Itzhak Perlman

Where were your European roots?

Well, my parents come from Poland. A musical family? Not at all. And uh they just immigrated to Israel in the nin early nineteen thirties. And uh there was nothing r seriously, there was nothing uh musical that was going on in the house except for the radio, which was on and uh and I just heard music on the radio.

You were given a toy violin, but that didn't please you.

No, it didn't please me because um well, I'll tell you, under normal circumstances... To make a sound on any violin is I find the most incredibly difficult thing because there's so many things involved. You have to use your right hand properly, your left hand properly, and if you don't use one thing the other because in other words there is no mechanical any mechanical help that you get. You just have four strings and they are reasonably in tune if you know how to tune and and you just you're on your own. And that's very difficult. So for a for a young child, I suppose it's very frustrating, especially when you hear hyphets on the radio and you said, My goodness, it's so easy, you know, I can do the same thing. Boom, no, you can't.

Apart from the violin, what were your other enthusiasms as a boy?

To be interested in a violin is is enough, especially when you play two or three hours every day when you practice. I had a fairly normal childhood. I'm I'm very happy about that because I went you know, I went to school. And I had friends uh on the block and we played soccer. As a matter of fact, I was terrific because with my crutches, you see, I was always put at the goal because I could stop anything going by. So uh that was very, very good. They always used me for that. I was goalie. But um, you know, I I I enjoyed my my childhood.