Info:
Duration: part one 22’ 30”
Narration by Christopher Nupen
Year of production: 2011
On 17 July 1986, Nathan Milstein played his last public recital in the Berwaldhallen in Stockholm. The recital included the Bach Chaconne, one of the towering masterpieces of Western music and one of the most difficult to do justice to.
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This short film begins with Milstein listening to, and reflecting on, his performance of the Chaconne in the Berwaldhallen and on the piece in general, trying to decide whether his performance was good enough to be released.
He had woken, on the morning of the recital, with a painful first finger on his left hand — an essential ingredient in the equipment of every violinist. And so what did Nathan Milstein do? He spent the whole day revising his fingerings to spare his first finger — a feat way beyond the reach of most violinists. But he had been amazing orchestral musicians with his fingering changes, in mid-performance, all through his career. When the recital was over, he remarked, with some amusement, that some of what he had done was actually better for the changes.
The film ends with the complete performance, shot live, just as it happened on that memorable evening in 1986, with our 82-year-old hero further adapting his fingerings as he went along, and as can be seen in some of the close-ups.
That feat alone makes this an event worth remembering but the film does much more than that: it conserves musical virtues of a very high order. It is a beacon — an important audiovisual record of a great and historic musical event.
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