Boris Goldstein (Busya Goldshtein; 25 December 1922 – 8 November 1987) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

violinist whose career was greatly hindered by the political situation in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. As a young prodigy, he started violin studies in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

with the eminent pedagogue,

Pyotr Stolyarsky Pyotr Solomonovich Stolyarsky (russian: Пётр Соломонович Столярский, uk, Петро Соломонович Столярський), (29 April 1944) was a Soviet violinist and eminent pedagogue, honored as People's A ...

and continued them in

Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (russian: Московская государственная консерватория им. П. И. Чайковского, link=no) is a musical educational inst ...

under

Abram Yampolsky Abram Ilich Yampolsky (russian: Абрам Ильич Ямпольский; 1890–1956) was a Soviet violin teacher who nurtured many Soviet virtuosos during his tenure at the Moscow Conservatory. He graduated in Saint Petersburg in 1913 in th ...

and Lev Tseitlin. As a teenager, Boris Goldstein was singled out by

Heifetz Heifetz is a Jewish surname from Belarus and Lithuania. It derives from Hebrew חפץ (chefets; "delight" "pleasure"). It is unrelated to the similar-sounding Arabic name حافظ (Hafez or Hafiz; guardian, protector). It is also spelled Chafets, Ch ...

as being USSR's most brilliant violin talent. His brother was the violinist and composer

Mikhail Goldstein Mikhail Emmanuilovich Goldstein (russian: Михаил Эммануилович Гольдштейн, also transcribed as Michael Emmanuilowitsch Goldstein, he, מיכאל גולדשטיין; pen name: Mykhailo Mykhailovsky; 7 September 1989), was ...

. His great uncle was the physicist

Eugen Goldstein Eugen Goldstein (; 5 September 1850 – 25 December 1930) was a German physicist. He was an early investigator of discharge tubes, the discoverer of anode rays or canal rays, later identified as positive ions in the gas phase including the h ...

Life and career

Goldstein was born in Odessa in 1922, the son of Emanuel Goldstein from Leipzig, Germany, who moved to Odessa to become a professor for mathematics in Odessa. He won the fourth prize of the 1935

Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition The International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition (Polish: ''Międzynarodowy Konkurs Skrzypcowy im. Henryka Wieniawskiego'') is a competition for violinists up to age 30 that takes place every five years in Poznań, Poland, in honor of the vi ...

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

;

Ginette Neveu Ginette Neveu (11 August 191928 October 1949) was a French classical violinist. She was killed in a plane crash at the age of 30. Early life Neveu was born on 11 August 1919 in Paris into a musical family. Her brother Jean-Paul became a class ...

from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

came first,

David Oistrakh David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (; – 24 October 1974), was a Soviet classical violinist, violist and conductor. Oistrakh collaborated with major orchestras and musicians from many parts of the world and was the dedicatee of numerous violin w ...

second, and

Josef Hassid Josef Hassid ( pl, Józef Chasyd, links=no) (28 December 19237 November 1950) was a Polish violinist. Childhood Born on 28 December 1923 to Jewish parents in Suwałki, Poland, as Joseph or Józef Chasyd, he was the second youngest of four child ...

from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

received an honorary diploma. In 1937, at one of the most prestigious international competitions of its time, th
International Ysaye Competition
Stolyarsky students caused a sensation. Top prizes were won by

, Boris Goldshtein (Goldstein), Yelizaveta Gilels and

Mikhail Fikhtengoltz Mikhail Izrailevich Fichtenholz (1 June 1920 – 4 June 1985) was a Soviet violinist. A pupil of the eminent pedagogue Pyotr Stolyarsky, he won the national competition for young performers in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) at the age of 15. In 1 ...

. "The results of the sessions created a profound impression: the Soviet school, with an assurance that bordered on arrogance, carried off all the prizes from the first down. The latter was awarded without the slightest discussion to the great David Oistrakh. Everyone else had to be content with crumbs; the Belgian violin school, though still a source of pride, failed, and its absence at the final was much commented on;

Arthur Grumiaux Baron Arthur Grumiaux (; 21 March 1921 – 16 October 1986) was a Belgian violinist, considered by some to have been "one of the few truly great violin virtuosi of the twentieth century". He has been noted for having a "consistently beautiful t ...

and

Carlo Van Neste Carlo Van Neste (1 April 1914 in Antwerp – 12 July 1992 in Brussels) was a Belgian violinist. He was part of the ''Trio Reine Elisabeth'' with the pianist Naum Sluzsny Naum Sluzsny (1914–1979) was a Swiss-born concert and chamber pianist. ...

, both young and inexperienced, were not able to convince the jury." The Queen Elisabeth Competition
/ref> Later he was forced to emigrate from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, he taught but his solo career never recovered. The composer, violinist, and professor for violin

was his brother. Notable students of Boris Goldstein include

Zakhar Bron Zakhar Bron (russian: Заха́р Ну́химович Брон ; born 17 December 1947, in Oral, Kazakhstan) is a Russian violinist and violin pedagogue of Jewish, Polish and Romanian descent. His students have included Vadim Repin, Gwendolyn ...

and Alexander Skwortsow. Goldstein died on 8 November 1987 in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Germany.

External links

*
Boris Goldstein plays 1st mvt. Karol Szymanowski Sonata-audio onlyBoris Goldstein plays Aria by Bertold Hummel 1978

References

* Roth, Henry (1997). ''Violin Virtuosos: From Paganini to the 21st Century''. Los Angeles, CA: California Classics Books. *В сб.: Музыкальное исполнительство, в. 6, М., 1970, с. 162—193; - Гринберг М., Пронин В., В классе П. С. Столярского *«Советская музыка», 1972, № 3. - Ойстрах Д., Фурер С., Мордкович Л., О нашем учителе. (К столетию П. С. Столярского) 1922 births 1987 deaths Musicians from Odesa Odesa Jews Ukrainian classical violinists Soviet classical violinists Male classical violinists Prize-winners of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 20th-century classical violinists 20th-century male musicians {{USSR-bio-stub