz was born of Jewish descent in Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire.
There is controversy over his birth year, which is sometimes placed a year or two earlier to 1899 or 1900.
It is possible that his mother said he was two years younger to make him seem like more of a prodigy. His father, Reuven Heifetz, was a local violin teacher and served as the concertmaster of the Vilnius Theatre Orchestra for one season before the theatre closed down. Jascha took up the violin when he was three years old and his father was his first teacher. At five he started lessons with Ilya D. Malkin, a former pupil of Leopold Auer. He was a child prodigy, making his public debut at seven, in Kovno (now Kaunas, Lithuania) playing the Violin Concerto in E minor by Felix Mendelssohn. In 1910 he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to study under Leopold Auer.

He played in Germany and Scandinavia, and met Fritz Kreisler for the first time in a Berlin private house together with other noted violinists in attendance. Kreisler, after accompanying the 12-year-old Heifetz at the piano in a performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto, said to all present, "We may as well break our fiddles across our knees." Heifetz visited much of Europe while still in his teens. In April 1911, Heifetz performed in an outdoor concert in St Petersburg before 25,000 spectators; there was such a sensational reaction that police officers needed to protect the young violinist after the concert. In 1914, Heifetz performed with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Arthur Nikisch. The conductor was very impressed, saying he had never heard such an excellent violinist.
On October 27, 1917, Heifetz played for the first time in the United States at Carnegie Hall and became an immediate sensation. Fellow violinist Mischa Elman in the audience asked "Do you think it's hot in here?", whereupon Leopold Godowsky, in the next seat, imperturbably replied, "Not for pianists."

Heifetz was elected as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music, by the fraternity's Alpha chapter at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. As he was age 16 at the time, he was perhaps the youngest person ever elected to membership in the organization. Heifetz remained in the country and became an American citizen in 1925. When he told admirer Groucho Marx he had been earning his living as a musician since the age of seven, Groucho answered, "And I suppose before that you were just a bum."
Heifetz is considered to be one of the greatest violinists of the twentieth century. Heifetz had an immaculate technique and a tonal beauty that many violinists still regard as unequalled. Yet, from time to time his near-perfect technique and conservative stage demeanor caused some critics to accuse him of being overly mechanical, even cold. Virgil Thomson called Heifetz' style of playing "silk underwear music", a term he did not intend as a compliment. Even so, many other critics agree he infused his playing with feeling and reverence for the composers' intentions. His style of playing was highly influential in defining the way modern violinists approach the instrument. His use of rapid vibrato, emotionally charged portamento, fast tempos, and superb bow control coalesced to create a highly distinctive sound that make Heifetz's playing instantly recognizable to aficionados.

The violinist Itzhak Perlman, who himself is noted for his rich warm tone and expressive use of portamento, describes Heifetz's tone as like "a tornado" because of its emotional intensity. In creating his sound, Heifetz was very particular about his choice of strings.
For his entire career he used a silver wound tricolore gut g-string, plain gut unvarnished d- and a-strings, and a Goldbrokat steel e-string medium including clear hill rosin sparingly. Heifetz believed that playing on gut strings was important in rendering an individual sound.
Heifetz made his first recordings in Russia during 1910-11, while still a student of Auer. The existence of these recordings was not widely known until after Heifetz's death, when several sides (most notably Schubert's L'Abeille) were reissued on an LP included as a supplement to The Strad magazine.

Shortly after his Carnegie Hall debut on November 7, 1917, Heifetz made his first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company; he would remain with Victor and its successor, RCA Victor, for most of his career. For several years, in the 1930s, Heifetz recorded primarily for HMV in the UK because RCA cut back on classical recordings during the Great Depression; these discs were issued in the US by RCA Victor. Heifetz often enjoyed playing chamber music. Various critics have blamed his limited success in chamber ensembles to the fact that his artistic personality tended to overwhelm his colleagues. Some notable collaborations include his 1940 recordings of piano trios by Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and Brahms with cellist Emanuel Feuermann and pianist Arthur Rubinstein as well as a later collaboration with Rubinstein and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, with whom he recorded trios by Maurice Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and Felix Mendelssohn. Both formations were sometimes referred to as the Million Dollar Trio.

