Nathan Milstein plays Bach Chaconne (Part 1)

[calebcoker]

Really...he said Mullova was better than this?! I saw her and I have a measure of respect for anyone who can play this very difficult piece. However, Milstein is on another level. Also, many (including myself) would say Mullova played this very out of the character of Bach! This however, is a very nice recording!

[thislilfishinthesea]

I just love this.

[darkmice1]

It's funny how clueless people start comparing musicians when in reality, the musicians themselves never found themselves comparing themselves but rather found themselves appreciating each musicians' unique interpretations. So guys why not STOP FUCKING COMPARING AND JUST APPRECIATE EACH INTERPRETATIONS. That is all thank you.

[jazzpsalti]

this is one of the most stunning performances of the chaconne on record

[DearMrT]

La rigueur alliée à une totale liberté d'expression, une désinvolture née de la maîtrise totale du sujet, ce panache au service d'une polyphonie extrêmement riche : Milstein a signé là une version de référence, loin au-dessus de la "pauvreté délibérée " des interprétation dites "baroques". Un sommet.

[aimson]

@TeenCretin I'm not sure what friggy-un mode is but I prefer Sabbath. Nothing beats listening to War Pigs at full volume down the freeway, nothing. Okay, except maybe Randy Rhoads, the greatest ever. Oh, and next stupid comment you post will earn you a good old blocking so if you don't have anything smart to say, go fuck yourself. Thanks.

[TeenCretin]

@aimson OK, Milstein is good, but does he bring anything to the piece that Heifitz, Stern,or Perlman wouldn't have?? And for freeway driving, give me Judas Priest doing "Screaming for Vengeance"

[aimson]

@TeenCretin Now that's better. What I get from Milstein is more a sense of raw and sometimes even harsh energy/emotion. There is no flowery romance or sugar-coating and he seems to relish in the dissonance. When I hear him play, I feel the pure force of his character behind every chord, bringing them to life. Speaking of dissonance, I'll make you a deal and check out Screaming for Vengeance. Once I finish damping my civic it'll rock even harder. By the way, ever heard the STP song Piece of Pie?

[Silkmeister]

@TeenCretin hahahaahahahahaa. i love americans

[shred73]

i love this version...sounds like a guarneri..a bit darker in tone

[brother234]

compared with hefeitz and kogan and even hahn, lacks some sophistication of phrasing and direction. not that it doesn't have any, just in comparison. it also lacks control of Kogan, and the flare of hefeitz, and the consistency of hahn. i like his violin and the power. some parts are nicer than others.

[brainwasher9876]

the oscillations in tempo were kinda distracting but I'm glad he left the open Es in there. Overall an excellent performance, hail milstein :P

[macaronimadnessx]

He's very good, no doubt. But i just listened to Itzhak Perlman play this. And he is God of violin.

[cdavistwo]

I think other than perhaps some things with dynamics (I don't know I can't place it) still I think perfect, especially since because its an older recording it probably sounds 10,000,000 times better in person.

[DHcello]

this is 1973 DG recond. I found amazon have LP & CD!!!

[sormu16]

Super. In the very top of people playing this. Best? Maybe, depends a little on what mood I am in.

This piece is BTW the greatest of them all for me.

[ThecitizenofTheworld]

His violin sounds really nice, does anyone know what it is? it articulates perfectly

[violinzar]

Milstein was a master with articulation, i think he used a strad but i'm not sure about it

[snoboarder91]

yeah, actually he played on two different stradivarius violins as well as a guarneri. im not sure which this is...

[sijas]

It wasn't just his violin.

Milstein was THE master of articulation

[shiveringflower]

I like this recording and have been listening to this and many other versions since I studied it thirty years ago.Playing it is a better experience than listening to it.I think the most firey player of Bach is Sandor Vegh.I also think that Heifetz tells the story better.The person I would most liked to have heard playing the Chaconne would have been Joachim.His two Bach recordings show immense power and deft phrasing.

