Isaac Stern, who died on September 22nd aged 81, was not only a superlative musician and one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, he was also the consummate humanitarian, passionately involved in causes both global and local. Some saw his extramusical activities as sapping concentration from his violin playing; others saw his musicianship as gaining from his involvement with society at large.
Born in Kremenets, Ukraine, he was taken to San Francisco when he was less than a year old. There he received his entire musical training: at the San Francisco Conservatory (1928-31), then with Louis Persinger (who also taught Yehudi Menuhin), and with his main teacher, Naoum Blinder (1932-37). Unlike Menuhin, he was not a prodigy. Although he made his recital dΘbut at 15, and came to national attention at the age of 16 through a broadcast performance of the Brahms concerto with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Monteux, New York critics found the 17-year-old merely "promising".
After wartime performances for Allied troops in Iceland, Greenland and the South Pacific, in 1945 he made his first recordings for Columbia, and stayed with the label for half-a-century. In 1948, he made his European dΘbut at the Lucerne festival, and became an annual visitor to Europe - except Germany, where he refused to play in front of his people's persecutors. He relented slightly in 1999, when he spent nine days teaching young German musicians; but he still refused to appear on a concert platform.
Many of his recordings from the late 1940s and 1950s are still available, and they demonstrate vividly why he took the music world by storm. Immediately apparent is his astonishing vigour, an unremitting intensity derived from sheer joy in music-making. This is fresh, unmannered playing, pouring forth as naturally as speech. The rhythmic drive is irresistible, resulting in a latent, quivering energy even in lyrical passages. The approach to the instrument is big and bold, characterised by incisive, sharply etched articulation and forceful bowstrokes. The tone is frighteningly robust and full-bodied, but clearly focused due to a narrow and rapid vibrato.
For its time, Isaac Stern's intuitive awareness of musical style and historical period was unusual. In Classical repertory, his neat, precise accentuation and straightforward demeanour allowed the music to speak for itself. In Romantic works he avoided self-indulgent portamentos and rubatos. For him, the meaning of Romanticism was to be found in the impassioned temperament and forceful articulations, not in mawkish displays of emotion.
His approach avoided the modernist trap of impersonality. "Today, the serious artist tries to present his art in the simplest possible terms," he said. "We are more concerned with the faithful interpretation of large-scale pieces. The contemporary artist expresses his feelings through the music, instead of filtering the music through his feelings."
His sympathy for 20th-century music was considerable: he gave American premiΦres of works by Bartok, Hindemith, William Schuman, Peter Maxwell Davies, George Rochberg, Krzysztof Penderecki, Leonard Bernstein and Henri Dutilleux, and championed the concertos of Prokofiev, Berg and Stravinsky in conservative America. All his tastes were influenced by musicianly considerations; works that were merely vehicles for virtuoso display interested him little. "What gives me happiness and satisfaction is to play the kind of music that solves all human problems: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven."
His concern with musical values was also apparent in the amount of time he devoted to chamber music - commonplace among today's virtuosos, but less so in the 1950s. Early in his career he played with Pablo Casals, in addition to his sonata partnership with Zakin. From 1961 to 1984, Isaac Stern, pianist Eugene Istomin and cellist Leonard Rose formed one of the century's most influential piano trios; they toured extensively and recorded, among other works, the complete trios of Beethoven and Brahms.
He had an equal preoccupation with young people and music education. Giving the keynote address in Dublin at the Music in the Classroom: An Educational Imperative conference organised by The Irish Times and RT╔ in May 1994, he explained why music is the most natural of the arts. Tapping out a beat on the podium he said: "Already the foetus while still in the womb is experiencing its first tempo. The child comes to life, and its cries mingle with the heartbeat to create a rhythm. Very soon the child recognises the timbre of the mother's voice. All the elements of music are there."
He criticised the "digitalisation of the mind" where information was split into ever shorter bits. "Anything which has to do with the quality of life takes time for reflection and children above all need that time. I still don't know how you can make love by telephone and it still takes nine months to have a baby."
On the symbiosis between classical composers and popular music he said he didn't enjoy the "angry outcry and destructive impulse" of some kinds of modern music. "This kind of repetitive trash has been used tribally, and in this century, for political ends."
Later in his career, Isaac Stern often invited his young protegΘs to join him in chamber-music evenings that ranged from duets to octets. The fact that he had so many protegΘs was indicative of his concern with nurturing young talent. Although he never taught formally, he gave countless master classes and coaching sessions. Today, his "children" include violinists Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Shlomo Mintz and Cho-Liang Lin, pianist Yefim Bronfman, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Many of these musicians are Israeli, a reflection of his lifelong commitment to the Jewish state. So tireless was his devotion that he was almost a one-man ministry of culture - seeking out young artists and helping them towards scholarships for study in America.
Viewing music as a universal force for reconciliation, he appeared in the Soviet Union in 1956, at the height of the cold war, and travelled to China in 1979 before the rapprochement with the West was complete. A film of his visit, From Mao To Mozart: Isaac Stern In China, won the 1981 Academy award for best full-length documentary.
Domestically, he was venerated by most musical New Yorkers after 1960, when he single-handedly prevented the demolition of Carnegie Hall. By tirelessly rallying public, corporate and artistic support, he succeeded in saving and, later, renovating it; he was rewarded with the presidency of the Carnegie Hall Corporation.
In the 1970s and 80s his playing declined: the intonation could be erratic, the articulation and bowstrokes needlessly rough. Yet his musicianship and energy remained undimmed. Isaac Stern, like Menuhin, was of a generation that saw music and humanity as indivisible: he gave us more than half-a-century of glorious, spirited music-making.
He is survived by his third wife, Linda, and three children from his second marriage: a daughter, Shira, and sons, Michael and David.
Isaac Stern: born 1920; died, September 2001