He recorded the Beethoven Violin Concerto in 1940 with the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini, and again in stereo in 1955 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Münch. A live performance of Heifetz playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, again with Toscanini and the NBC Symphony, has also been released.

He performed and recorded Erich Wolfgang Korngold's violin concerto, at a time when many classical musicians avoided Korngold's music because they did not consider him a "serious" composer after he wrote many film scores for Warner Brothers.

After an only partially successful operation on his right shoulder in 1972 Heifetz ceased giving concerts and making records. Although his prowess as a performer remained intact and he continued to play privately until the end, his bow arm was affected and he could never again hold the bow as high as before.
Rudolf Koelman (left) with Jascha Heifetz

Heifetz taught the violin extensively, first at UCLA, then at the University of Southern California, with his friend Gregor Piatigorsky. For a few years in the eighties he also held classes in his private studio at home in Beverly Hills. His teaching studio can be seen today in the main building of the Colburn school, where it is now used for masterclasses and serves as an inspiration to the students there. During his teaching career Heifetz taught, among others, Erick Friedman, Carol Sindell, Adam Han-Gorsky, Robert Witte, Yuval Yaron, Elizabeth Matesky, Claire Hodgkins, Yukiko Kamei, Rudolf Koelman, Varujan Kojan, Sherry Kloss, Elaine Skorodin, Eugene Fodor, and Ayke Agus. Heifetz died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. It was rumored that Heifetz was such a strict discipline observer that the main gate of his Beverly Hills home were closed sharp at the appointment time of his classes to shut out students who arrived late.

Heifetz owned the 1714 Dolphin Stradivarius, the 1731 "Piel" Stradivarius, the 1736 Carlo Tononi, and the 1742 ex David Guarneri, del Gesù, the latter of which he preferred and kept until his death. The Dolphin Strad is currently owned by the Nippon Music Foundation. The Heifetz Tononi violin used at his 1917 Carnegie Hall debut was left in his will to Sherry Kloss, Master-Teaching Assistant to Heifetz, with "one of my four good bows" (Violinist/Author Kloss wrote "Jascha Heifetz Through My Eyes, and is Co-Founder of the Jascha Heifetz Society). The famed Guarneri is now in the San Francisco Legion of Honor Museum, as instructed by Heifetz in his will, and may only be taken out and played "on special occasions" by deserving players. The instrument has recently been on loan to San Francisco Symphony concertmaster Alexander Barantschik.

In 1989, Heifetz received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Wikipédia.

Efrem Zimbalist ,Sr

Efrem Zimbalist, Sr.

(Born in April 9, 1890- Died February 22, 1985)
was one of the world's most prominent concert violinists, as well as a composer, teacher, conductor and a long-time director of the Curtis Institute of Music.

Zimbalist was born in the southwestern Russian city of Rostov on Don (Rostov-na-Donu), Russia, the son of Jewish parents Maria (née Litvinoff) and Aron Zimbalist, who was a conductor.
By the age of nine, Efrem Zimbalist was first violin in his father’s orchestra. At age 12 he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and studied under Leopold Auer.

He graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1907 after winning a gold medal and the Rubenstein Prize, and by age 21 was considered one of the world's greatest violinists.

After graduation he debuted in Berlin (playing the Brahms concerto) and London in 1907 and in the U.S. in 1911, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He then settled in the U.S. He did much to popularize the performance of early music. In 1917, he was elected as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music, by the fraternity's Alpha Chapter at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. In 1928, Zimbalist began teaching at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He was director of the school from 1941 to 1968. His pupils included such distinguished musicians as Oscar Shumsky, Felix Slatkin, Shmuel Ashkenasi, and Hidetaro Suzuki.

He retired as a violinist in 1949, but returned in 1952 to give the first performance of the Violin Concerto by Gian Carlo Menotti, which is dedicated to him. He retired again in 1955. He served as a juror of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1962 and 1966.

His own compositions include a violin concerto, the American Rhapsody and a tone poem called Daphnis and Chloe. He also wrote an opera Landara, which premiered in Philadelphia in 1956.

He married the famous American soprano Alma Gluck and they toured together for a time. Alma Gluck died in 1938. In 1943, a widower for 5 years, he married the school’s founder, Mary Louise Curtis Bok, daughter of publisher, Cyrus Curtis, and 14 years his senior.

