My First 79 Years
New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. First Trade Edition [stated]. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. [12], 317, [7] p. Illustrations. Index. Signed on the title page by Stern. Name of previous owner in ink on fep. Isaac Stern (21 July 1920 22 September 2001) was a Soviet-born violinist and conductor. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent. Isaac Stern was born into a Volhynian-Jewish family in Kremenets (Krzemieniec), then in the Soviet Ukraine (the year after his birth it again became part of Poland). He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco. He received his first music lessons from his mother. In 1928, he enrolled at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied until 1931 before going on to study privately with Louis Persinger. He returned to the San Francisco Conservatory to study for five years with Naoum Blinder, to whom he said he owed the most. At his public debut on 18 February 1936, aged 15, he played Saint-Saens' Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Pierre Monteux. 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. Chaim Potok (February 17, 1929 – July 23, 2002) was an American author and rabbi. His first book The Chosen (1967), was listed on The New York Times’ best seller list for 39 weeks. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: As one might expect, the more engaging elements in this autobiography occur when Stern, world-renowned violinist 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. After three marriages, four kids and a 60-plus-year career that spans playing in Carnegie Hall to saving it from demolition, to touring the world dozens of times over, a man is entitled to a few tales. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Bartok, Anti-semitism, Leonard Bernstein, Carnegie Hall, Pablo Casals, Jascha Heifetz, Judaism, Istomin, Alexander Zakin, Violin, Musician, Performer, Violinist, Conductor
ISBN: 9780679451303
[Book #85160]
Price: $125.00