Isaac Stern; My First 79 Years
New York, N.Y. Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. First Trade Edition [stated]. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. 317 pages. Bookplate signed by the author (Isaac Stern) on the half-title page. Book includes Acknowledgments, Introduction, Twenty-Eight Chapters, and an Afterword. In this book, Isaac Stern shares with us both his personal and his artistic experiences; the story of his rise to eminence; his feelings about music and the violin; his rich emotional life; his great friendships and collaborations with colleagues such as Leonard Bernstein and Pablo Casals; his background as an ardent supporter of Israel; and his ideas and beliefs about art, life, love, and the world we live in. Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was an American violinist. Born in Poland, Stern came to the US when he was 14 months old. Stern performed both nationally and internationally, notably touring the Soviet Union and China, and performing extensively in Israel, a country to which he had close ties since shortly after its founding. Stern received extensive recognition for his work, including winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom and six Grammy Awards, and being named to the French Legion of Honour. The Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall bears his name, due to his role in saving the venue from demolition in the 1960s. Stern toured the Soviet Union in 1951, the first American violinist to do so. In 1967, Stern stated his refusal to return to the USSR until the Soviet regime allowed artists to enter and leave the country freely. His only visit to Germany was in 1999, for a series of master classes, but he never performed publicly in Germany. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: As one might expect, the more engaging elements in this autobiography occur when Stern, world-renowned violinist (or as he would have it, "fiddler") and music education activist, discusses playing--and not just his own. Stern seems most excited when discussing performances by others, including Naoum Blinder, Pierre Monteux and Leonard Bernstein. The virtuoso also details his childhood and formal training: Stern, it seems, had very little of either. Born and raised by middle-class Russian-Ukrainian immigrant parents in San Francisco, Stern credits his interest in the violin to a childhood friend. Rather than bloat his talent or sense of destiny, Stern is given to frank statements such as, "It seems I may have been the first American violinist to do a tour of the major Soviet cities." Coauthor Potok's narrative touch is clear; instead of technical jargon, classical pieces are described through setting and emotion. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Violinists, Anti-Semitism, Carnegie Hall, Sol Hurok, Jews, Israel, Alexander Zakin, Musician, Performer, Leonard Bernstein
ISBN: 0679451307
[Book #81682]
Price: $125.00