[OriginalMoonbeam]

Definitely my favorite version of Chaconne...I actually hear and understand new things in Milstein's playing of Bach that enriches my own playing.

[hvassilev]

What is your opinion after listening the performance of Vasco Abadjiev. He is very different from Milstein and also fantastic!!

Hvassilev

[Gilaziel]

lol

you funny

[HaxIRL]

Fuck you.

[jztmpt]

wow dude. you must be an amazing violinist. like my left nut is an amazing violinist.

[Lapez13]

Perfect. I start this piece next week, so this video is homework.

Or it was until I heard it. Bach is my favorite composer!

[LEOPARDTWO]

Bach seizes your soul and won't let go.

[54spiritedwill54]

very deeply touching..heavenly beautiful :P

[diditrich]

I prefer Heifetz too... but they are different... why discussing about who was BEST?

Thank god they both played this.

[utubegeek17]

Well, who says it was an etude? There are many stories surrounding this particular work.

Also, you can just tell, my having performed it myself, it is so much more than a mere etude, and SINCE WHEN DID BACH WRITE VIOLIN ETUDES!?!?!?

Also, why would he stick an etude in the middle of his sonata? That doesn't make any sense.

I do agree this is much better than Heifetz, though I feel sinful critiquing these guys- lowly me saying who's better and who's not.

[Lapez13]

I agree, this is no etude. It is a movement in a sonata or partita (can't remember which).

[Zhou9]

Partita No. 3 in D minor, 3rd movement, I think.

[hombremanq]

simplemente el mejor

[hmac2222]

Am I the only one that prefers this recording to Heifetz?

[TheActualBij]

Right on! This recording is 100000000000000 times better than Heifetz's. How can you people possibly think Heifetz's is better? It is a known fact to Musicians that Heifetz could not play Bach for his life. Heifetz was an amazing violinist but Bach was not his thing.

[Triebtier]

Absolutely. Milstein is the "apotheosis".

[OriginalMoonbeam]

I listen to everyones version of Chaconne--to me they all "pale" in comparison to Milstein. Milstein defintely had a very special gift and "fire" for Bach that I have never heard in another violinist.

[michaelrabinthebest]

Listen to Felix Ayo's Chaconne here on youtube... Than tell me

[OriginalMoonbeam]

Ayo's is a nice version but I just hear something hear in Milstein's that I have not heard elsewhere. I'm working on this piece myself and Milstein has helped me so much..it's like I hear the full "conversation" if you will, or as if a light when on when I heard him and I discovered something new. Thank you for the recommendation...I like to listen to new versions.

[strongbadian4747]

@hmac2222 - To me, this one captures the emotion of the piece better than the Heifetz recording. You're not alone. :'D

[Sorcerer2k]

@hmac2222 NO!

[Cedericoco]

@hmac2222 Not at all... ;-)

[muserik]

2934703, I'm sorry, but I have to say your'e a genuine idiot calling Bach"s chaconne an etude.

Besides, Milstein"s intonation has flaws, and is too romantic for my taste, with glissandos and smaultz like manners.

Check out Miss Mullova, the best I've heard.

[aimson]

Yes, Mullova, the greatest violinist of our time. Seriously though, never heard of her in my 22 years of playing. And Bach wrote the chaconne as an etude - it was not considered the "holy grail of solo violin" back then at all. Only now is it considered blasphemy to call it an etude.

[diditrich]

Well... what does Klavier übung mean?

PRACTICE... and it was the title given to the six partitas for Klavier and the Goldberg variations!!!

[maraismarin99]

It was written by Bach upon hearing of his 1st wife's unexpected tragic death....Etude?? I DON'T THINK SO...what utter nonsense!!!! Some call it the greatest piece ever written ...it was sent into outer space on a satellite hurtling out of the solar system......out of the galaxy...into the cosmos...yeah...we would send an etude to the first ET's to hear earthling music!!! get a clue pal....and try listening to the music...an etude??

