The Three Ps

Of the many young violinists who feel called, Isaac Stern was one of the chosen. He had faced the fearsome scrutiny of New York critics in a Town Hall recital like dozens of other ambitious youngsters every year, and unlike most, he had won the nod. Last week, short, chunky Isaac Stern was back in Manhattan to be the first soloist o'f the season with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony in the an nual summer concerts in Lewisohn Sta dium. To his native gifts, which he would be the last to call genius, he had added the three Ps of success: 1) patronage, 2) plug ging. 3) practice.

At 27, he was playing 90 concerts a year at minimums of $1,000 to '$1,500 a concert, had been paid $40,000 to ghost fiddle in Hollywood, for John Garfield in Humoresque. Next month he will set out on his first commercial tour outside the U.S. (he made three U.S.O. trips to the Pacific).

No Factory. Isaac was born in Russia. But he did not go in lace and patent leather to one of Russia's prodigy factories, then on to famed Leopold Auer in St. Petersburg, like Violinists Heifetz and Elman. The Stern family settled in San Francisco before Isaac's parents decided to make a violinist of him. Says Isaac: "They took me to concerts but I did not come back and cry for a violin, nor did I pick up a fiddle and play from memory every note I'd heard at the concert. The idea of a career for me was always in somebody else's mind."

When he was ten a wealthy woman on San Francisco's Pacific Avenue began to finance his training. He made the local circuit: recitals in private homes, luncheon, solos, a formal recital in Veterans' Auditorium. In 1937 he was ready for Manhattan and Town Hall--or thought he was. Hiring the hall and paying for the trip cost his sponsor $1,500. Says Isaac: "I hired an accompanist, had three rehearsals. I should have had a tested program which I'd played on the road and had embedded in my fingertips. A concert like the one I gave is just a sales talk unless you're such a tremendous talent it sweeps everything before you; and I wasn't the greatest thing since Mozart." The critics agreed. The New York Herald Tribune's critic wrote: "An unusually promising young musician whose talent seems to be following a normal and judicious course of development, he should become an artist of exceptional consequence. . . ."

Angel Standing By. It was a better notice than most 17-year-olds get. More important, Isaac's angels were still with him. "I know today that I would not be a violinist if I had not had sponsors. I would have gone back like the others to be a good or bad teacher, or to play in an orchestra."

Isaac had a manager willing to wait. He told Isaac: "Plug, play and practice; I'll talk about you." The first year he got seven concerts, the second 14. Then he was signed by Master Plugger Sol Hurok.

This week, confident behind the big tone and brilliant technique which resembles the work of Jascha Heifetz, the violinist he most admires, Isaac Stern again took his place on the stage in front of another San Franciscan, walrus-mustached Pierre Monteux, the first conductor of the season at Lewisohn. Said Isaac: "When I look back, I tremble to think of other kids going through the same thing."

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