Violin Dreams
by Arnold Steinhardt
List Price:
Our Price: $2.98
You Save: $12.97 (81%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Arnold SteinhardtEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-15
ISBN: 0547086008
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of Violin Dreams
Book Review: A "Moveable Feast"!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I hardly ever read a book twice. Arnold Steinhardt's "Violin Dream," on the other hand, is not an ordinary book. By the time I devoured it the second time I realized that the book is an incredibly delectable and satisfying odyssey of a violinist who makes a full circle of his life as an artist. The title of the book just doesn't quite convey this, my only "criticism" of the book. It's a rare treat, regardless, as it's quite extraordinary to find in a performing artist who's as equally talented in prose.
The odyssey begins at his apartment house in Los Angeles and ends there several decades later. It begins with dreams and ends with dreams after many dreams confessed. It begins with Bach's Chaconne and ends with Bach's Chaconne after so many attempts to analyze it and understand it, yet elusively haunted by it. The odyssey takes you along on homages that are deeply meaningful to the author: to his mother's Jewish roots in Dlugosiodlo, Poland, to his Storioni violin's roots in Cremona, to Maria Barbara Bach's grave site to play for her Chaconne that her husband composed yet she had never got to hear. Without wallowing in any sentimentality, the author pulls subtly at your emotion as he takes you along on these journeys.
The odyssey is replete with recurring themes. Dreams, for instance. You suspect that he has actively participated in Jungian analytical psychotherapy with his dream diaries short of confessing to being on the couch on a regular basis. What a pleasant surprise to come across an old name of Joe Henderson who's a well known figure in the Jungian circles back then. Many sexual undertone and references vis-à-vis his violin... Chaconne. It nags and haunts and ultimately ennobles the author all through the book. He returns again and again to this work that has mystified him all of his life. The book even comes with a CD recording of the author performing Bach's Partita in D Minor as a young violinist and the same work 40 years later.
The odyssey is also about the author's quests that came in a variety of forms: his violin competitions that began with winning a local music store talent show (performing Monti's Czardas!) and securing his school's orchestra concertmaster position, to winning a couple of solo competitions in youth orchestras, to winning the Leventritt International Violin Competition and the 3rd place finish in the Queen Elizabeth Competition as a young adult. Along with these came the quests in the form of finding his dream violin, his teachers, and his opportunities from solo artist to Assistant Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra to the eventual founding of the Guarneri String Quartet at one of the Marlboro Music Festivals.
The odyssey also takes you to the author's encounters with significant individuals that have shaped and influenced his career: Jascha Heifetz (along with Mischa, Toscha and Sascha), Ivan Galamian, Efrem Zimbalist, Isaac Stern, Arthur Rubinstein, Joseph Szigeti, Pablo Casals, George Szell, and so many more. It's like the "Moveable Feast" of the Hemingway's world in Paris in the `20s.... How can the book not be delectable with such a feast?
Other tidbits that strike me as unforgettable: needing to practice while waiting at the Denver Airport, he found himself at the rooftop facing the perfect practice spot overlooking the Rocky Mountain landscape.... He called it the "Mother of all practice spots." (I live in Colorado so I know how he must have felt at that moment!); while on a hiking trip after the Aspen Music Festival, leaving his treasured violin well tucked away in the trunk of a car wrapped in a blanket only to discover to his horror upon returning the violin and the case baptized in a flood of gasoline that leaked out of the car.... Oh my.... What about his career threatening injury? His hiking trip to Machu Picchu with a violin and playing for the natives... His prized violin broken in an accident while running to catch the subway train... A numerous trips to the most well known luthiers of the times...
It's a wonderful world that we live in with the likes of Arnold Steinhardt to give us as a gift the times and places that we missed out on. Just as Hemingway gave us the times and places and characters who inhabited his world through his eyes in the "Moveable Feast," I'm so grateful that Arnold Steinhardt gave us his musical version of the "Moveable Feast" that I can only wistfully wish I was a part of.
Instruments & Performers Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Instruments & Performers Books
Instrument of Worship Volume OneBenson Records; Paperback; Book
Season of Peace: GuitarGIA Publications; Published: 1993-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Amazing Love: PianoGenevox Music Group; Published: 1994-07; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Majestic Trumpet Trios Christmas: Volume 2Majestic Music Publications; Published: 1996-09; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Majestic Brass Quartets: Volume OneMajestic Music Publications; Published: 1996-03; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
101 Ways to Evangelize: 88 KeysIntrada Music; Paperback; Book
Keyboard Duets for Organ & PianoHope Publishing Company (IL); Paperback; Book
Glory Forever: Medium RangeAlexandria House; Paperback; Book
Glory Forever: Full RangeAlexandria House; Published: 1991-03; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Beethoven`s Piano Sonatas: A Short Companionby Dr. Charles Rosen, Charles Rosen
Yale University Press; Published: 2001-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.73
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Art of ViolinKultur; Release date: 2010-06-29; DVD
Best price: $16.48
Price in other shops:
The Musician's Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellnessby Gerald Klickstein
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2009-09-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.71
Price in other shops:
An Encyclopedia of the Violin (Dover Books on Music)by Alberto Bachmann
Dover Publications; Published: 2008-04-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.33
Price in other shops:
Art of Practicing the Violin: With Useful Hints for All String Playersby Robert Gerle
Strainer and Bell; EC Schirmer Music Co; Published: 1983-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.90
Price in other shops:
Violin Playing As I Teach It (Dover Books on Music)by Leopold Auer
Alfred Publishing; Dover Publications; Published: 1980-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.27
Price in other shops:
Teaching Genius Dorothy Delay and the Making of a Musician (Softcover)by Barbara Lourie Sand
Amadeus Press; Amadeus Press; Published: 2005-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.34
Price in other shops:
Jascha Heifetz: God's FiddlerRelease date: 2011-07-26; DVD
Best price: $13.65
Price in other shops:
Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmonyby Arnold Steinhardt
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2000-06-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Stradivari's Genius: Five Violins, One Cello, and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfectionby Toby Faber
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2006-04-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.04
Price in other shops:
Violin Mastery: Interviews with Heifetz, Auer, Kreisler and Others (Dover Books on Music)Dover Publications; Dover Publications; Published: 2006-04-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.79
Price in other shops: