Nathan Milstein plays Sarasate Tarantella

[cclementi6]

Reminds me of animal crossing for some reason...

[SpoonsForks]

@cclementi6 HAHAHAHAH been playin too much video games

[BlitheDippinDots]

perfect. completely flawless.

[kooltique]

simply magnificent..thank you Nathan

[cdavistwo]

no difficulties with the fingering. Any insight on how to achieve that bowing style would be great haha. I never could get the bouncing bow styles to work for me. seems like I've been trying for almost a year, maybe more just to get that bowing style down.

[eddyjacobsensongs]

This is something for me to play.....beautiful movements...

ed

[Kolnikov]

So amazing... the very best is when violin does´nt sound as a violin, but is so sweet that seems as a pure sound making by angels, beyond tech difficulties that dissapear magicaly. Great. I´m proud that Sarasate was born just 120 km far from i was born.

[szantoiosif]

suuper!!!

[Aurelius27x]

I didn't know Heifetz and Milstein had the same teacher. What a teacher he must've been.

[darkhusker]

@Aurelius27x there's actually a Gerswhin song about this called "Mischa Jasha Toscha Sasha" which refers to the fact that Leopold Auer was the teacher of a bunch of really fantastic violinists

[thejasminetan]

i loveee this piece <3

[tanikawfpck]

The double stops at 2:53: my favorite part of the song. I've killed my fingers trying to get them as clean as Milstien's.

[donaldo492]

Wow! Goose bumps. He was so solid. Midori's recording of this on her Encore album is pretty great too.

[fabio8080]

from 2:30 to 3:03....

I would love to be a violinist just to play it!!

[werq34ac]

Personally I think the introduction's tempo is fine. If a musician seems to take a slow piece faster than others, it's probably because he doesn't want the piece to sit on itself from being too slow. In other words, I'm guessing Milstein wanted the introduction to flow. The tarantella is the perfect tempo I think. It doesn't work slower, and faster would be maybe too fast.

[Zvax]

...

normally I like milstein,

but I must say his ideas here are pretty fast

couldn't the introduction have been a little slower?

still great, don't get me wrong

I'm just thinking aloud

[rawautube]

you couldn't be more WRONG

[Zvax]

in fact, I'm not.

stop spamming, use your head, think and answer something a three years old kid would not be able to answer

joshua bell, ricci, heifetz and vengerov play it slower.

i hope you at least know some of these names?

[rawautube]

oh boy ! you don't deserve an answer.

pitiful

[SpoonsForks]

@Zvax joshua bell is disgusting, he's quite big-headed.

LOL

[ddviolinist]

@SpoonsForks what are you talking about? He is a lovely man! I have worked with him several times and he treated the orchestra with the utmost respect and kindness every single time. Have you had some personal experience you would like to share?

[SpoonsForks]

@ddviolinist I've seen him play. There's just something... off about him. I don't know. It's not that I'm jealous of him. Because there's many contemporary violinsts that I would love to play like. You can just see it in his eyes... And his 3 million dollar violin.

[ddviolinist]

@SpoonsForks His 3 million dollar violin? What? What does that have to do with anything? Sorry, but I have not ever experienced anything "off" when working with Josh Bell. You have seen him play, but I have literally worked with him, rehearsing, performing...there is nothing off about him. You say that you aren't jealous, but then you bring up his 3 million dollar violin? Why? Most great soloists have expensive instruments. I think you need to be more honest with you harsh judgments.

[SpoonsForks]

@ddviolinist lol k

[Freerocker77]

@ddviolinist Maybe he means out of the ordinary off... I believe so... he's quite fine, yes indeed. Quite a illuminating musician indeed.

[DarkBelfry]

@SpoonsForks you are so right

[KingNovember]

@SpoonsForks yeah he's got an ego lol

[TheViolinCase]

@Zvax I guess it's bad to think out loud sometimes, haha. But then again you're the one who's going to be buying the ticket to hear what you want.

[Zvax]

@theViolinCase

quite wise of you

I must say I would go and see milstein even with this tempo

[themusicdr]

another great violinist - beautiful

[PRS931]

y love this!

[ipmoic]

Perfection. Some may prefer more "bite" to Sarasate's music, but this is a glorious interpretation that never sinks into rawness. A wonderful example of why Milstein remains at the top of any true violin lover's list. And what intonation!!

[takhirviolinest]

The sound quality and articulation excellent

[Redmarkviolinist]

this is introduction and tarantelle, not just tarantelle

[Edoom21]

Milstein was a genius, perfect

[Steinbrennerheit]

besser braucht man nicht...

