Nathan Milstein

Nathan Mironovich Milstein ranked among the foremost violinists of the twentieth century. Though born in Odessa, long recognized as the birthplace of many distinguished Russian violinists, his interpretive approach remained grounded in classical restraint and intellectual clarity rather than overt display.

He took up the violin at seven under Pyotr Stolyarsky and continued lessons with that teacher through 1941. At the final student recital given under Stolyarsky, the five-year-old David Oistrakh also appeared on the program. Milstein later traveled to Petrograd, where he entered the conservatory to work with Leopold Auer.

His professional concert life opened in Odessa during 1920; that same season he performed Glazunov’s concerto with the composer on the podium. For the following five years he toured extensively inside the Soviet Union, frequently sharing programs with Vladimir Horowitz and relying on Regina Horowitz as his regular accompanist. In 1925 the two soloists undertook a tour abroad and chose not to return.

Milstein later wrote in his memoirs that Horowitz’s theatrical “grand manner” brought instant acclaim, whereas his own reserved temperament produced a slower rise. During 1926 he visited Brussels for interpretive counsel from Eugène Ysaÿe.

His American debut took place with the New York Philharmonic in 1929. Thereafter he made New York his primary residence and built a substantial discography. Although he never attained the popular adulation accorded Horowitz, his musicianship earned consistent respect and steady engagements. When Arturo Toscanini concluded his music directorship of the New York Philharmonic in 1936, he selected Milstein as soloist for the farewell concert.

After the Second World War Milstein settled chiefly in London while conducting master classes on several continents; colleagues remembered him as an encouraging and accessible instructor. His career spanned decades, sustained by physical command that lasted until he retired at eighty-three following a fall that fractured his arm.

He was among the first to champion Bach’s unaccompanied violin works at a period when few violinists programmed them, and he avoided lighter pieces that commonly filled recital lists. The traversals of the Partitas and Sonatas he recorded for Capitol Records in the 1950s remain benchmarks of the cycle and continue to be regarded as recording classics.