Title

My first 79 years

Description

For sixty-four years, Isaac Stern has been a great - and greatly loved - performing artist, famous for his profound music-making, his gusto for life, his passionate dedication to sharing his knowledge and wisdom with younger musicians, and his determination in a good cause. "Brought to America from Russia when he was ten months old, Stern grew up in San Francisco and was quickly recognized as an extraordinary talent. He began performing publicly while still very young, and was soon touring across the country and around the world. His fame escalated when he led the fight to save Carnegie Hall, and again when he was the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary film From Mao to Mozart." "In this book he shares with us both his personal and his artistic experiences: the story of his rise to eminence; his feelings about music and the violin; his rich emotional life; his great friendships and collaborations with colleagues such as Leonard Bernstein and Pablo Casals; his background as an ardent supporter of Israel; his ideas and beliefs about art, life, love, and the world we live in."--Book Jacket.

Identifier

826797

679451307

Creator

Stern, Isaac

Contributor

Potok, Chaim

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1999

Program air date: January 23, 2000.

Publisher

Alfred A. Knopf

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front end papers and fly leaf: Not a practicing Jew. "During a visit to Vienna, soccer game "sends them back to the gas chambers" never returned to Austria. "I have perfect pitch" Pablo Casals Franco-antifascist. Prades, France 1950 festival. Aug. 17, 1951 married Vera Lindenblit, 17 days after meeting her in Israel. "I love to gamble." Stradivarius (2 ) violins--Guarnerius del Gesu only 160 are known. B. July 21, 1920, Krelistminiecz, Russian-Polish border. List of family. No high school, no college. 54 people in hall at Edinburgh, Recife, Brazil 1949, man taking pictures--"OUT". Alexander Zakin, pianist, close personal relationship "longest collaboration in history" 33 years. Wilhelm Furtwangler--Chicago Symphony offer--we said we would boycott--weak man no anti-Semite. Nora Kaye, married Nov. 10, 1949 lasted 6 months--I soloed at her ballet--she called me a son of a bitch. Israel free concerts--I loved it, people there loved music. Visited Ben-Gurion. Friend Nathan Koblick, Lutie Goldstein--benefactor. 1926-1939 elementary school, high school, college--"university of Real Life". 1939-1943 Graduate School. Paul Stoes, Betty Alexander--travel with. Sol Hurok, "claimed he discovered me--but I was forced on him." Jan. 8, 1943 debut--Carnegie Hall. 4-F flat feet, yet volunteered for USO. FDR dies--glad he's dead. Punched guy in elevator? First recording 1945--Beethoven, Handel. Mar. 22, 1946 Carnegie Hall violin Guarnerius $65,000 my sons musicians can't make love (music) to Germans. Japan trip 53' we were always called "semi-official" ambassadors. State Dept. cultural exchange program, what do you think of it? Met Khrushchev all Russian (foreign) artists outside had to be fingerprinted. "I'm beginning to wonder how long I should go on." 60th B-day golf cart suggested by Abe Fortas, driven in by Rosalyn Carter. '82 broke my bow. 1965 First national concert for the arts--LBJ. 80's informal dinner with Reagan, Kissinger "no right to talk to the President like that." 1976 85th anniv. of Carnegie Hall, 1986 Concert of the Century, 1996 Isaac Stern auditorium dedicated 15 mil. Hillary Rodham Clinton, solo performance in doubt--arthritis. Carpal tunnel syndrome--operation by now was it successful? March 74' Sol Hurok dies on NY street, GE tries/fails to buy his company--becomes ICM. Corsica--letter to Henry Kissinger--wanted to go to China--became "close" friends. Again didn't go to Germany/Austria/visited Auschwitz in 60's. Speak--English/Russian/French/Kurt Masur. "What's the film Isaac Stern: a life--U.N. Chinese Amb wife's comment about future success", politics and speaking out no illusion--1977 Zakin ill--Alzheimer's--June 1979 arrive for visit in China with family. From Mao to Mozart--won Oscar in 80' 84 minutes from/to home. The greatest violinists--Heifetz--premier violinist of the 20th century, one of 4 or 5 giants in 350 years. Every young performer in Mao to Mozart has left China to study. Fiddler on the Roof--Tradition. 1968 Heart attack, mid 87' bypass (3). 1968 no more regional orchestra "a heavy burden of massive disinterest on my part." "I have lived with fatalistic sense of travel", David Oistrakh--Russian, knew him 20 years. Story of sprained wrist from tennis, played funerals for 1990: Sol Hurok, Shuna Zakin, Lenny Bernstein (1947). Sons Michael, David conductors, daughter Shira Rabbinist, Vera divorce, Linda Reynolds, Kennedy Center. Loyalty to Israel, to friends. Persian Gulf--gas masks--played scud attack. Medal of Freedom 1992, testifying before state legislature about funding for arts, lobbying. Rabin/Arafat/Peres at the W.H., June 1998 gala at Carnegie "some kind of political animal". 73 in 93' close friend Isaiah Berlin--loved him, smartest man I've ever known/Oxford honorary. Traveled to Germany in April 1999.

Subject

"Stern, Isaac, 1920-2001."

"Violinists--United States--Biography."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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