He died in 1985, at the age of 94. His and Alma's son, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and their granddaughter, Stephanie Zimbalist, both became popular actors.




Efrem Zimbalist plays Bizet(arranged by Sarasate)'
Carmen Fantasie for Japan Columbia in 1930s.

Mischa Elman

Mikhail Saulovich 'Mischa' Elman
(January 20, 1891 – April 5, 1967) was a Ukrainian-born violinist, famed for his passionate style and beautiful tone.

He was born in the small town of Talnoye near Kiev. His grandfather was a klezmer, a Jewish folk musician, who also played the violin. It became apparent when Mischa was very young that he had perfect pitch, but his father hesitated about a career as a musician, since musicians were not very high on the social scale. He finally gave in, and gave Mischa a miniature violin, on which he soon learned several tunes by himself. Soon thereafter, he was taken to Odessa, where he studied at the Imperial Academy of Music. Pablo de Sarasate gave him a recommendation, stating that he could become one of the great talents of Europe. He auditioned for Leopold Auer at the age of 11, playing the Wieniawski Concerto No. 2 and 24th Caprice by Paganini. Auer was so impressed that he had Elman admitted to the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Elman was still only a boy when Auer arranged for him to play with the famous Colonne Orchestra during their visit to Pavlovsk. Knowing Édouard Colonne's hatred of child prodigies, Auer did not tell him Elman's age when making the arrangements, and not until the famous conductor saw young Mischa waiting to go on the platform did he realize that he had engaged a child. He was furious, and flatly refused to continue with the programme. Frantic attempts were made to assure him that Elman had the recommendation of Auer himself and was well capable of doing justice to the music, but Colonne was adamant, " I have never yet played with a child, and I refuse to start now," he retorted. So Elman had to play with piano accompaniment while conductor and orchestra sat listening.
In 1903, Elman began to play concerts in the homes of wealthy patrons of the arts, and he made his Berlin debut in 1904, creating a great sensation. His London debut in 1905 included the British premiere of Alexander Glazunov's Violin Concerto in A minor. He played in Carnegie Hall in 1908, making a great impression on his American audience.
The Elman family moved to the United States, and Mischa became a citizen in 1923. In 1917, he was elected to honorary membership in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity. He sometimes performed in as many as 107 concerts in a 29-week season. In 1943, he gave the premiere of Bohuslav Martinů's second concerto, which was written for him. Sales of his records exceeded two million.

A frequent accompanist in chamber works during Elman's early American career was Emmanuel Bay, who was born on exactly the same day as he was, January 20, 1891. But Elman also performed and recorded with Josef Bonime, Carroll Hollister and others, and from 1950, his steady accompanist and recital partner was Joseph Seiger. He also briefly performed and made recordings with the Mischa Elman String Quartet.

Elman died on April 5, 1967 in New York City, a few hours after completing a rehearsal with Seiger. He is buried in the Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Elman's recorded legacy spanned just over 60 years: his first 78 rpm discs were made for Pathe,in Paris, in 1906; his final LP sessions were for Vanguard, in New York, shortly before his death. The greatest part of his discography was recorded for HMV and Victor, with whom he had an exclusive relationship through 1950. Thereafter, he recorded for Decca/London and later the Vanguard recording group. Unlike his contemporary, Jascha Heifetz, Elman's work has never been re-issued in a systematic manner.

David Oistrakh

David Fyodorovich Oistrakh- (Odessa-September,30-1908-Amsterdan-October,24-1978)
Great Russian violinist, outstanding pedagogue, and esteemed conductor.

