Nathan Milstein - Bach: Sonatas & Partitas For Solo Violin - Japan 2 SACD

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Nathan Milstein

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Only available at ESOTERIC dealers Limited production / SACD Hybrid 2-disc set *There is a limit to the number of copies in stock. The official release date of this album is June 17, 2023 (Sat), but the shipment from the web will be made after the arrival date. *We apologize in advance if the production company sells out. The world of Bach reached by the greatest virtuoso of the 20th century at the age of 70 This is the definitive analog version of the complete "Unaccompanied" works. The greatest virtuoso of the 20th century Violinist Natan Milshtein (December 31, 1903~December 21, 1992) was one of the most unique and brilliant violinists in the history of the 20th century, which was called "the century of performance. He was a virtuoso violinist who, along with Yascha Heifetz, David Oistrakh, and others, embodied the violin trends of the Russian musical school of the 20th century. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, he studied with Pyotr Stolyarsky from the age of seven and with Leopold Auer at the St. Petersburg Conservatory from the age of twelve, becoming Auer's last pupil in Russia.He made his debut recital in 1920 at the age of 16, and made his debut in Paris and Berlin in 1925, after which he moved to Europe. In 1929, he made his American debut playing Glazunov's Violin Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Thereafter, he began performing worldwide, especially in the U.S. In 1942, he became a U.S. citizen, and MIRSHTAIN became an indispensable figure in the American music world. After World War II, he returned to Europe and continued performing from his base in London, giving a recital in 1960 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his first performance at Carnegie Hall. He continued to teach young musicians, giving master classes at the Juilliard School in New York and in Switzerland, and remained active until 1986, when he gave a recital in Stockholm at the age of 83. ■Last session recording of his life, a masterpiece for Deutsche Grammophon Despite his long career, MIRSITNE recorded only a small amount of music, beginning with 78rpm recordings for Columbia in the 1930s, when the SP record was still in its infancy. Although he also recorded for RCA in the monaural era, it was his recordings for Capitol in the U.S., beginning in 1955, that made MIRSITNE's name world-wide in the discography. The recordings for Capitol, which lasted until the stereo era in 1962, included concertos, sonatas, technical pieces, and Milshteyn's major repertoire. After almost a decade away from recording, in 1972 he signed a contract with Deutsche Grammophon to record the Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos with the Abbado/Vienna Philharmonic, an unexpected pairing considering Mirshtein's recording history, followed by Bach's Unaccompanied Complete Works and the Jochum Concertos. By 1975, he had recorded five LPs (released between 1973 and 1985) of works ranging from the complete works of Bach without accompaniment, the Brahms violin concertos with the Jochum Vienna Philharmonic, and a collection of pieces including his own "Paganiniana".These were the last session recordings of Mirshtein's life, and they are historical masterpieces that capture the virtuosity and intelligent interpretation of the composer at the peak of his maturity. The core repertoire of MIRSHTAIN's music Bach's unaccompanied sonatas and the complete partitas were Milshtein's core repertoire, and the 12-year-old Milshtein's first performance in Auer's presence was Partita No. 1, the work that led to his studies with Auer. In Russia, where Milshtein spent his childhood, Bach's unaccompanied works were not considered important, and Auer himself thought more highly of works such as "Thais Meditation" and Dvorak's "Humoresques" than Bach, but Milshtein believed in his own aesthetic sense and worked on Bach. He always included a piece (or movement) in his recitals and encored his concertos (there is an anecdote that when he performed with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, he encored the entire Sonata No. 1).Milshteyn's dedication paid off, and the importance of the work was widely recognized, making it an indispensable part of the repertoire for any violinist. ■Second Unaccompanied Mirshtein recorded Bach's complete unaccompanied works twice in his life, and the Super Audio CD hybrid release on Deutsche Grammophon is a re-recording almost 20 years after the monaural recording on Capitol in 1955-1956. Milshtein himself commented on this re-recording, "I think it is clearly superior to the one I recorded in the 1950s (note: he refers to the Capitol version). There is not a piece in my repertoire that I have not learned to play better than I did before. It is simply because I have more experience than before. I am especially pleased to be able to re-record this repertoire with today's superior recording technology. He was so confident in his work that he said, "I am very happy to be able to re-record these pieces with today's superior recording technology. Although the Capitol version has the advantage in terms of the spirit of the performance without repetition, the re-recording has the advantage in terms of the tension, concentration, and richness of tone and nuance.It is also the most sublime interpretation of Bach unaccompanied recordings of the analog stereo era by Schelling, Goumiaux, Menuhin, Suk, and others. The instrument used is a 1716 Stradivarius that MIRSITNEIN acquired in 1945, which he renamed "Maria Teresa" in honor of his daughter Maria and his wife Teresa. ■ Stoic sound production that gives only the music of Bach, which is appropriate for the work. The recording was made at Conway Hall in London. The hall is located in Red Lion Square in the heart of London, near the Royal Opera and the British Museum, and was originally built in 1929 by the British Ethical Society as a meeting place. Today, the hall hosts concerts of various genres, including Britain's oldest classical music performance series, and is often used for film shoots.The main floor and balcony have a combined capacity of 400, and because of its high occupancy rate, it is not often used for classical music recordings, but one famous album is the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas by Yehudi Menuhin and Wilhelm Kemp, recorded in 1970 (Deutsche Grammophon). The complete Beethoven Sonatas by Yehudi Menuhin and Wilhelm Kemp (Deutsche Grammophon) was recorded in 1970. According to the Deutsche Grammophon recording ledger, the recording of Milschtein's unaccompanied works was made at this venue on February 10-14 and September 7-11, 1973, and again on April 17-18, 1974, in three sessions of approximately three hours each day, in a span of approximately one year and two months. (There were also sessions at Brent Town Hall in Wembley on April 24 and 25, 1973. The 1974 LP is not used in Deutsche Grammophon's LP notation). In a moderately resonant and warm acoustic, Milschtein's solo performance is captured with extreme clarity.The sound is well-drained, and the beauty of the tones spun by Milschtein and the texture of the instruments are fully reproduced, creating a sound that allows the listener to literally immerse themselves in Bach's music alone. Because it is a masterpiece, the album was released on CD in 1988 in the early CD era and has never disappeared from the catalog since then, remastered with OIBP (Original Image Bit Processing) in 1998, and further remastered in 2017 by Tower Records in a Super Audio CD hybrid version was released by Tower Records in 2017, and this is the second time the album has been made available as a Super Audio CD hybrid. As in the past, no compromises were made in the selection of the masters to be used for the Super Audio CD hybridization, as well as in the final DSD mastering process. In particular, we used Esoteric Mastering for DSD mastering. The Master Sound Discrete DAC and Master Sound Discrete Clock, ESOTERIC's top-of-the-line equipment, were carefully tuned.The generous use of MEXCEL cables enabled us to transfer the information contained in the original master to disc with a smooth sound.