25 years without Nathan Milstein

25 years without Nathan Milstein

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norman lebrecht

December 22, 2017

The great violinist died on December 21, 1992, a ew days shy of his 89th birthday.

He was the mos immaculate individual, calm and reasoned in all he did, a positive fount of wisdom and experience. I learned from him more about life and music than I did from any other musician.

I once asked if he used to play many summer festivals.

‘Festivals?’ said Nathan, ‘what are they?’

‘So what did you do in the summer?’

‘Before the War, Horowitz and I used to spend six weeks with Rachmaninov at Senar, beside Lake Lucerne. In those days, a composer was an enlightened person who knew about all sorts of subjects – archaeology, lepidoptery… We would talk for hours and never get bored.’

‘He praised Horowitz as a great interpreter of his works…’

‘Yes, but he would spend more time with me at Senar. Maybe because I wasn’t a pianist.’

Marvellous man.

 

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