Legendary violinist Isaac Stern's legacy lives on after 100 years

Tuesday, July 21, marks the centennial of the birth of violinist Isaac Stern. He was not only an acclaimed musician, but a devoted teacher who was a mentor to generations of musicians.

Transcript

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Isaac Stern's tombstone simply reads, Isaac Stern, fiddler. These three words leave out an awful lot. Stern mentored generations of musicians, including some of the greats. This Tuesday marks the centennial of Isaac Stern's birth. And Jeff Lunden has this appreciation.

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: Isaac Stern was born on the shifting border between Poland and Ukraine. His parents brought him to the U.S. as an infant. They settled in San Francisco. And his son Michael says, until his father was 8 years old...

MICHAEL STERN: He had no aspirations to play music at all until, as he tells it, some kid across the street was playing. And he wanted to play. And that kid grew up to be an insurance salesman.

LUNDEN: And Isaac Stern became Isaac Stern.

(SOUNDBITE OF ISAAC STERN PERFORMANCE OF NOVACEK'S "PERPETUUM MOBILE, OP. 5, NO. 4")

LUNDEN: Recognizing his talent, his mother pulled him out of school. Stern made his public debut with the San Francisco Symphony when he was 15. Two years later, he performed in New York. Carnegie Hall archivist Gino Francesconi quotes from Stern's autobiography, "My First 79 Years."

GINO FRANCESCONI: "I went out early the next morning. I bought the papers and read the reviews with my mother. We were bitterly disappointed. I was being patted on the head by some of New York's most eminent critics. My playing was erratic. I had to go back to San Francisco and practice some more." And that's what he did.

LUNDEN: He returned to acclaim a few years later and launched a remarkable career performing recitals and chamber music, playing with major symphony orchestras.

(SOUNDBITE OF ISAAC STERN PERFORMANCE OF TCHAIKOVSKY'S "CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA IN D MAJOR")

LUNDEN: Stern played the classics but also worked with contemporary composers, including Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein. Francesconi reads a note from Bernstein written on hotel stationery before the premiere of his piece "Serenade."

FRANCESCONI: It says, Isaac, my Isaac, whatever happens tonight, fair or foul or flop, I want you to know how much I will always cherish your work on our "Serenade." Nobody can play like you, and nobody can play the piece as you can.

(SOUNDBITE OF ISAAC STERN PERFORMANCE OF BERNSTEIN'S "SERENADE, AFTER PLATO'S SYMPOSIUM")

LUNDEN: Throughout his career, Stern practiced relentlessly, even while watching football games on TV. But his musicianship wasn't just about technique. Stern wanted to impart what he'd learned to the next generation, as he told NPR's Diane Rehm in 1999.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

ISAAC STERN: In the process of learning, look for the answer, the real answer - not how to play but why. Why do you play? Why do you want to be a musician? What do you want to say? Only a human being can speak with a certain individual voice. And that's what every musician has to learn.

(SOUNDBITE OF ISAAC STERN PERFORMANCE OF SCHUBERT'S "QUINTETTE A CORDES IN C MAJOR")

MIDORI: He wasn't somebody who was just playing the violin. He took interest in the world.

LUNDEN: Violinist Midori was mentored by Stern.

MIDORI: He took interest in his community. He took interest in people like us, the younger generation. And he was so committed to giving himself and becoming involved, taking action where he felt that it was necessary.

LUNDEN: When he wasn't able to join the army because of flat feet during World War II, he joined the USO and played for the troops. And when Carnegie Hall was scheduled to be demolished in 1960, he was instrumental in saving it, says his son Michael.

M STERN: And I think it gave him an enormous sense of pride that he could give back both to the city and to the country, something which he felt was so important and that was so important to him.

LUNDEN: Isaac Stern went on to serve as president of Carnegie Hall for 40 years. And he was very much an American musician, says his other son, David, who, like his brother, became a conductor.

DAVID STERN: The Americans who managed to come through and start on their own in their own way, like my father, could invent everything. They didn't have this burden of having to continue a tradition. And this was really the chance to say, I am an American artist. And that freedom you hear in his playing.

(SOUNDBITE OF ISAAC STERN PERFORMANCE OF BARBER'S "CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA, OP. 14")

LUNDEN: And as someone who started with nothing and devoted his life to giving back to the country he called home, he said he never stopped learning.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

I STERN: In eight decades, I feel that I am still a student. And that's what's wonderful. The wonderful thing is to search and sometimes find.

LUNDEN: Isaac Stern died of heart failure at the age of 81 in 2001. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF ISAAC STERN PERFORMANCE OF BARBER'S "CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA, OP. 14")

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