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Isaac Stern

from Instrumentalists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2014

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Summary

Seated in a stall of the Tonhalle in Zurich on March 8, 1977, I did something very reprehensible indeed: I secretly recorded the first half of a rehearsal, with Isaac Stern playing two short compositions by Mozart for violin and orchestra—the Adagio in E Major KV 261 and the Rondo in C Major KV 373. The Tonhalle Orchestra was conducted by John Pritchard.

Thanks to that misdemeanor, I have now been able to listen yet again to the unique aural phenomenon that was Isaac Stern's violin playing. I closed my eyes, heard the introductory bars of the orchestra—and then, there appeared out of nowhere a bodiless sound illuminated by the halo of Stern's artistry. The sound floated, with ever so slight changes in color and dynamics. It had a sweetness shot through with melancholy, of the kind I had heard in my childhood on historic recordings of Bronisław Huberman and others. I hope I may describe it as noble without appearing to be glib. I was not aware of any vibrato; that the sound was issuing from an instrument, that it was produced by a human being who, as I can still picture him, seemingly did nothing but move his bow up and down, up and down, was a veritable miracle. It was also a miracle what he did with that sound. It was but a means for him to transmit—to use a phrase by Stern himself—Mozart's message.

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From Boulanger to Stockhausen
Interviews and a Memoir
, pp. 135 - 143
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2013

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