This is the fourth recording of the Mendelssohn concerto in my possession. All three earlier version had a some kind of issue: either the recording was bad, the performance was not interesting or just plain old fashioned, or the record was too badly damaged. So now I have Nathan Milstein.
Milstein was born in Odessa when it was still the Russian Empire, before the Revolution. He moved to the US somewhere between 1929 and 1942 when gained citizenship. He wrote an interesting autobiography called From Russia to the west, that describes his experiences and conversations with many of the greats in music during his lifetime.
The concerto’s of Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn are usually seen as masterpieces of the romantic violin repertoire. They’re both listener’s and musician’s favourites.