David Oistrakh - was there ever a more reliable solo violinist?

[Barbirollians]

Listening tonight to his recording of the Tchaikovsky concerto with Ormandy I was left in wonderment .

Was there ever a soloist who could match him for such endlessly top notch performances -Heifetz could be cold , Menuhin fallible,Stern unyielding, Perlman too closely balanced and a bit Hollywood ( though I treasure many recordings by these four ) but Oistrakh seems to my ears always to satisfy . The only recording of his I find a bit tiring is his Brahms Concerto with Szell on HMV but that is clearly the fault of the recording not him .

Any dissenters ?

[rkyburz]

Listening tonight to his recording of the Tchaikovsky concerto with Ormandy I was left in wonderment .

Was there ever a soloist who could match him for such endlessly top notch performances -Heifetz could be cold , Menuhin fallible,Stern unyielding, Perlman too closely balanced and a bit Hollywood ( though I treasure many recordings by these four ) but Oistrakh seems to my ears always to satisfy . The only recording of his I find a bit tiring is his Brahms Concerto with Szell on HMV but that is clearly the fault of the recording not him .

Any dissenters ?

Hi Barbirollians, for many years (especially decades ago, when I still played the violin myself) I wouldn't have hesitated to agree wholeheartedly — and I still like many of his recordings, even though I now prefer playing with less vibrato. One recording that I always wanted to have (on LP) were his Beethoven sonatas, with Lev Oborin; I acquired those on CD lately — and was rather disappointed (see here), even though that's (in parts) due to the poor recording technique: with these works he doesn't even stand a remote chance against Faust/Melnikov, Mullova/Bezuidenhout, or Kremer/Argerich. I'm also not that happy with his KV 481 (with Badura-Skoda) and his KV 216 (Philharmonia), and even with his Beethoven op.61 recordings (Gauk or Cluytens) I think that there are better recordings (and haven't listened to Faust yet!).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'd concur with both posts 1 & 2, in that, whilst there may be individual works where I might think that other artists have an "edge" over Oistrakh, across the whole recorded output, I don't think that anyone surpasses him for consistently excellent standards of insights and artistry. Often badly let down by recording and/or accompaniments that do not match this.

[gurnemanz]

I jumped at the Melodiya 5 disc set when it first came out over ten years ago, having waited for years for a CD of his Brahms/Franck sonatas with Richter to appear. The Franck is desert island material for me and I urgently needed to replace my ageing, much played LP. The discs seem to be only sporadically available but MDT are still listing the set:

http://www.mdt.co.uk/oistrakh-david-edition-volumes-1-5-brahms-dvorak-etc-melodiya-5cds.html

[Don Petter]

I jumped at the Melodiya 5 disc set when it first came out over ten years ago, having waited for years for a CD of his Brahms/Franck sonatas with Richter to appear. The Franck is desert island material for me and I urgently needed to replace my ageing, much played LP. The discs seem to be only sporadically available but MDT are still listing the set:
http://www.mdt.co.uk/oistrakh-david-...diya-5cds.html

The Franck would be on my island as well! There have been CD issues with Richter other than the Melodiya ones - I have the Chant du Monde CD, which is a different performance by a few days, but no less enjoyable to my ears.

As I understand it, the CD situation is:

Moscow, 3rd March 1966 - Revelation 10048
Paris, 4th December 1968 - Chant du Mode LDC278885
Moscow, 28th December 1968 - Various Melodiya issues, also Mobile Fidelity and Vox

It is the last of the three performances which was on the HMV LP ASD2618, which is where many of us heard it first, I suspect.

[umslopogaas]

Can anyone who knows about these things comment on how Oistrakh compares in technique to Leonid Kogan? Judging by the prices bid on ebay for classical vinyl, Kogan is top of the pops: copies of his stereo recordings of the big concertos can sell for over a thousand quid. The reason is of course supply and demand: nowadays everyone wants Kogan's recordings and there arent enough to go around. But if he costs ten times as much as Oistrakh, is he really any better? To my non-critical ears, Oistrakh sounds just fine. And the reason that there arent enough Kogans to go around is that at the time, people preferred Oistrakh and Kogan didnt sell many copies.

[pastoralguy]

How about Ida Haendel? Sadly under-recorded but what there is simply beggars belief. Especially the live recordings more of which, hopefully, will be released in future.

Not to denigrade David Oistrakh (or any of the other masters of horse tail and sheep gut) but I always felt she had a very special talent.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

He's by far the greatest violinist I heard in concert - in the King's Hall, Belle Vue, Manchester, with Barbirolli and the Halle in 1961, playing the Beethoven.

