“Nikolaj Znaider, still only in his late twenties, is already being spoken of in the same breath as some of the great violinists of the past – Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, David Oistrakh, Yehudi Menuhin. The point is not so much that he sounds like any of them but that he is in that illustrious line of musicians who are able to use technique with wisdom and sensibility to exert a strong personality in their playing.” Znaider has very little use for the type of career-obsessed musicians he encountered at Juilliard, and believes that many in the classical industry have completely lost sight of what’s important in their playing. So naturally, critics love the guy.