[Steinbrennerheit]

besser braucht man nicht...

[dalibaro]

¡magnifico! sencilleza, y inocencia

[anzdf]

Excelente, Magnifico.

[violistaluis]

★★★★★

[yamelchenko]

hey, sammyen i think that perlman did a better job at it than did milstein, although i suppose milstein tried his best %}

[avpny1346]

is softer....

[gregart999]

★★★★★ [it's nearly perfect! ] ★★★★★

[Garnet826]

such a beautiful beginning

[ohyeas101]

oh my, how beautiful. but sarasate was a little better at it. i'm a huge fan of pablo de sarasate.

[yamelchenko]

aren't sarasate's recordings quite hard to hear?

but he did play this piece the best way possible, (well duh,it was his piece!)and, i think itzhak perlman tried to give it his best as well.

[jullia1200423]

Molto BELLO!!!

JULIA

[OriginalMoonbeam]

Thanks so much for posting this WONDERFUL recording! One can sense that Milstein really enjoyed playing this piece!

[Givanim]

Tarantella... Tarantula? Yeah right, a romantic spider hahahahaha!

[nudopiano]

Kind of. By your comment I supouse you allready know, but this dance is supouse to be a fast dance to purge the venom from a spider.

[violingirl1994]

that's great!he's playing so clear, but full of emotion!and his intonation is always so prefect, not only good, it's PERFECT, exspecially in the faster part! and the piece is quite hard! i think i#ll have to practise very long until i can do that so great!

wonderful! but it's a pity there's only a picture and not a video, cause by seeing a video you could "steel" his technic and so on...but apart of that it's nearly perfect!

[hnk777]

Absolutely staggering.

[OorvakanSar]

Must have been a romantic spider, lol

[kathieclint]

absolutely magnificent.

[BeeNikki]

i have to play this at my violin concert

[helloviolindonna]

nathan milstein is full of hotness.

[violindevil]

My favorite rendition of Intro & Tarantella. Is there one with a slightly better sound quality?

[aimson]

I actually have the CD that Milstein made in his 80s and the Tarantella is on it. The quality of the recording is perfect but his technique is not as great. He is absolutely incredible for an 80-year-old man though, that's for sure!

[Jextxadore]

Such a pity all the best violinists are gone. No one takes classical music as seriously as they did back in Jascha's days...sad.

[sammyenn]

Does Itzhak still count? But agreed. No one was like Heifetz - always striving for perfection.

[Jextxadore]

I'd just like to ask, aimson, where you get all these songs?

[aimson]

I own a very large collection of classical violin that is compounded with my dad's collection and some of my teacher's (including about 98% of Heifetz' recordings). These videos are only a small sample :)

[Jextxadore]

Wow!

And my mom thought I had enough Heifetz CD's when I bought a 7 CD box set yesterday from HMV!

When I have time I might start uploading some of my CDs too, although I suppose you'll already have Itzhak Perlman's Greatest Hits?

Just out of interest, how many songs do you have? Do you use iTunes?

[aimson]

I actually have a lot on CD that hasn't been converted to my iTunes list. I actually don't have much of Perlman, maybe 3-4 cd's at most. I am angry that my Rabin box set has disappeared and my Art of Violin DVD was scratched accidentally. Upload away!

[Jextxadore]

Hehe...that's why I always get my music onto the computer as soon as I get my hands on the CD. Portable media nowadays is so easy to damage!

Vocalise and Humoresque is so beautiful. I couldn't believe it when I found it on Itzhak Perlman's Greatest Hits.

Do you know where I can find free scores for this sort of music? I used to use IMSLP but it closed down =(

[aimson]

Hm, I don't think I have ever used a website for scores. I got all my music from my teacher and I don't play enough these days to really look for more. I just listened to Perlman play Mendelssohn and Bruch concertos and they were absolutely terrible. His Lalo is excellent though.

[Jextxadore]

Oh...lol it's the complete opposite with my teacher - she's absolutely clueless on where to get good scores, so I'm pretty much on my own in the search for music.

I don't suppose Jascha ever recorded the whole of Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy did he?

[aimson]

He did record the Sarasate Carmen Fantasy and I have it in my hands right now :) It is from around 1924 when he was still very young. I can post it on youtube or send it to you privately, either way is fine with me.

[Jextxadore]

Whoa! I'd love it!

Could you send it to poonhugo@gmail please?

I'm working on filtering Sarasate's recording of Tarantella right now =)

[jalopy2222]

@Jextxadore imslp is back up, and you CAN get this score on there in the U.S. It's now public domain.

