Nathan Milstein plays Mendelssohn (vaimusic.com)

[Flaminggential]

interesting fingering in the beginning..open E follow by fourth finger hmm...

[Pariah186]

A Master Violinist at work. Recommend the Deutsche Grammophon version with the Vienna Phillarmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado. Truly beautiful.

[LordMeMo92]

i learn this song this year

[outoftunefiddler]

In answer to "who was the best" (where the writer made a list of fiddler's...), I suggest you go to Schwarz's book, "Great Masters of the Violin". There is a commonality, here, and Schwarz writes about it.....

[ericgable]

Milstein, comes first over any other violinist. TO me Milstein was the best, i fantanstic man. His music to me is a inspiration to become like him, and play the violin as well as him

[Hikikomori013]

They were talking about the history of the LP record today. The first commercial 12"LP was released by Columbia in 1948, featuring Nathan Milstein performing this piece.

[omgtkseth]

My mendel's all time favorite. Mmh, the audio quality is better than cellphone recordings, from the b&w era. I'd like more resonance, too. Other than that, they played it fantastically. Except they stopped at 4 minutes.

[jeffersonfsoares]

Minha Lista São:

Jascha Heifetz

David Oistrakh

Leonid Kogan

Nathan Milstein

Itzhak Perlman

Maxim Vengerov

[MrGunterguerrero]

And what about Stern,Milstein, Francescatti, Zukerman,Vengerov, Accardo...they aren't in the same level to you mr.gibsonpaddy ?

By the way, this concerto,was the first I heard in my life when I were under 10...

It openned the way of the good music to me,,,was performed by Alfredo Campoli...

someone remember him ?

[gibsonpaddy]

All good players but none are near the best. Mr Heifetz was the greatest he was a pupil of God

[MrGunterguerrero]

Maybe you're right...maybe you' right ! At least whe have the same musical good taste !

[Jctankk]

@gibsonpaddy So then Leopold Auer is God? 

[gibsonpaddy]

My list is;

No1.Heifetz

No2.Menuhin

No3.Perlman

[Edoom21]

and David Oistrakh?

[LaurieGreenSoprano]

I knew Walter Hendl when towards the end of his life. So sad a man of his stature would die in almost utter obscurity. It's not just about Milstein. Hendl had the orchestra under control. Period.

[fredhainen]

all these stupid .comments about who is better is so Juvenal

[gibsonpaddy]

who du think is de best..??

[gibsonpaddy]

Like your spelling

[lpvcrcd]

@fredhainen Yes But whose is bigger?

[sijas]

look at that bow hold.

100% arm movement.

makes me wonder if there is actually an "ideal" tchnique for violin or if it's different for everyone.

[ericgable]

@sijas Thats because people like me and Nathan milstein, with russain bow holds...um also Jascha Heifetz has one.. we dont use our wrist as much as you guys, and we seem to have a higher elbow position..and that is why Russain Bow holds are not taught by teachers, but my teacher doesnt have a problem with it.. it works for me great, and it makes me feel awesome having something in common with Mr.Milstein.

[ByronPhillipWilliams]

@sijas I've been thinking the same thing as well, I've been getting conflicting responses

[SimonS7r]

@sijas: He was very small... look at elman for example, he also uses very much arm movement. I like it! The sound is coming more from the body and doesnt't sound pressed. Milstein is my role model!

[Sitioespacio]

Era un gran violinista.

[newyorkernut3]

Yes, with masters it's who you prefer on any given day

or emotional mood,However" the best ,the greatest"is still a disease taught young music students at most conservatories.

[newyorkernut3]

His 1949 recordings on the old USA label Columbia are just superb of this concerto.

Quite sad that Western Classical Musicians are trained to be such critics and we have the prosaic"Who is better" concept as if we were speaking of football. It's detrimental to art.

Kindly always remember what Surgeons were taught in the 1930's, "Perfection is the enemy of

the good". think about it!

.

[cdavistwo]

at this level of mastery there is no "better" it's just who you like listening to more, whose interpretation you more enjoy

[OriginalMoonbeam]

I could kill whoever shot this video..we hear some of Milstein's most beautiful portemento during this VC and I would have love to have seen it accomplished but what do you see during those times? NOT THE FINGERBOARD! Why can't they have camera people who know something about the violin and what would make great shots at the right moment?????

[kammermusiken]

Listening to the acoustics of the studio in this vid I'm not surprised about to hear every mistake so clearly. These guys knew how to make music. Nowadays violinists are taught how to play a string instrument most perfectly. That's a big difference. Good music is not about intonation, it's about emotion and emotion has nothing to do with perfection. I wish I could hear and feel more stage fright in concerts nowadays instead of big sounding instruments and perfect intonation.

