Top 10 Historical Soloists - your vote

[Stephen Fine]

While Kreisler was extremely impressive on several levels, he already got a bagful of votes.  I'm modifying my Mozart vote to one for Leopold, as a well-respected player and influential violin educator as well as one for Wolfgang, as the prototype of a touring violin prodigy, before he was known as a composer.  IMHO, both should be on any top-ten list.

 

To put Leopold on a top 10 list of violinists doesn't make sense to me.

 

^If we're going to take it that far afield, Bach obviously played the violin.  And Tartini or somebody was the grandaddy of everyone.

 

Let's try to limit it to top ten you have actually heard...  That way the #1 won't be a proto-ape plucking a Tarzan vine.  Or some microbe.

 

Tartini, Rolla, Corelli, Veracini (and many others) could all make a case for inclusion on the list.

 

Stephen, David who?  I don't know any with the last name of David.

 

Ferdinand David?

 

Yes.  Concertmaster of the Gewandhaus, worked with Mendelssohn on his concerto, one of the great violinists of the 1830s-1850s.

[Violadamore]

Did you all want to rethink your entries?  This wasn't supposed to be a list of every conceivable violinist that ever existed.  I will accept up your top 3 worthy candidates if that helps you make a (smaller) decision.

OK, W. Mozart, Kreutzer, and Ole Bull.  Most other soloists I consider worthy of a Top 10 listing are already covered. 

[Violadamore]

To put Leopold on a top 10 list of violinists doesn't make sense to me.

 

He was a noted violinist before he started teaching, writing, composing, and siring prodigies.

[Pluto Vermin]

Tartini, Rolla, Corelli, Veracini (and many others) could all make a case for inclusion on the list.

 

Not to mention Rigatoni and Vermicelli.

[Rue]

Okay...I caved and stuck them all in...but no more!  Vote for some of these, or we won't get a decent top 10!

 

Auer

Bazzini

Bull

Campoli

Corelli

David, Ferdinand

De Beriot

Dancla

Dont

Elman

Ernst

Fodor

Francescatti

Grappelli

Grumiaux 

Heifetz (4)

Joachim

Kreisler (5 votes)

Kreutzer

Locatelli

Massart

Menuhin (4)

Milstein (3)

Mozart, W.

Oistrakh (3)

Paganini (4)

Rabin (2)

Ricci

Rode

Shumsky (2)

Szeryng (2)

Szigeti 

Tartini

Thibaud

Vericini

Vieuxtemps

Vivaldi (2)

Wieniawski

Ysaye (3)

Zimbalist

[Rue]

Not to mention Rigatoni and Vermicelli.

 

 

No...no pastas! 

[Rue]

The preliminary MN Top 10!  Subject to change before the final reveal!

 

1. Kreisler (5)

2. Paganini (4)

3. Menuhin (4)

4. Heifetz (4)

5. Milstein (3)

6. Oistrakh (3)

7. Ysaye (3)

8. Rabin (2)

9. Shumsky (2)

10. Vivaldi (2)

11. Szeryng (2)

[Ron MacDonald]

How does one vote?

[Rue]

Just post your top pick...I will add it to the list...

[BasqueViolinist]

Since the topic is "Top 10 Historical Soloists" and not "Your Top Choice among Historical violinists", here is my vote for "Top 10 Historical Soloists":

 

DAVID F. OISTRAKH

Jascha Heifetz

Fritz Kreisler

Henryk Szeryng

Arthur Grumiaux

Nathan Milstein

Leonid Kogan

Isaac Stern

Michael Rabin

Yehudi Menuhin

[Rue]

Did you read my instructions? One vote per person! I was merely trying for a succinct title for the thread.

However...since I am also ignoring my instructions I will add all your choices to my next tally! Thank you.

[Ron MacDonald]

My top choice is Joseph Szigeti.

[BasqueViolinist]

Did you read my instructions? One vote per person! I was merely trying for a succinct title for the thread.

 

 

Of course I did read your instructions—and that's why I addressed them before listing my list in MY ONE VOTE for "The Top 10 Historical Soloists", I only voted ONCE for my top 10.

 

Now, if I had posted my top-10 list in 20 different posts, that would have gone against your written instructiuons.

 

Looks like you have fashioned and phrased your topic and instructions most unartfully if all you wanted was one "favorite top soloist (singular) of all time". Sorry, I am no mind reader or clairvoyant to attempt to read beyond your written statements.

Your tally is now less than optimally meaningful. 

[BasqueViolinist]

[Tightens her straps, does an exit maneuver, firewalls the throttle, and yanks the protective curtain home to the glareshield] Bye! 

 

I'm suspect there's something witty enclosed in there, but I'm afraid all the references escape me.  My apologies.

[funnyope]

 FWIW, BasqueViolinist, I like your list. It tells me you have good ears. I have to disagree on Stern, though. He was not a good soloist... Or a good man.

[Rue]

I was deciding whether to be assertive, aggressive or passive-aggressive in my responses...but I'm too tired to make a decision...so I will just tally up the votes instead!  This is for fun after all! 

 

Auer

Bazzini

Bull

Campoli

Corelli

David, Ferdinand

De Beriot

Dancla

Dont

Elman

Ernst

Fodor

Francescatti (2)

Grappelli

Grumiaux (3)

Heifetz (6)

Joachim

Kogan

Kreisler (7 votes)

Kreutzer

Locatelli

Massart

Menuhin (6)

Milstein (5)

Mozart, W.

