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There was a caricature of Milstein floating around Philadelphia at the time that depicted him playing while casually observing the viewer: a caged lion who instead sees you as the spectacle. He was gracious enough to sign it for my grandfather in , and he passed it down to me. I had, of course, grown up listening to Milstein, among the other greats, but now I sought out the sound I had just heard under my ear. I attempted to separate the violin from the man. Occasionally I would seize on a particular run of notes, usually on the G-string, and say to myself, there it is. That troubled, throaty quality was apparent even through my earbuds.
Jerry Kohl is on intimate terms with The Milstein. As its owner and caretaker, he had generously given me my first Milstein experience years before. And now that I was about to perform the Beethoven concerto for the first time, I asked if I might have a whole week with his instrument. Jerry graciously agreed, and the week began. There was no time to lose: the performance was on Friday, and it was already Sunday! I was set to play a brief string quartet program with my wife Akiko and two other Philharmonic colleagues later that day. Why not use the Haydn and Schubert quartets to get reacquainted?
I thought.
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Seven notes into the Haydn, I missed my first shift, a simple from first to third position. Back in my studio the next day, I sat down to really get to know The Milstein. I fell in love all over again with that golden high register: how it shone, never giving over to that shrill, steely sound that sets a listener's teeth on edge. All I had to do was let the E string do its thing. In other words, a little vibrato and a little bow pressure went a long way! The gut-core Pirastro Passione A and D behaved much as they did on the instrument I'm accustomed to, a Strad on loan from my orchestra.
But on The Milstein, they took on more distinct characters rather than filling out a broad "middle range". The more I played, the more inescapable it became: my baritone had laryngitis! Here was the same Passione G that I'd been playing on for years, but on The Milstein, it sounded under-powered, even muffled. Interesting to be sure, but not of a piece with the rest of the instrument. He had spent quite a lot of time with the instrument over the years, and knew its potential. Perhaps all it needed was an adjustment? First I played a few notes, and then I handed the violin over to Martin. As he played, I was astonished by the difference just a few feet made!
Of course, any instrument changes once you give it a bit of breathing room, but rarely to that degree. That animal quality in the low register remained, but intensified and seemingly amplified. Once again in my studio, I turned to YouTube to hear Milstein perform his own cadenza for the Beethoven. A virtuoso-composer in the mold of Paganini, he had written original pieces, as well as cadenzas for most of the major concerti.
Once I knew that I'd be playing his violin, I planned on playing his Beethoven cadenza as well. As I listened to his live recordings of the Beethoven cadenza, making notes in my copy all the while, I realized that each performance differed from the published version I had in front of me: sometimes it was simply a different figuration for a chord, but other times, he would add, subtract, or alter several measures!
The video accompanying the audio was no video at all, just a still image of Milstein.
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It resembled, in fact, the signed caricature my grandfather had given me. Milstein made his Beethoven recordings after performing the piece countless times. But I wanted to use the recording process to help me with my first performance. I decided that making videos would serve me best. A quick note about these garage videos: I use a DPA lapel microphone to capture both playing and speaking. Therefore the mic is only a few inches from my voice or violin. Why not set up the mic further away? Because I'm not in a proper studio! The further away I put the mic, the more I have to turn the levels up, and the more outside sounds creep in to ruin my efforts.
Invariably, the gardeners next door pick my best take to fire up the leaf blower. Or the Pasadena police chase down a suspect with their fleet of helicopters! So in the following video, you get the sound of The Milstein roughly as it is "under the ear". For a talk-free performance video like this, I like to add some studio reverb as I find the raw sound rather unappealing for most listeners.
First the finished video:. And 30 seconds of the raw audio: opening of Milstein cadenza MP4, K. My Friday schedule was more hectic than I would have liked: first, a Philharmonic matinee; then a lesson; then the dress rehearsal; then showtime. By the time my lesson was over and I fought the Friday afternoon traffic, I was fifteen minutes late for my own dress!
I had to rush onstage, considerably agitated, and join the concerto already in progress. So it wasn't the start I had hoped for. In fact, walking off stage from the dress, I mostly felt relief. If I could handle the dress rehearsal with my fingers still tight from gripping the steering wheel, I could certainly make it through the performance. In fact, I felt that I had comported myself with a great deal of dignity. Then I happened to look down and see a glint of metal. I had played the entire concerto with my zipper wide open. Lounging in my dressing room an hour before the time of trial, I ruefully recalled my own article about the hardest violin concerto openings.
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I had ranked the Beethoven extremely high on the scale, giving it a 9. Here was my commentary:. An opening arpeggio in octaves. Then an entire page of sixteenth notes, some slurred, some separate, but all designed to make you look like a fool. Glazunov might be a beautifully tailored three-piece suit. Bruch would be your favorite broken-in denim jeans. Beethoven is definitely swimwear. I actually spoke to The Milstein, hoping to reach the man himself.
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If Martin was to be believed, it was as good a way as any to get through to him. Just get me through those first two bars , I implored. Just then, Akiko popped her head in. I knew she would be at the concert, but it was still a surprise to see her. I wish that I could recall more of the details from my first Beethoven concerto. And I looked forward to the first-movement cadenza, wondering during the preceding tutti when The Milstein had last gotten to play it in public! Want to keep it until then? I had big plans for those next few days.
So I asked Akiko to take the violin on a test drive in that wonderful space. Ben Ullery, our violist for the Mozart, and Bob DeMaine, our cellist, joined me out in the hall as Akiko put The Milstein through its paces with some of her favorites: Brahms concerto; Bartok 2nd concerto; solo Bach. We'd also been lucky enough to try some amazing instruments in our time. Nonetheless, we marveled at the transformation of The Milstein's sound through space. Throughout my week with The Milstein, I'd felt like Cinderella at the ball, and now the clock was finally about to strike midnight.
As long as I held onto that violin, I could call forth its incredible tone. And even after I handed it back, I might be able to retain just enough of its essence that I could recreate its essential elements no matter what violin I was playing. But for how long would the essence remain? How many hours or days would pass before the thread snapped? When I was young, my teachers encouraged me to listen constantly to the great recordings. Daniel Mason, who had studied with Heifetz, recommended his recordings above all.
He was only half in jest. What we play, we hear. And what we hear, we are bound to play again. This endless circle can trap players who never experience great sound up close. But for those who seek that sound, and keep their ears open, it's a golden circle. Sound builds on sound, and strength begets strength.
A new instrument is therefore a catalyst for change. Suddenly we have a new voice, and almost immediately, new expectations for what we want to hear.
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