From Russia to the West: The Musical Memoirs and Reminiscences of Nathan Milstein

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening and refreshingly honest
Review: Memoirs from one of the greatest violinists ever, Mr Milstein speaks about the great musicians and composers he knew: Ysaye, Kreisler, Rachmaninoff, Horowitz, Prokofiev, Glazunov, Heifetz, Oistrakh, Piatigorsky, Shostakovich, all in there!

I learned so so much about the great musicians and composers from Milstein's era from this book: not recommended but an essential and manditory posession for any musician and especially violin players.

Intriguing words indeed from the violinist's violinist.

Rating:
Summary: Milstein tells entertaining musical anecdotes
Review: This is compulsory reading for Milstein admirers, and violinists alike. Milstein tells stories of his musical encounters with musicians such as Horowitz, Ysaye, Rachmaninoff, Piatigorsky, Oistrakh, Auer (to name a few) that are irresistable. In fact, the whole book is full of such anecdotes. For violinist, it is especially thrilling to read section where Milstein draws his list of Favorite Concerto. If you're a violin enthusiast, but do not know much about Milstein, this is reccommended. But of course, there are some drawbacks - this is translated from the original Russian version, and the English here is not fantastic all the time (sometimes, it has fishy grammar). Those who are serious in researching in the topic of violinists, I have this to say: Milstein doesn't mean to teach the reader. He is not like a pedagogue-on-paper like Menuhin in his "Unfinished Journey" (by the way,incidentally, I never managed to finsh reading the book!). In fact, some people think Milstein is mysteriously silent on this topic of imparting violinistic knowledge. Anyway, this book was not intended to teach SERIOUSLY. It was meant, actually, to entertain VIOLINISTICALLY. So long it has achieved its purpose, your money has been well spent.