100 Musicians
#09
IT’S SOMETIMES said that the “Golden Age” of violin playing — the same is said for every instrument, and for singers — was at some point in the past. “Oh, you never heard X play!” or “Y is not a patch on Z”.
Should anyone be silly enough to give credence to such nonsense, there are two words which instantly disprove it: Itzhak Perlman.
Perlman is not simply one of the greatest violinists alive; he is one of the greatest who has ever lived. His many recordings give an indication of what makes him so special — for me, his Beethoven Violin Concerto with Giulini recorded in 1980 remains peerless. But in truth, you have to hear him live to appreciate in full the magical sweetness and delicacy of his tone, a poise and elegance that is almost impossible to imagine until you hear it. No matter how loud the forte may be, that sweetness is there — and no matter how softly he may be playing, it’s a sound you cannot better.
Fortunately, Perlman is a regular visitor to London (Covid apart) and there are usually many chances to hear him perform.
Itzhak Perlman was born in August 1945 in Tel Aviv. His parents had emigrated in the 1930s from Poland.
The story goes that having heard a concert on the radio at three years old, he asked to learn the violin but was told he was too
While the virus made normal use of my legs impossible, my hands were spared and I could pursue a career as a violinist
young, so he taught himself on a toy instrument. That was replaced by a real violin and, with his prodigious talent obvious immediately, was soon moved to lessons at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv (now the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music). He gave his first concert at 10 and then moved at 13 to the US to learn under the legendary Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard.
That same year he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and wowed the audience so much he was immediately asked back. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1963 and has been at the top of his profession ever since, touring and playing with the world’s best orchestras and giving chamber music recitals.
Perlman was infected with polio at four and has walked with crutches ever since, so he sits while playing. As he has put it: “I was very lucky in making a good recovery and learning to walk with crutches. While the virus made normal use of my legs impossible, my hands were spared, and I could pursue a long and successful career as a violinist, doing what I love.” Asked once if it affected his performances, he said: “I can’t walk very well, but I’m not onstage to do walking. I’m on the stage to play.”