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Nathan Mironovich Milstein ( – December 21, 1992) was a Russian and American virtuoso violinist.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for works from the Romantic music period. He was also known for his long career: he performed at a high level into his mid-80s, retiring only after suffering a broken hand.
Every little boy who had the dream of playing better than the other boy wanted to go to Auer. He was a very gifted man and a good teacher. I used to go to the Conservatory twice a week for classes. I played every lesson with forty or fifty people sitting and listening. Two pianos were in the classroom and a pianist accompanied us. When Auer was sick, he would ask me to come to his home. High Fidelity, November 1977, 84, 86. As quoted in Schwarz, 443.
Milstein may in fact have been the last Russian violinist 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."Auer, Leopold, My Long Life in Music, 343–344. As quoted in Schwarz, 443. Neither is Milstein's name in the registry of the St Petersburg Conservatory. Milstein also studied with Eugène Ysaÿe in Belgium. In the documentary Nathan Milstein – In Portrait, Milstein told the director Christopher Nupen 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." High Fidelity, November 1977, 86. As quoted in Schwarz, Boris, Great Masters of the Violin (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), p. 444.
Milstein 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."Schwarz, 443. Milstein and Horowitz performed together, as "children of the revolution", throughout the Soviet Union and struck up a lifelong friendship. The premiere of Violin Concerto No. 1 (Prokofiev) in the Soviet Union in 1923 is worth noting since it was given just three days after the Paris premiere by two 19-year-olds, Milstein and Horowitz. Horowitz played the orchestral part on the piano. Milstein later wrote in his memoirs, From Russia to the West, "I feel that if you have a great pianist like Horowitz playing with you, you don't need an orchestra."Quoted in Steinberg, 350. Milstein and Horowitz also introduced Karol Szymanowski's First Violin Concerto at the same concert.Steinberg, 350. In 1925, they went on a concert tour of Western Europe together.
In 1929, Milstein made his American debut with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He eventually settled in New York, gaining American citizenship in 1942. He toured repeatedly throughout Europe, maintaining residences in London and Paris. A transcriber and composer, Milstein arranged many works for violin and wrote his own for many concertos. 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. One of his best-known compositions is Paganiniana, a set of variations on various themes from the works of Niccolò Paganini.
After playing many different violins in his earlier days, Milstein finally acquired the 1716 "Goldman" Stradivarius in 1945 which he used for the rest of his life. He renamed this Stradivarius the "Maria Teresa" in honor of his daughter Maria and his wife Therese. He also performed on the 1710 ex-"Dancla" Stradivarius for a short period. In 1948, Milstein's recording of Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, with Bruno Walter conducting the New York Philharmonic, was the first recording issued in Columbia Records's LP record format.D. Kern Holoman The Orchestra: A Very Short Introduction 2012 Page 107 "The first classical LP was the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Nathan Milstein, Bruno Walter, and the New York Philharmonic-Symphony, Columbia ML-4001. RCA capitulated in 1950, leaving 45s as the medium of choice for pop singles."John F. Morton Backstory in Blue: Ellington at Newport '56 2008 Page 49 "1947.. The following year Columbia made what it regarded as record history, introducing the first twelve-inch LP, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, with violinist Nathan Milstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Bruno Walter ... Within a year and a half of the introduction of the LP, Columbia had sold twice as many Masterworks as RCA was selling of Red Seal. RCA had begun to lose its artists. Some, like opera tenor Ezio Pinza, would go to Columbia..."
Milstein was awarded the Légion d'honneur by France in 1968 and received a Grammy Award for his recording of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas in 1975. He was also awarded Kennedy Center honors by US President Ronald Reagan. A recital he gave in Stockholm in June 1986, one of his last performances, was recorded in its entirety and shows the remarkable condition of his technique at age 82. A fall shortly afterward in which he severely broke his left hand ended his career. 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 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 was married to Therese Kaufman, with whom he had one daughter, Maria Bernadette. He died of a heart attack in London on December 21, 1992, 23 days before his 89th birthday. Inkpot biography Therese died in 1999 aged 83.
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