Word: violiniste
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Once, so the story goes, a Soviet commissar visited Violinist David Oistrakh in Odessa, looked into a cradle and sternly ordered, "Make that boy as good a violinist as his father." For a while it looked as if nothing like that could ever happen. David Oistrakh was already on his way to being one of the world's finest fiddlers, and young Igor showed signs of detesting violin sounds from the time he started making them at the age of six. But they kept his bow to the catgut. At 18 he entered the Moscow conservatory, became a master...
...polite. Igor played César Franck's Sonata in A with half-closed eyes focused on his finger board, his lips compressed, mouth working. It was an impressive, boldly colored performance. The next work, Bach's knuckle-busting G Minor Sonata, is a test for any violinist. Violinist Oistrakh seemed to anticipate it with both distaste and fear and played as if to get it over with. It was, however, the evening's only disappointment. After works by Prokofiev, Szymanowski and Saint-Saëns, the audience dissolved in cheers...
...First Violinist Helmut Heller of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was one of the many professionals in the crowd. Said he: "Igor Oistrakh is a virtuoso performer reminiscent of Heifetz. I have heard the boy several times, and it is clear to me that he has not reached his father's stage of development. The son plays largely from the subconscious; the father has succeeded in ennobling his art by playing consciously without sacrificing those qualities of the subconscious that enrich his playing...
Boston Symphony (Mon. 8:15 p.m., NBC). With Violinist Zino Francescatti...
...evening touring Violinist Nathan Milstein found himself in Chicago, all dressed up and no place to go. In a bit of a funk, he consulted his contract, which cryptically stated that he was to play a concert that night in suburban Evanston, Ill. Misplaced Person Milstein, at a loss for details on exactly where, appealed for help to the Chicago Tribune's omniscient Drama & Musicritic Claudia Cassidy. Manning her telephone, Claudia finally hit on the right place, just an hour before curtain time. At 8 p.m. Fiddler Milstein, calm but breathless, strode onstage at Northwestern University's Cahn...