Reviews | RH-029 | AARON ROSAND | in memoriam

Jan/Feb 2026 | Henry Fogel | FANFARE Magazine - Issue 49:3 | Aaron Rosand: In Memoriam

Aaron Rosand (1927–2019) was an extraordinary American violinist who never achieved the stature his talent merited. He studied at Curtis with Efrem Zimbalist and later himself became an important teacher there. He made some heralded recordings for Vox, and his concert performances were almost invariably reviewed enthusiastically, but superstardom eluded him. In Fanfare 9:2 Roger Dettmer wrote, “Rosand’s less-than-sensational career in this country defies any reasonable explanation,” and I can only agree.

It is widely believed in musical circles that Isaac Stern, an enormously powerful figure, held Rosand back, allegedly because Rosand resisted Stern’s advice on career management, or perhaps out of jealousy because Columbia Records proposed to give the Barber Violin Concerto under Bernstein to Rosand. Stern wanted the Barber for himself (he got it, too). The broadest reason given was that Stern didn’t want competition from a Jewish-American violinist of the same generation. (Stern later strongly promoted the careers of Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, but they were over 25 years younger, and he was a firmly established superstar by that time.) Some details of these stories are given in Gary Lemco’s excellent notes in this set. Whatever the truth might be (I believe the reports to be accurate, based on knowing various personalities involved), this set is a magnificent tribute to Rosand.

Rhine Classics is a Taiwan-based company (website: rhineclassics.com) that specializes in issuing live performances of important artists who have not been fully represented by the major labels. Rhine’s sets featuring Ivry Gitlis, Pietro Scarpini, and Berl Senofsky are wonderful examples of their work. They also supplement major labels’ studio recordings of celebrated performers with live performance releases. Their Heifetz live performance volumes are absolute treasures. The restorations are consistently of very high quality.

This collection includes recitals from Butler University, NHK Hall in Tokyo, and Pacific University in California along with orchestral concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra, RAI Symphony Orchestra of Rome, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and the Gelderland Orchestra in the Netherlands. Throughout, Rosand’s spot-on intonation, beautiful, rich tone, and Romantic temperament are on full display. Rosand applied a wider range of vibrato than most, varying the degree and speed depending on the musical context of a given passage, and his liberal use of portamento was something of a throwback. Never, in my experience, did these gestures veer into excess or tastelessness. Rosand found the right balance between interpretive freedom and spontaneity on the one hand and elegance on the other.

Rhine’s sources, while varied, provide a warmer, more spacious sound stage than many of Rosand’s studio recordings, and the gorgeous tone of his “ex-Kochanski” Guarnieri del Gesù is reproduced beautifully.

Although I can’t claim a thorough knowledge of Rosand’s discography, I am fairly certain that he made no recordings of two major works in this collection, the Violin Concertos No. 2 by Prokofiev and Wieniawski. They alone make this a significant release. Moreover, some of the works Rosand recorded in the studio make a stronger impact in these live performances, which are frequently more naturally balanced than their studio equivalents, where engineers sometimes favored the soloist unrealistically.

Rosand’s playing here is so spectacularly beautiful, spontaneously communicative, and technically secure that it is hard to pick out favorite moments from the five hours of music. Surely the Prokofiev Concerto No. 2 has rarely received a performance that so ideally combines rhythmic tautness and lyrical expansiveness. Rosand milks all the beauty possible out of the slow movement, but he and conductor Peter Maag never let the line sag.

Norwegian pianist Geir Henning Braaten became a frequent partner of Rosand after illness forced his first wife, Eileen Flissler, to cease playing. Braaten is the accompanist in a 1983 Tokyo recital that comprises the third disc in the set. He generally matches Rosand’s flair, though in Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata I find his playing a little bangy. Braaten has the virtuosity to keep up with Rosand in showpieces like Heifetz’s transcription of Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance.” In the 2001 California recital, when Rosand was 74, the pianist is Gerald Robbins, who does a good job substituting for the orchestra in the violin-piano version of Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy; he also has the technique to match Rosand’s virtuosity. Their rendering of Ravel’s Tzigane is mesmerizing.

Rosand’s Bach may well upset HIP purists, with its greater degree of vibrato and more flexible tempos than was the norm even in his day, but I cannot think of a more powerful and absorbing performance of the Chaconne in D Minor from Partita No. 2 than the one given here.

There is no need to go on and repeat myself. I will only add that if Rosand’s account of Vieuxtemps’s Souvenir d’Amèrique on “Yankee Doodle” fails to bring a smile and a sense of astonishment at his technical brilliance, you might want to check for a pulse.

One final point: Rhine only identifies only some of these recordings as stereo, but in fact they all are. This is a set of huge importance to all who love great violin playing. It is urgently recommended. 

This article originally appeared in Issue 49:3 (Jan/Feb 2026) of Fanfare Magazine.

July 2025 | Christoph Schlüren | FONO FORUM - 07/25 p.66 | Rhine Classics' Historical Anthologies

[...] Otherwise, there are, of course, other great violinists to whom Pessina's loving dedication (in collaboration with Gary Lemco during the US excavations) is directed. [...] And then there's Aaron Rosand (1927-2019), the former master student of Efrem Zimbalist, who, even into his old age, enchanted the world with a Romantic-style violin playing that seemed to transport us back to a bygone era: his magnificent performances of Joseph Joachim's Concerto 'in the Hungarian Style,' Wieniawski's Second Concerto, and Paganini's First Concerto! He performed Prokofiev's Second Concerto with Peter Maag in 1988, fervently, as well as Handel's Sonata in G minor (measured in the 'old style') and Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, along with the many miniatures, including some Heifetz transcriptions. What also emerges repeatedly from Gary Lemco's competent liner notes is the conniving role played by the powerful player Isaac Stern in thwarting the careers of many outstanding musicians. Perhaps this explains a lot?

7 February 2025 | Lance G. Hill | The Classical Music Guide Forums | Aaron Rosand In Memoriam - Live [violinist] - 4 CD set on Rhine

6 September 2024 | Rob Cowan | GRAMOPHONE - Vol.103 October 2024 | Box-Set / Round-Up

Violin aficionados will likely be aware of Aaron Rosand (1927-2019), whose many distinctive recordings include rarities such as Joachim’s Second Concerto in D minor ‘In the Hungarian Style’, which also turns up in Rhine Classics’ highly desirable live ‘In memoriam’ Rosand Collection, recorded in 1974 under Leo Driehuys. [...] Isaac Stern’s hegemony around American concert life is posited by Rhine Classics’ excellent annotator Gary Lemco as a possible reason, just as it was in the case of Aaron Rosand.

Septembre 2024 | Jean-Michel Molkhou | "Talents oubliés" | CLASSICA n°265 p.89 | ROSAND [CHOC - Exceptionnel]