Julian Sitkovetsky

Julian Sitkovetsky shared a number of things with Michael Rabin: both were found at their peaks (for different reasons) during the 1950s. Both had highly individual violin voices, both seemed completely unfazed by any considerations of technqiue; both communicated an intense joy in playing the violin. Listening to Julian Sitkovetsky in a series of Russian pieces this evening, I marvelled again at his sound; his violin soars and dives effortlessly, always reminding me of a seagull in flight enjoying life and freedom. His violin voice is immediately recognisable, sounding more like a woodwind instrument than horse hair playing on cat gut. What he would have sounded like in person, without the distortions of the various East European recording technicians at that time, I cannot imagine. His early death of lung cancer at the age of 32 was a major tragedy for all lovers of great violin playing. I'll never become tired of listening to his recordings where he lives on despite his premature death in February 1958.