All Pleasure, No Guilt

THE world is bursting with good young violinists—of every nationality, every temperament, and each sex—and one of the best of the lot is Maxim Vengerov, a Russian. His latest album is a humdinger called Vengerov & Virtuosi (from EMI Classics). The virtuosi in question are actually a group called Virtuosi, a Russian-Israeli ensemble of eleven violinists. That’s a lot of violinists, of course, almost as many as there are Yale Cellos. There is precedent for this sort of group in Russia. Vengerov, in the liner notes to his album, tells a story about Stalin (yes, Stalin). It seems the old dictator once attended a concert being given by a string quartet. He demanded, “Why do you have just four musicians playing? Wouldn’t it sound better if you had more?” To that, one could only reply, “How many would you like, Boss?” Stalin said, “At least ten!” So that particular ensemble was beefed up considerably.

(Those in power have long dictated to musicians, with varying degrees of success. André Previn titled his memoir of Hollywood No Minor Chords. Why? Because Irving Thalberg, of MGM, once heard something in a film score that didn’t sit well with him. “What the hell was that?” he asked an aide. The aide, bewildered, said, “I dunno, sir. I think it was a minor chord.” Whereupon Thalberg issued a memo saying, “Henceforth there shall be no minor chords in an MGM picture.”)

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

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THE world is bursting with good young violinists—of every nationality, every temperament, and each sex—and one of the best of the lot is Maxim Vengerov, a Russian. His latest album is a humdinger called Vengerov & Virtuosi (from EMI Classics). The virtuosi in question are actually a group called Virtuosi, a Russian-Israeli ensemble of eleven violinists. That’s a lot of violinists, of course, almost as many as there are Yale Cellos. There is precedent for this sort of group in Russia. Vengerov, in the liner notes to his album, tells a story about Stalin (yes, Stalin). It seems the old dictator once attended a concert being given by a string quartet. He demanded, “Why do you have just four musicians playing? Wouldn’t it sound better if you had more?” To that, one could only reply, “How many would you like, Boss?” Stalin said, “At least ten!” So that particular ensemble was beefed up considerably.

(Those in power have long dictated to musicians, with varying degrees of success. André Previn titled his memoir of Hollywood No Minor Chords. Why? Because Irving Thalberg, of MGM, once heard something in a film score that didn’t sit well with him. “What the hell was that?” he asked an aide. The aide, bewildered, said, “I dunno, sir. I think it was a minor chord.” Whereupon Thalberg issued a memo saying, “Henceforth there shall be no minor chords in an MGM picture.”)