[felixdevilliers1]

@aimson Remember that the Chopin wrote cycles of Etudes that belong to the some of the greatest music penned by human hands. If I remember rightly the Chacone is the movement of a Suite and Bach wrote much of his music for sublime didact purposes. I don't listen to it often as it terars the insides out of me, I think one art of the expression derives from something technical, the capacity of the violinist to draw his bow of all the strings to create his counerpoint.Nothong wrong with études.

[Triebtier]

Mullova is superficial, Milstein captures the dramatic depth inherent in the music. Of course it is not an Etude, but who cares? Bach was also the master of understatment.

His work called "Clavierübung" contains visions of eternity etc.

[sonata1992]

I think Milstein's style is too particular to be called Romantic. I feels a lot of the time "Jazzy" to me.

Meh. *shrug* It's just terminology.

[wtfpwndzor]

@muserik you'll find your allocation of the term 'genuine idiot' works both ways through your labelling of milstein's intonation of flawed or 'too romantic'?

do you know why this guy was so constantly compared to heifetz during his entire career?

he was just so incredible in his perfection of the violin, or at least the pursuit of it

flawed intonation?

comments like that make me scoff and cry 'piss off troll'

[aimson]

@muserik Anyways, my point was that the music we call great in our time was not necessarily so when it was written. I may have exaggerated the Chaconne being an etude, but it certainly was not held in as high esteem. Why, you know about the story of the Goldberg Variations? They were written as part of a job application (some court or church probably) and Bach was REJECTED. Art sometimes takes centuries to be appreciated fully.

[violatione]

@muserik Oh my god you are so right!!!! Vicki's Bach is absolutely marvelous.

[violatione]

@muserik Vicki Mullova is certainly phenominal

[felixdevilliers1]

@muserik Your comment was made 3 years ago - but really! Milstein's intonation is perfect and if he goesslghtly out this is a prerogative of singers, violinists and others, especially as the datonic scale is out of tune anyway, due to being doctored with. I have noticed in the past that that when strings play in pefect pitch with a piano they sound out of tune, but it is the piano that is out of tune. Maybe you lack the subtleties of pitch. Glissandi tasteful and not a trace of Smaltz.

[2934703]

Superb. It isn't easy making an etude sound so musical.

[Fancytastic]

I wish I had 8 hours a day to devote to practicing. That would be so insane. I'd be the best ever! Not really, but only real men express their emotions through something so spectacular as the violin-or another instrument- =[

[Kikkomang]

milstein's interpretation of the ciaccona in this "video" is much better than the other milstein video that actually has video footage.

[HaxIRL]

Manly or not, that's just dumb...

[maellis77]

Do you know where I can buy a cd of this?

[pyang88]

I think Milstein interpreted Bach Sonatas & Partitas better than anyone else. This is no exception - just fantastic.

[aimson]

Yeah, this is my all-time favorite rendition of the Chaconne. I have listened to it dozens of times in the past 8 years and it never fails to move me to tears. Milstein understands and communicates Bach on an emotional level that surpasses other violinists and is my main inspiration when I play Bach.

[govibe]

you must be a real pussy if you get moved to tears by every violin song you hear... Or a woman

[glazunov22]

Or he/she may just have a very powerful musical taste... =P

[qixoty]

if aimson is a man, she is a woman anyway

true men burn their violins to boil their black coffee in the morning chill before the cattle drive

[AbsoluteZ3R0]

wtf that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard. Real men don't hide their emotions, remember that.

[nsdcrim]

deeply touching, ....heavenly beautiful,...

[Hopfensperger]

Woah. This must be the best version available!

[felixmendelssohn]

Thanks for posting; this is, if I'm not mistaken, the 1975 DG recording...

[aimson]

You are a very smart man! It is exactly the 1975 DG recording, which is sitting on the shelf in the living room :) The rest of the CDs are great as well.

[OistrakhMilstein]

milstein only recorded the bach twice, and seeing this has the better sound quality, it has to be the 1975 recording...

[qixoty]

yes, you are also smart

(no fun)