He studied violin as a child with Stoliarsky in Odessa, making his debut there at the age of 6, and then continued his studies with Stoliarsky at the Odessa Conservatory (1923-26); then appeared as soloist in Glazunov's Violin Concerto under the composer's direction in Kiev in 1927. In 1928 he went to Moscow and in 1934 he was appointed to the faculty of the Conservatory His name attracted universal attention in 1937 when he won first prize at the Ysaÿe Competition in Brussels, in which 68 violinists from 21 countries took part. This launched a career of great renown as a violin virtuoso. He played in Paris and London in 1953 with extraordinary success; made his first American appearances in 1955, as soloist with major American orchestras and in recitals, winning enthusiastic acclaim; also made appearances as a conductor from 1962. He died while on a visit to Amsterdam as a guest conductor with the Concertgebouw Orchestra Oistrakh's playing was marked, apart from a phenomenal technique, by stylistic fidelity to works by different composers of different historical periods. Soviet composers profited by his advice as to technical problems of violin playing; he collaborated with Prokofiev in making an arrangement for violin and piano of his Flute Sonata. A whole generation of Soviet violinists numbered among his pupils, first and foremost his son Igor (Davidovich) Oistrakh (b. Odessa, April 27, 1931), who has had a spectacular career in his own right; he won first prize at the International Festival of Democratic Youth in Budapest (1949) and the Wieniawski Competition in Poznan (1952); some critics regarded him as equal to his father in virtuosity; from 1958 he taught at the Moscow Conservatory.

Further Readings
Bibliography
V. Bronin, D. O. (Moscow, 1954); I. Yampolsky, D. O. (Moscow, 1964); D. Naberin, D. UND IGOR O. (Berlin, 1968); V. Josefowitsch, D. O. (Stuttgart, 1977); Y. Soroker, D. O. (Jerusalem, 1982).

Source: "David Fyodorovich Oistrakh." BAKER'S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF MUSICIANS®, Centennial Edition. Nicolas Slonimsky, Editor Emeritus. Schirmer, 2001.

'ISAAC STERN'

Isaac Stern (November 29, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was a Jewish violin virtuoso born in the Ukraine.

Stern was born in Kremenetz, Ukraine.

He was ten month old when his family moved to San Francisco. He received his first music lessons from his mother before enrolling at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1928 where he studied until 1931 before going on to study privately with Louis Persinger. He returned to the San Francisco Conservatory in to study with Naoum Blinder for five years.

He said he owed the most to Blinder. At his public début on February 18, 1936, aged 15, he played the Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor of Camille Saint-Saëns with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Pierre Monteux.

Reflecting on his background Stern once memorably quipped that cultural exchanges between the US and Soviet Russia were simple affairs: "They send us their Jews from Odessa, and we send them our Jews from Odessa"

Within musical circles, Stern became renowned both for his recordings and for championing certain younger players. Among his discoveries were cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Jian Wang, and violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman.

He also played a major role in saving New York City's Carnegie Hall from demolition in 1960 which later had its main auditorium named in his honor.

Among his many recordings, Stern recorded concertos by Johannes Brahms, Johann Sebastian Bach, Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn and Antonio Vivaldi and modern works by Samuel Barber, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein and Henri Dutilleux. The Dutilleux concerto, entitled L'Arbre des Songes ['The Tree of Dreams'] was a 1985 commission by Stern himself. He also dubbed actors' violin-playing in several films, one of which was Fiddler on the Roof.

Stern served as musical advisor for the 1946 film, Humoresque, about a rising violin star and his patron, played respectively by John Garfield and Joan Crawford.Stern's favorite violin was the Ysaÿe Guarneri del Gesù, one of the violins produced by the Cremonese luthier Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù.

He also owned several J.B.Vuillaume violins and two contemporary instruments by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.In his autobiography written with Chaim Potok, My First 79 Years, he cites Nathan Milstein and Arthur Grumiaux as major influences on his style of playing.He won Grammys for his work with Eugene Istomin and Leonard Rose in their famous chamber music trio.In 1979, eight years after Nixon made the first official visit by a US President to the country, the People's Republic of China offered Stern and pianist David Golub an unprecedented invitation to tour the country.

While there, he collaborated with the China Central Symphony Society (now China National Symphony) under the direction of Chinese Conductor Li Delun. Their visit was filmed and resulted in an Oscar-winning documentary From Mao to Mozart.

In 1987, Stern received the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

His November 1948 marriage to ballerina Nora Kaye ended in divorce in 1949.

On August 17, 1951, Isaac married Vera Lindenblit. They had three children together. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1994 after 43 years of marriage.

On January 23, 1997, Isaac married his third wife, Linda Reynolds, who survived him.

Isaac Stern died on September 22, 2001 of congestive heart failure at 81.