[outoftunefiddler]

@kammermusiken I recently played (for Christmas night) a concert at the oldest church in Seattle........The Schubert Ave Maria with the Grand Organ accompanying.

A writer said about me........[t]hough his legs shook, he played with an aching beauty"....Nicest compliment i EVER had!!!!

[Lederzunge4]

The intonation is not really up to his usual standard; but hey, it's still great. Not my favourite rendition, though...

[ipmoic]

What a stupid comment paulin79dk. Yes, he has a bit of trouble with the passage at :48-:50, but he is human. And as I have said in other posts, Milstein had stage fright-- having had to be literally kicked out onto the stage on certain occasions. The fact that he was still so magnificent is a testament to overcoming this very common malady.

I'm not sure there has ever been a violinist MORE prepared to play!

[tlcooper93]

its the video smart one, if he wasn't prepared, he would not play. Professionals don't make too many mistakes.

[bastianloewe]

what the hell is wrong with you!!!??? he is milstein he is at least in one of the three best violinst of the golden era oistrakh milstein and heifetz in my opinion. your comments is just offensive adn only proves how little you know about music

[chrillionare88]

menuhin is better than milstein.

my list:

Stern, Heifitz, menuhin, oistrack, milstein

[HPPcello2]

he makes it sound fun I like this recording

[natacha94430]

trés jolie musique nostalgique!

[crazy77town]

5* plus

[OriginalMoonbeam]

Just fantastic! Thanks SO much for posting!

[JPizzle1490]

sorry. unless it was on purpose*

[JPizzle1490]

I don't hear any intonation problems, but i don't have perfect pitch. Let me tell you something though, Milstein wouldn't have played out of tune for twenty seconds on purpose. He was better than that.

[OriginalMoonbeam]

Agreed..Milstein did not become one of the top violinist in the world by having less than magnificent intonation. Most professional level violinists have excellent intonation because they MUST, it not a matter of simply hitting the correct key like on a piano or locating the right fret. I would trust Milstein's ear over posters on YouTube anyday...I know he makes MY ears happy! Milstein is the bomb!

[Doctor550]

Are you saying that milstein did not had perfect intonation?

[OriginalMoonbeam]

Please read the comment CAREFULLY. I said his intonation was MAGNIFICENT

[tlcooper93]

While it may not be my favorite interpretation, his sound is one of the best I've heard. He plays the Brahms the best though.

[Milstein7]

Hi d0 you like Milstein?

He is one of the best in 20th Century.

His Mendelssphn is perfect, especially 1972 with Abado. Bach Chaconne, nobody plays better than he did.

[humbertsin1994]

Milstein's interpretation of the piece is very blank and boring.

[Itachi1846]

you are young and stupid...

[NestorAudinotviolins]

you're comment is hopelessly out of place. I pity you for your ignorance and encourage you to remedy you're lack of sophistication.

[bmwoodson]

Somewhat ironic that the criticism of someone's ignorance and the misspelling of 'your' occurred all in the same comment.

[NestorAudinotviolins]

"you're" absolutely right. I did indeed spell that word wrong. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.

[NestorAudinotviolins]

Isn't "your" sentence missing a pronoun and a verb at the beginning? (The point is that before one calls attention to the speck of dust in another's eye, one ought to remove the speck in his own - don't you think?)

[bmwoodson]

Actually, it's called informal English. If you haven't noticed, outside of news articles and other formal writing, most people use it on the internet since it is somewhat similar to normal dialogue. People don't generally, however, intentionally use 'your' and 'you're' interchangeably. I'm not calling you ignorant. I just noticed and saw the humor in the situation.

[chagalletje]

a bit out of tune. he tries to copy heifetz, but there is only one master

[Zhou9]

I hope nobody's a fan of Joshua Bell.

Anyway, it's a bit fast for me.

[hillwills]

I think that's Frank Miller (ex Toscanini NBC) at the head of the cello section. Milstein was past his prime at this point.

[scottbos68]

despite being out of tune the first 20 seconds i was mesmorized by the intensity of this performance

[issagele]

do you like milstein more than oistrakh and heifetz?

[scottbos68]

i like rabin kogan and szeryng most

but there are many others i love and still listen to like oistrakh perlman milstein heifetz etc they all have their own sound

[issagele]

Are you a fan of Joshua Bell?

[scottbos68]

no are you

[tlcooper93]

The first 20 seconds more in tune the Menuhin's performance. I think he's fine.

[lpvcrcd]

I prefer Milstein over Oistrach . Heifetz played to the beat of his own drummer

[SmilingMoonBreeze]

Many thanks for sharing.