Musings of One Who Composes For One Musician...

I have a certain amount of pride  in having  set out over a decade ago to write a series of  blogs without use of technical  terminology, to reflect reaction to subjects of interest to me - pride, because my blogs now number about 700 without running out of material; at least, up to now.
So; as prologue to my first blog which will contain some terms that may require some of my readers to refer to a dictionary, please accept my sincere apology:

In my early days, I wrote music mostly for my primary instrument (the piano), starting at around age thirteen, and continued doing so until I went off to my college period. I did not return to serious writing for about thirty years, although I  have written  hundreds,  if not a couple of thousand of pieces for my students as part of their development  during my career as a pedagogue.
My return to  serious composition  took hold as a result of the beginning  of an encounter with an exchange student from Spain; an encounter that has continued for over thirty five years, and exists to this day in the form of  a Friendship without parallel in this life. I have written about Ricardo Odriozola a number of times. He is now a highly regarded violinist and has been  a faculty member of the  Grieg Academy of the University in Bergen, Norway for many years.
Odriozola,  at around age 17,  accosted my senses with such a high level of musicianship and technique from the first day, that it created a mode of inevitability of my need to write for this gift, which has continued to within the last two years or so. He is the only musician I have written for - this particular road HAD to be built. I would venture to speculate that a composer writing for one performer  forms an incident that does not replicate too often.
And recently Odriozola has honored me with his decision to have these works, mostly for unaccompanied violin, published. His understanding of my desire to further investigate the inner workings of the diatonic system, which has existed for many centuries, and is the base of Common Practice Music, especially the core of which has been extant from about 1600 to the early 1900's, but undying, primarily due to such processes as enharmonic design, is an understanding that I believe  Odriozola's decision to publish came from.
At any rate, this has been an experience for me I felt that I should share with my reader.
I am not, in any primary way, a composer. This process has always been at the bottom of my list of priorities to pursue.
However, in some arcane way, this wonderful violinist, awoke (or re-awoke?) something in me - and
 for this unexpected event, I will forever be thankful...

A Titan Who Is Virtually Forgotten - A Violinist of Rare Gifts...

The other day I decided to look back among the 700-odd blogs comprising a part of my last twelve years of personal endeavor, and, to my horror,  I found that I had overlooked my  writing about one of the 20th century's most gifted violinists. and one of my youth's heroes.
During my teen years, both Vladimir Horowitz  and Jascha Heifetz were at the top of my beloved 'heap' of favorites, followed closely by Artur Rubinstein, Arturo Toscanini, Robert Casadesus,  etc.
Whenever  Horowitz or Heifetz  visited  my home town and appeared at Eastman Theater, I was among the fortunate in their audiences. Their particularized uniqueness of the moment   always created that period of breathlessness  and expectation,  never to be forgotten.
A  violinist a generation after Heifetz appeared whom I regret I have never seen, primarily due to timing and the exigencies germane to my acquiring  the training I was seeking. However, the few recordings I have heard and the written and voiced  experiences of those who were his followers and admirers which I  have become aware of convincing  me that he must have been, on his better days, one who could almost never be equaled  I DO recall, as  a student, after hearing some of his Beethoven  and Paganini, asking myself if " this man REALLY does overwhelm me precisely as did Heifetz?"
Seemingly, a combination of his political beliefs(he was a staunch Communist and did much of his magic within Mother Russia, let alone some illnesses and an ultimate fatal heart attack) have created,  the reason it seems to me, why  he is not as well recalled as, say, a Heifetz.
But! Listen to this man - there are recordings that attest to a greatness worthy of remembrance...
His name? Leonid Kogan.