Perlman and Zuckerman

(Playing the Handel/Halvorsen Passacaglia together back when they looked to be the Ruth and Gehrig of the violin)

They must have seemed incredible back in the day. The lead musicians in what was (hilariously) named the Kosher Nostra (or even more hilariously, the Stern Gang) a group of Jewish (or almost Jewish) musicians mentored by Isaac Stern (Perlman, Zuckerman, Jacqueline Du Pre, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Lynn Harrell et al) who looked to take the entire world by storm. Something terrible happened to them, almost to a man, and by the mid-80's it looked clear that nearly every one of them decided that their career would best function on autopilot. Of all these potential giants, only Barenboim looks today as though he's come close fulfilling his infinite potential (and it was a very bumpy road to that point.) But while time is running short, it hasn't run out for any of them just yet.