Isaac Stern – and the hair from a horse’s tail in Mongolia

Did you know you have to take the white hair from the tail of a horse in Mongolia to make the best bow strings for the violin?

It was news to me as were many other facts that we learned from musical connoisseur, Barbara Blum, who charmed our ESRA Givatayim audience.

Twenty five enthusiastic people were in attendance at the home of Kleile Lerner in Ramat Gan.

We learned not only about the unique nature of the violin, but we also learned more about the Master violinist, Isaac Stern. The musical selections were sublime and Barbara coaxed us into listening in a unique way. She was able to activate our imaginations so that we could feel our fingers climbing up and down the scales as she played excerpts from Stern's recordings.

Under her direction we could feel the love he had for music and his instrument as we listened entranced to the sounds. Isaac Stern made love to his violin, and his music evoked the emotions. "You can't make music if you don't love", she quoted Mr Stern.

He was the prime mover in keeping Carnegie Hall standing in New York and was its director for over thirty years.

Isaac Stern was invited to play all over the world for audiences large and small, and was recognized as the greatest violinist in the 20^th century. Germany was the only country he refused to play in … he could not love that audience, and without that love he could not play the music.

We are grateful to Barbara Blum for making our first ESRA Givatayim program such a success, and thankful to Bess Hoffman for coming and bringing Barbara.