8 Violin Concertos - Live Performances 1943-1962

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In 1906, Nathan "Tossy" Spivakovsky was born in Odessa. A child prodigy, with his elder brother Jascha, a pianist, they toured Europe as the Spivakovsky Duo. At only 18, Spivakovsky was spotted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, and he became the youngest concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1940, Spivakovsky emigrated to the U.S and made his New York debut at Town Hall. Two years later he became concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra under Artur Rodzinski. Obviously he was one of the top violinists of the Twentieth Century. Since childhood, Spivakovsky had a special interest in the way Bach repertoire for solo violin should be played. Although most violinists arpeggiate chords, Spivakovsky had become convinced early on that this was not what Bach intended. Upon realizing that Bach wanted certain chords in his solo violin works played without arpeggiation, he wrote an article entitled "Polyphony in Bach's Works for solo Violin, " published in 1967 in The Music Review, Vol. 28, No. 4., in which he provided the evidence for Bach's preference. He later acquired a curved Vega Bach Bow from Knud Vestergaard, of Denmark, which enabled him to perform with increased ease, sonority and smoothness of tone. The New York Times, describing Spivakovsky's performance of the Bach on April 1, 1963, wrote: "Tossy Spivakovsky demonstrated again his impressive artistry, and his use of the curved bow gave his performances unusual interest.... The violinist's use of the curved bow had it's most persuasive results in the great Chaconne." This set contains a distinctive performance: Spivakovsky's interpretation of the Bach Chaconne using the VEGA BACH-Bow had never been released or available on record until now. We are therefore pleased to present here a brilliant live broadcast by Radio Stockholm from 1969. His playing is simply magnificent and attests to Spivakovsky's genius as a magical new dimension is added to Bach's violin music.