CD 1:
Paul Hindemith:
Violin Sonata (No. 3) in E major

Karol Szymanowski:
Mythes, Op. 30 - 1. La Fontaine d’Aréthuse

Ernest Bloch:
Baal Shem, Suite for violin and piano - 2. Nigun

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:
Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 - II. Canzonetta - III. Finale (fragment)

Béla Bartók:
Violin Solo Sonata, Sz.117, BB 124

Ernest Chausson:
Poeme for violin and piano, Op. 25

Moritz Moszkowski/Pablo de Sarasate:
Guitarre, Op. 45 No. 2

Joseph Achron:
Hebrew Melody, Op. 33

CD 2:
Giuseppe Tartini/Fritz Kreisler:
Sonata in G minor, B.g5 “The Devil’s Trill”

Henryk Wieniawski:
Capriccio-Valse, in E major, Op. 7
Polonaise de concert No. 1 in D major, Op. 4

Johann Sebastian Bach:
Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 - V. Chaconne

Johannes Brahms:
Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108

Béla Bartók:
Violin Solo Sonata, Sz.117, BB 124

Yitzhak-Meir (Isaac) Gitlis was born in Haifa, Palestine Mandate to Jewish parents, who emigrated in 1921 from Kamianets-Podilskyi, Russia, now Ukraine. In 1951, as suggested by his teacher Alice Pashkus, Gitlis participated in the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris, where he took fifth place (CD1). During the preliminary stages of the competition, a rumor circulated that he had stolen a Stradivarius violin during the war, which caused a scandal on the day of the final. Six years after the fall of Hitler, being a Jew in France was still causing debate.

In 1963, he was the first Israeli violinist to play in the Soviet Union. He gave a series of concerts under the cultural exchange program of the Soviet Union and Israel, starting in Vilnius (23 October 1963). His other concerts were given in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev and Odessa. In the same year, invited by Giancarlo Menotti, he played in Italy at Spoleto’s “6th Festival dei Due Mondi” (CD2).

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Recordings: Studio 1, Lausanne, 21 September 1949 (CD 1, 1-4); “Concours Long-Thibaud”, Paris, 23-30 June 1951 (CD 1, 6-7); Radio-Paris Inter, Paris, 8 December 1951 (CD 1, 8-11); Maison de la Radio, Paris, 13 March 1953 (CD 1, 13, 15), 25 March 1953.