Oistrakh (5)

Paganini (4)

Rabin (3)

Ricci

Rode

Shumsky (2)

Stern

Szeryng (4)

Szigeti (2) 

Tartini

Thibaud

Vericini

Vieuxtemps

Vivaldi (2)

Wieniawski

Ysaye (3)

Zimbalist

[Rue]

The new preliminary MN Top 10! 

 

1. Kreisler (6)

2. Menuhin (5)

3. Heifetz (5)

4. Paganini (4)

5. Oistrakh (4)

6. Milstein (4)

7. Szeryng (3)

8. Ysaye (3)

9. Rabin (3)

10. Shumsky (2)

11. Vivaldi (2)

12. Szigeti (2)

13. Grumiaux (2)

[ViolinBowbazin]

Kreisler

Heifetz

Milstein

Menuhin

Oistrakh

Grumiaux 

Szeryng

Francescatti

[Rue]

***I updated the previous long-list.

 

The new preliminary MN Top 10! 

 

1. Kreisler (7)

2. Heifetz (6)

3. Menuhin (5)

4. Oistrakh (5)

5. Milstein (5)

6. Paganini (4)

7. Szeryng (4)

8. Ysaye (3)

9. Rabin (3)

10. Grumiaux (3)

11. Shumsky (2)

12. Vivaldi (2)

13. Szigeti (2)

14. Francescatti (2)

[BasqueViolinist]

 FWIW, BasqueViolinist, I like your list. It tells me you have good ears. I have to disagree on Stern, though. He was not a good soloist... Or a good man.

 

It's perfectly natural and fair to disagee on a soloist's mastery of the instrument.  As a matter of fact, for example, I definitely disagree with anyone who does not put David Oistrakh at the very top of the list.

 

Isaac Stern was a personal friend of mine, not nearly as close as Henryk Szeryng was to me, but he was a guest at my house and at my dinner table.  In my book he was a very good person.  A wonderful soloist who introduced modern composers to the repertoirse, his recording of «L'arbre des songes» by Henri Dutilleux being but one example.  Some of his recordings, like the Barber and Alban Berg concertos, were milestones that have withstood the test of time.

 

The personal tributes to David F. Oistrakh, my violinistic god, Stern wrote in public after the former's death are proof of his generosity, his fairness, his kindness and his warmth as a human being.  In my estimation he was absolutely a very, very good man.

I'm aware of the opinions and rumors that he could ruin an aspiring soloist's career, such as expressed in public by Aaron Rosand, but I've never seen anything that would substantiate them so I regard them as professional jealousy.  I bet if you ask Itzhak Perlman he'll have at least as many good things to say about Isaac Stern as I do, and probably even more.

[Pluto Vermin]

 I bet if you ask Itzhak Perlman he'll have at least as many good things to say about David Stern as I do, and probably even more.

David Stern?  Isaac Oistrakh?  Stern was Perlman's promoter, so I would think so.

[Violadamore]

 FWIW, BasqueViolinist, I like your list. It tells me you have good ears. I have to disagree on Stern, though. He was not a good soloist... Or a good man.

Your comment on Stern puzzles me.  IMHO, his command of the violin was unquestionable, and he often evidenced the sort of wit and chutzpah that I admire.  The stunt he pulled on stage in '91 during the Scud attack showed a contagious calm courage one seldom expects of people in the arts these days.  I also do not recall his life as having been a continual roil of scandal like some performers whose antics I can recall without effort.  Are you blaming him for initiating the current flood of Chinese instruments? 

[crazy jane]

In his later years, his intonation (or possibly his hearing) declined terribly (Menuhin's, too). It may have always been shaky--there are stories of huge numbers of splices and takes on his recordings (400 splices on his Beethoven Concerto). 

 

Stern was terribly powerful. He used his power to build careers and to break them. Aaron Rosand's story is particularly troubling: http://slippedisc.com/2014/07/high-explosive-aaron-rosand-accuses-isaac-stern-of-sabotaging-his-career/

 

He is rumored to have destroyed the solo career of David Nadien, concertmaster of the NY Phil. "Other supposed victims include Oscar Shumsky, . . .  Eugene Fodor, Michael Rabin." --the always dubious Norman Lebrecht. I have heard other rumors about predatory behaviors toward a young female violinist (a very famous one). I emphasize the rumor part of this. 

[Pluto Vermin]

Some of his recordings, like the Barber and... concertos, were milestones that have withstood the test of time.

I seem to remember Rosand was scheduled to record the Barber but Stern somehow took it over and recorded it himself.  If he was a friend of yours then you could probably give insight into some of the claims.  But "sour grapes' won't get it because it's a lot of grapes coming from a lot of people.  Heifetz didn't attract such grapes of wrath

[BasqueViolinist]

David Stern?  Isaac Oistrakh?  Stern was Perlman's promoter, so I would think so.

 

Easily explainable:  I hold both David Oistrakh and Isaac Stern in the highest regard .  Not surprised I got the last names mixed up while I was struggling to hold my composure in the face of the unbelievable smear posted by someone.  I almost didn't reply at all.