[violaplayer1995]

hey how do you upload? i never knew. i wanna upload rabin's version of paganini's caprices.

and if i can upload my itunes songs i have alot of things i can upload.

[aimson]

You need to upload as a mpg file. Just open it in imovie and add an image. Export as a movie file and upload like any other movie. I use my youtube page as a playlist when I don't have my cd's with me :)

[violaplayer1995]

i dont have a mac tho i have windows

[CaixaDeSol]

Windows Movie Maker*** My bad. ^.^

[CaixaDeSol]

Then Windows Media Player

[jblacktree]

Clarity, precision, all that, but he's not just an accurate stenographer! There's heart in his choices too.

[JaYkunNaRaK]

very clear!

[waxenwings89]

extraordinarily clean sound. love it.

[tennisballer17]

So clean and crisp

[takamori400]

Wonderful! So, romantic and beautiful!!　I hate seeing some people say not nice things. No appreciation for airtists?　Don't they have any common sense at all. I think this is great, and at all. I think this is great, and thank you for sharing!

[BarNuun]

takamori400 : Milstein is beyond great and he did have a fine sense of humor. On the island Cape Breton great fiddlers are worshipped, so they arrest any heard on the high seas. Same is true on the isle Manhattan, where the Fiddle Police are more numerous, much wealthier ... and they sing well too.

[BarNuun]

Flows perfectly, like a little river. Thanks very much Aimson; the Cape Breton Fiddle Police tried to apprehend Nathan, but there was a dense fog off our coast, so the cops stopped at a local ceiledh, and his shipped passed. The rest is history.

[virtuosuk]

Thanks for posting the sound clip! He plays it a bit differently than most of the recordings I heard - it is refreshing and spontaneous!

[hibluemonday]

i love it. i get to play this piece soon! :]

[Romanticloser16]

Nathan Milstein is love &hearts;

[GreatPianists]

The most articulate violinist of them all. And a very valid interpretation.

I suppose Sarasate's own recording is the most authentic though (duh).

I also think of Sarasate as more of a Paganini-type person.

[havesome888]

cool...... The style of playing at those days is totally different then todays style. Good video.

[jordeeluvsya]

Aimson, your video collection is like a treasure trove! God bless you!

[KoganSvetlanov]

How the F.UCK he could hold the bow in such a strange way ??

[hnk777]

I was thinking the same thing. I actually have a student who has a deformed hand and is forced to hold the bow in a similar fashion. In the past I would have tried to correct a student with such a bow hold- not any more.Infact I would love to know precisely how Milstein holds the bow. Ok the fingers are close together. But the wrist does not seem to move much. It's as if only the arm moves while the wrist remains fixed.

[KoganSvetlanov]

I don't think that Sarasate was the quintessential gypsy violinist....and if your opinion is based by a few cranky recordings of Sarasate....we must better think of Sarasate as a showman violinist , like Paganini in some ways...I mean , not trying to insult your opinion, but I don't you have the correct point of view. Who knows

[aimson]

Well, I was not just basing my opinion on his recordings, I was also keeping in mind the style of his compositions. For example, Zigeunerweisen is certainly a gypsy style piece, it's even part of the name. But you are right, there isn't necessarily a factual basis for my opinion, only an inferred one. Call it an educated guess...

[Waeweas]

Hmmm I actually like Sarasate's version better haha. Sarasate plays it more like a gypsy which I like when listening to his music ^.^

[aimson]

Yeah, Sarasate was the quintessential gypsy violinist and it is reflected in his compositions. However, I believe that Milstein's more refined, musical, and romantic interpretation is more soothing to my ears (especially in the introduction). The Tarantella part could be played more on edge though, almost on the brink of disaster for maximum gypsy effect :)

[astrocello]

nechto neveroyatnoe....

[muffinwoman]

wow....what a beautiful piece...thanks for posting this recording!

[OtsoB]

Wow, you have some amazing recordings! Thanks for all of them!

[Galilea13]

thank you so much for posting this!!!

[aimson]

Hehe, you're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it!

[Galilea13]

Do you have any Bronislav Hubermann recordings? If you have could you please post any?

[aimson]

No, sorry I don't. Never heard of him (her?) either. Any good?

[cattleman6420012000]

Thanks so much for letting us hear Milstein. He was such a wonderful player.

[mimfri]

Thanks aimson - your posts are always pleasurable. If you already are taking requests :) could you bring more Milstein-Bach? Thanks!

[aimson]

Haha, you got it. I'll post up a couple clips of him playing the first Sonata so check back in a few hours. I will also start posting links to megaupload zip files so people can just download the audio files directly (check my channel profile for more info).