Milstein: "Miniatures" (Violin Encores - rec. 1956) - Capitol P 8339, fine copy

$

100

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This justly famous LP – a fine collector's copy – from Capitol (P 8339, US pressing, green / gold FDS label, mono – no stereo edition exists, original inner sleeve included) entitled “Milstein Miniatures” features the great Russian virtuoso in a magical series of violin encores, several arranged by Milstein himself, all warmly recorded at Capitol Studios, New York, with pianist Leon Pommers in January and February 1956.

The exact contents are as follows:

Bedrich Smetana: Mà Vlast

Christoph Willibald Gluck (arr. Fritz Kreisler): Mélodie, from Orphée et and Euridice

Henri Wieniawski: Mazurka in D Major Op. 19 No. 2 “Dudziarz”

Antonio Vivaldi: Siciliana, an adaption of the slow movment from the Violin Concerto in E Major RV. 256 “Il Ritiro”

Zoltan Kodaly (arr. Nathan Milstein): Il pleut dans la ville (It rains in the village)

Frédéric Chopin (arr. Nathan Milstein): Nocturne in C-sharp minor Op. posth.

Franz Ries: Perpetuum mobile, from the Suite No. 3 in G Major Op. 34 No. 5

Pietro Nardini: Larghetto in D Major, from the Violin Sonata in B-flat Major

Johannes Brahms (arr. Joseph Joachim): Hungarian Dance No. 2 in D minor

Jules Massenet (arr. Martin Pierre Marsick): Meditation, from Thaïs

Igor Stravinsky (arr. Samuel Dushkin): Chanson russe (Russian Maiden’s Song), from Mavra

Maria Theresia von Paradis (arr. Samuel Dushkin): Sicilienne in E-flat Major

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (arr. Arthur Hartmann): Flight of the Bumblebee, from The Legend of Tsar Sultan

Of the EMI CD re-issue of these recordings, the superb critic Robert Maxham for the Jan-Feb 1999 issue of Fanfare:

“I treasure the earliest memories of my father's golden Guarneri-pattern violin, made by my luthier great-grandfather, as it lay smothered in the green velvet of his case. I remember with equal clarity and warmth my first experience of Milstein almost a decade later. Although he was the last of the great violinists whose style I came to know, two of his recordings, the Goldmark Concerto (Capitol PAO 8414) and the Vignettes (Capitol P 8396), along with Paul Stoeving's rhapsodic book on the violin, set the compass of my life. In the booklet accompanying Testament's rerelease of the Goldmark Concerto (SBT 1047), Hugh Bean notes that Milstein was the Goldmark Concerto. I'm the Vignettes. Not that I ever could, or even now can, play those short pieces with anything like Milstein's consummate elegance. For years, though, I begged my teacher to let me work on one after another: They became the test tubes in which I tried to replicate Milstein's alchemistic transmutations. What he himself made from them was, and for me still is, the purest gold.

“Frank Sinatra, the story goes, mined Heifetz's recordings for ideas about phrasing. But Sinatra and Heifetz had little in common (although Heifetz did have blue eyes). Only in the months since the Chairman's death have I discovered the resemblance between Sinatra's art and Milstein's. Milstein's tone had its detractors, as did Sinatra's voice. But who could fault the style, impeccably suave and aristocratic? They shared a way of arriving on a high or low note with a sudden change of color and shift of the harmonic spectrum that had the same imperious effect as a gyroscope twisting your hand. One such note, and you recognized Milstein—or Sinatra. But both, at other times, could sound almost anonymous. Listen to Milstein play Tchaikovsky's Mélodie and to Sinatra sing Young at Heart, and see if the similarity doesn't strike you.

“Milstein recorded many of these pieces more than once; and although his stylings remained remarkably consistent (unlike his readings of the masterworks, which continuously evolved throughout his lifetime), these recordings, made in 1956 and 1957, when Milstein was in his early fifties, are the locus classicus for each. And the digital remastering of the original tapes has opened up some individual pieces, like Bach's Air, that originally seemed closed in on themselves. Some of these works appeared in The Art of Nathan Milstein, EMI Classics 6-ZDMF 64830 (where Milstein's tone occasionally sounded too strident for the well-oiled machinery that produced it—a problem the new issue seems to have addressed), but many of the best of them, like Wienawski's Polonaise, Sarasate's Romanza andaluza, Tchaikovsky's Mélodie, Schumann's Träumerei, and Debussy's Maid with the Flaxen Hair, are finally available for the first time in CD format. The disc, with the same cover as the old Vignettes LP, also includes pieces from Milstein Miniatures (Capitol P 8339). There's no release of any kind I've more eagerly awaited, and none that I could recommend more highly.

“When all's said and done,...it would come as no surprise to me if Milstein were to be recognized as the premiere violinist of the 20th century. If anything can hasten that judgment, these recordings can. They give palpable meaning to Paul Stoeving's question about the violin, whether it was not as if, for once, man had somehow grasped the ideal hidden in the heart of God."

Incidentally, there are excellent liner notes (uncredited) on the reverse side of the jacket, printed in English only. The lovely cover photo is simiarly uncredited.

CONDITION:

The gradations of condition I use are as follows: MINT, Near-Mint, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor.

The condition of the jacket is EXCELLENT. Really, this is close to NM. There is minor bumping at corners and mild shelfwear, but that is all. There are no seamsplits, bends, owners' markings, or other defects, and the whole remains solid, bright, glossy, and highly attractive – overall, this rates as an excellent collector's copy.

The condition of the LP itself is near-MINT. Though the surfaces are not perfectly silent (and thus I have rated it NM vs. MINT) this is a fine copy and playback is superb. If you must have perfect surfaces, then please do not buy this LP. Overall, this rates as a NM collector's copy.

PLEASE NOTE:
This LP has been carefully cleaned using a VPI cleaning machine. All LPs are provided with a new Nagaoka (or Nagaoka-style) inner sleeve. The images I've provided are of the actual item you are potentially bidding on - these are not stock images or images I've taken from other sites. Bid with confidence!

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