[mikealdren]

Can anyone who knows about these things comment on how Oistrakh compares in technique to Leonid Kogan? Judging by the prices bid on ebay for classical vinyl, Kogan is top of the pops: copies of his stereo recordings of the big concertos can sell for over a thousand quid. The reason is of course supply and demand: nowadays everyone wants Kogan's recordings and there arent enough to go around. But if he costs ten times as much as Oistrakh, is he really any better? To my non-critical ears, Oistrakh sounds just fine. And the reason that there arent enough Kogans to go around is that at the time, people preferred Oistrakh and Kogan didnt sell many copies.

umslopogaas, Kogan CDs sell for a lot of money for two reasons, he was a very fine violinist and some of his recordings are not very common and not easily available on CD. Heifetz and Oistrakh (for example) recordings are much easier to find and hence worth less, it isn't just the quality of the performances.

Another violinist whose recordings fetch a lot is Henryk Szeryng. He was a fine player (I heard him several times) but the real reason his LPs and CDs fetch so much is that they are relatively rare.

Oistrakh is my favourite violinist and I have almost all of his recordings. Technically he is very, very good but not perfect. Heifetz was better (and not, to my ears cold). I love Oistrakh's sound but above all it's his musicianship. He is able to get close to the heart of everything he plays in a way that eludes most other players. In particular, he manages to maintain the overall line of long movements and build the emotional level to an extraordinary degree. Listen to the way he manages to screws up the tension in the passacaglia in the Shostakovich 1st concerto or maintains the line in say the Brahms or Tchiakovsky concertos.

Like rkyburz, I don't find his Beethoven sonatas the best (although unlike him, I do love the Grumiaux/Haskill). Interestingly, his top choices of Faust and Mullova are two of my favourite contemporary players. Again because, for me, they seem to penetrate to the core of the music in a way that others don't.

Mike

[pastoralguy]

He's by far the greatest violinist I heard in concert - in the King's Hall, Belle Vue, Manchester, with Barbirolli and the Halle in 1961, playing the Beethoven.

Lucky you. I would love to have heard Oistrakh but he was a wee bit before my time. I did hear Igor on many occasions and loved his playing as a teenager. (A love that has endured!)

[Barbirollians]

Lucky you. I would love to have heard Oistrakh but he was a wee bit before my time. I did hear Igor on many occasions and loved his playing as a teenager. (A love that has endured!)

I yield only to Pastoralguy as a member of the Ida Haendel fan club but my point was that Oistrakh shone across the board . Haendel may never have been given the chance to do so.

[gurnemanz]

How about Ida Haendel?

Not the first time this question has been posed around here. I never saw Oistrakh but I did once see Ida and very memorable it was, in the Brahms concerto. I was close up promming and got the full benefit of her playing and her bright red dress.

[richardfinegold]

Can anyone who knows about these things comment on how Oistrakh compares in technique to Leonid Kogan? Judging by the prices bid on ebay for classical vinyl, Kogan is top of the pops: copies of his stereo recordings of the big concertos can sell for over a thousand quid. The reason is of course supply and demand: nowadays everyone wants Kogan's recordings and there arent enough to go around. But if he costs ten times as much as Oistrakh, is he really any better? To my non-critical ears, Oistrakh sounds just fine. And the reason that there arent enough Kogans to go around is that at the time, people preferred Oistrakh and Kogan didnt sell many copies.

I don't think that artistry can be measured by prices that are quoted on ebay. You yourself point out many of the reasons why.
I have much less experience with Kogan's recordings. My prime point of comparison between him and Oistrakh would be the Shostakovich First Concerto. I don't know if Kogan recorded it commercially, but it was included in a large set released by the Chicago Symphony, with Stokowski conducting, in good stereo sound. I have many Oistrakh recordings of the same piece, including the commercially released version with the NYP and Mitropolous. Kogan is marginally more intense, and his tone is ever so slightly less full than Oistrakh. The differences in this piece are truly minor.
Oistrakh is my favorite violinist. I would much rather hear a recording of him playing anything than Heifetz. His Beethoven Concerto with Cluytens on EMI is to die for, with perfect playing of the Kreisler cadenzas/

[umslopogaas]

richardfinegold, thanks for those comments and I agree, prices on ebay reflect collectability, not artistic quality (though hopefully the two are linked to some extent). Kogan did record the Shostakovich first violin concerto, I have the LP:

EMI ASD 2585, 1970. Kogan (violin) and the Moscow Phil. Symph. Orch., cond. Kondrashin. On the other side, cello concerto no. 1 with Mikhail Khomitser (cello) cond. Rozhdestvensky.

This is one of EMI/HMV's Melodiya series: Russian original recordings published by EMI under licence.

[pastoralguy]

Does anyone have opinions about his conducting?