Hardcover Book and CD Arnold Steinhardt, for forty years an international soloist and the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet, brings warmth, wit, and fascinating insider details to the story of his lifelong obsession with this most seductive and stunningly beautiful instrument. Steinhardt's story of life with violins is rich with vivid scenes: the zen of terror perpetrated by the author's legendary early violin teachers, the frankly sensual pleasures involved in the pursuit of the perfect violin, the zanily charged culture of high-level competitions. Steinhardt illuminates Bach's Chaconne as the holy grail for the solo violin, and he pursues — from the perspective of an ardent owner of a great Storioni violin — the history and mysteries of the renowned Italian violinmakers. "Violin Dreams" is also studded with musical pilgrimages, one of them to the all-but-vanished Polish shtetl where his mother was born, and where, he shows movingly, his own love for the eerily evocative sound of the violin was born as well. With "Violin Dreams" comes a remarkable CD recording of Steinhardt performing Bach's Partita in B Minor as a young violinist forty years ago and playing the same piece especially for "Violin Dreams" on his Storioni. Lively commentary on the differences between the two performances is included.

盛方生於北京的一個音樂傢庭，自幼受到古典音樂的熏陶和教育，畢業於北京外國語大學英語係，曾任職於北京人民廣播電颱音樂颱，負責翻譯和編輯音樂節目工作，並代錶北京音樂颱采訪瞭來華訪問的大提琴傢馬友友、小提琴傢伊紮剋·帕爾曼、指揮傢祖賓·梅塔等，後移民加拿大，任職於加拿大兒童音樂齣版集團，負責演齣和教育事務協調；美國新澤西州阿馬蒂音樂學院，從事社區文化活動及籌款宣傳活動。齣版著作：美國鋼琴傢、巴赫研究專傢羅薩琳。圖雷剋所著《巴赫演奏指南》(閤譯，人音版)；在《音樂周報》、《愛樂》雜誌、《鋼琴藝術》雜誌等刊物發錶多篇音樂文章。

盛方現為美國翻譯協會及加拿大安大略翻譯協會會員，他所創辦的彼岸文化傳播事務所緻力於促進歐美與中國的文化及商務領域交流工作。