Nathan Milstein

Nathan Milstein was a Soviet and American violinist, one of the major representatives of the classical Russian violin school of the 20th century. He was born as Nusin Meerovich Milstein on 24 December 1902 in Odessa and died on 21 December 1992 in London.

He was born into a large family far removed from music. His father, Meer Milstein, worked for a wool textile firm, and his mother, Maryam-Rukhlya Blyushteyn, was a housewife. Milstein was the fourth child in the family. He studied violin with Pyotr Stolyarsky until 1914, and in 1916 continued his training at the Petrograd Conservatory with Leopold Auer.

In 1920 he gave his first concert in Odessa, and in the same year performed Glazunov's Violin Concerto under the direction of the composer. During the following five years he refined his artistry and appeared in the USSR, often from 1923 in the same concerts as Vladimir Horowitz, with Horowitz's sister Regina accompanying him.

In 1925 Milstein and Horowitz left for an overseas tour and decided not to return to their homeland. Milstein soon settled in Brussels, where he was warmly received by Eugène Ysaÿe. Three years later he made his New York debut with the city's philharmonic orchestra; the concerts were highly successful, and he soon moved to the United States, where he performed for many years. After the Second World War, having taken United States citizenship in 1942, he resumed concerts in Europe. In 1945 he married Therese Kaufman.

Milstein continued to perform and give master classes until 1988, when he broke his arm in a fall. He was known for a highly intellectual manner of playing, exceptional technical command, and a refined sense of form and style. Through a carefully developed vibrato technique and frequent changes in bow direction, he achieved a distinctive warm and sincere tone.

He was also the author of a number of original works for violin, including the Paganiniana written in 1954, as well as cadenzas for concertos by Beethoven and other composers. Together with Solomon Volkov he wrote the memoir book From Russia to the West, published in New York in 1990.

Appearing with leading orchestras and conductors, Milstein gave numerous concerts around the world and made recordings of works by Mendelssohn, Bruch, Tchaikovsky, and other composers. He became especially famous for his performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's music for solo violin, for which he received the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Classical Performance. Among his other honors was the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honour in 1968.

Connections

This figure has 1 connection in the Music Lineage catalog.