Gilbert Chang <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>There has been a discussion about Hungarian conductors recently, which made
>me think of another question: Why are nearly all the greatest violinists,
>in the past 150 years or so, of Jewish origin? I can hardly think of a
>great master violinist that was not a Jew: ...

Of course there are great pianists of Jewish ascent, such as Rubinstein,
Horowitz,...  Conductors too, I presume, although the proportion must be
smaller, as it is for composers.  However, I confess that I do not always
wonder whether a given musician is or not of Jewish ascent, this often is
immaterial to his performances.

Isaac Stern once said (or at least, so tells a story about him) that he
had chosen to play the violin because it was small and easy to carry in
the event of pogroms.  Of course, this was humor (the kind of desperate
Jewish humor against hatred and racist abomination), but maybe there is
something true in it.  More broadly speaking, many people of Jewish ascent
have succeeded in fields which require either things that can be replaced
(such as finance) or internal wealth, be it music or fundamental science,
to quote two examples.  Menuhin often refers to the Gypsies, whose culture
is vastly different from the Hebraic culture of course, but who share some
things with Jews: they have been on the move for centuries (probably more
voluntarily than for Jews, but not always), they often have music deeply
enshrined in their soul and body, their culture having been perpetuated
largely through unwritten forms, and they were the victims of an abominable
genocide by nazis during WWII.  You can observe that in both cases,
languages (or dialectal forms) vary, while only music readily brings
members of a scattered people together.  In more social terms, musical
practice might well be more profoundly valued among Jews than in many other
groups, notably Asians...

There is a matter of tradition and sensibility, too, and possibly physical
gifts (although physical gifts should be attributed or denied to ethnic
groups only with care, and not just for political correctness).

However, I do not really agree that all great violinists are of Jewish
ascent, even if an astounding proportion definitely are.  (I was not aware
that Szeryng was!) I don't think that Josef Suk is, for instance.  Among
those who were born between 1900 and 1925, the violinists I most admire
probably are Y.Menuhin, D.Oistrakh and N.Milstein, but in their generation
or in the following ones, I think that the variety of interpretative
styles, depending on local schools, cultures and of course individuals,
cannot be ignored.  For instance, I would not turn to Perlman (an admirable
instrumentalist) for *all* kinds of repertoire, even if some critics tend
to praise whatever he does (which is not fair for his actually outstanding
recordings).  I would also listen to Kulka, Danczowska or Wilkomirska in
Szymanowski and Karlowicz, to Menuhin, but also Poulet in Bartok, to
Gallois-Montbrun or Mouillere in Chausson or Faure, Kennedy (or Kang!) in
Elgar, Biondi in Malipiero, Zimmermann in Schumann's concerto, Grumiaux in
Mozart, and so on.  I don't mean that music should be played exclusively
by people from the composer's country, this would be fatal, but local
traditions fortunately exist and they too make music truly universal and
multi-facetted.  Listening to all the repertoire exclusively by heirs of
Oistrakh or Stern would be inevitably reducing the scope of musical
expression and even listeners' imagination and paths to approach music.
This is not basically a matter of origin, Jewish background, Russian,
American, French or else, but simply of diversity, variety of sources --
Perlman or Zukerman are admirable violinists indeed, but saying that they
are "the best" does not add anything to their intrinsic qualities, while
it tends to set them as arbitrary universal standards under which other
performers who are quite as brilliant and deep musicians would be
depreciated, simply because they did not have exactly the same priorities
in their quest and thus are not the best Perlman or the best Mintz in the
world!

It remains that the proportion of Jewish people among great musicians is by
no means proportional to the size of this people, and I don't think that
objective or historical reasons alone can explain this.  I'd rather think
that each great musician is a kind of miracle (or chance if you wish), and
possibly this is more readily favoured, taken care of, and turned into an
accomplished career as much as possible if the talented person is of Jewish
ascent.

Well, this is just a personal view, to which others will certainly object.
However, some people suggest that the proportion of Jewish people among
musicians is largely due to the fact that many influential tachers and
concert agents are of the same ascent.  I want to make clear that I do
*not* support this "opinion" at all.  A real musician would never support
it, I think, because we know too well that none of the great performers,
be they of Jewish ascent or not, has ever gained his or her place in the
classical musical universe and in our hearts undeservedly.

Thanh-Tam Le