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

[rkyburz]

Does anyone have opinions about his conducting?

I can't say that this has been in the focus of my interests — with one exception: I had an LP with him conducting and his son Igor playing the Beethoven violin concerto, and I can't find this on CD; I guess this fell through the cracks ...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

His Beethoven Concerto with Cluytens on EMI is to die for, with perfect playing of the Kreisler cadenzas/

[visualnickmos]

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

... 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 .

But I'm sure you would agree that his Brahms vc with Klemperer and the Orchestre de la Radiodiffusion Française on EMI is equally as wonderous as his Tchaikovsky?

[visualnickmos]

.....but MDT are still listing the set:
http://www.mdt.co.uk/oistrakh-david-...diya-5cds.html

At quite a price hike from the £15 I paid at MDC in the Strand about (at least) 12 years ago. But it is amazing.

[visualnickmos]

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.

You are so lucky. It must have been a most magical evening.

[Richard Tarleton]

There are some moving insights into Oistrach's life in the Soviet Union in one of the last chapters of Rostislav Dubinsky's "Stormy Applause". Things went badly for him after he refused to sign a letter from the Soviet Union in 1968 to the Israeli government following its call for all Jews to unite in their historic homeland. The authorities called at his house and removed his entire archive - awards, programmes, records, tapes, books, a letter from Einstein, the key to Jerusalem, the copy of City Lights that Chaplin had given him, the lot. Neighbours assumed he was moving, and helped the KGB agents with the trunks...he behaved with complete stoicism.

I had a ticket to hear him play the Tchaikovsky in 1971 in the RFH. This was cancelled after the expulsion of the 101 Soviet "diplomats" by the Heath govt. (we got Ida Haendel instead) I saw him twice the following year, when he played Prokoviev 1 and Shostakovich 2 on successive nights (the second night being the western premiere of Shosta 15, cond. Maxim with DSCH present).

A monument was erected on his grave in 1976. As Dubinsky says, "Many people gathered for the ceremony. Tamara [his wife] was calm. That evening, at home alone, she put on the dress Oistrach liked best, sat in a chair, and, one by one, swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills".

[Hornspieler]

You are so lucky. It must have been a most magical evening.

The magic of David Oistrakh's playing is that one always felt that whatever the piece, it had been written especially for him.

I don't think comparison between soloists is ever useful - they all have their own special moments. Even to compare David with his son Igor is pointless. Styles change; even across a single generation and artists of today cannot be compared with those of past years, because their whole environment has changed with audiences, instruments and means of audio reproduction having a big influence. As a founder member of the Ida Haendel fan club, I would say that she still managed to keep her 1930s style well into the postwar years, but should we draw comparisons between her and James Ennes or Maxim Vengerov or Gil Shaham?

Writing as a horn player; would Dennis Brain be occupying a first horn chair in one of our present London Orchestras? His father Aubrey would have described the horn sections of today as a bunch of euphonium players; but what fantastic techniques they have; compared with my days.

HS

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The magic of David Oistrakh's playing is that one always felt that whatever the piece, it had been written especially for him.

- and yet he also managed to ensure that the composer's "voice" was communicated, too.

[Barbirollians]

Exactly . I think HS has perhaps missed my point . I was not seeking to compare any individual performance of his with any other of the great violinists - just that his performances are the most consistently excellent.

[richardfinegold]

There are some moving insights into Oistrach's life in the Soviet Union in one of the last chapters of Rostislav Dubinsky's "Stormy Applause". Things went badly for him after he refused to sign a letter from the Soviet Union in 1968 to the Israeli government following its call for all Jews to unite in their historic homeland. The authorities called at his house and removed his entire archive - awards, programmes, records, tapes, books, a letter from Einstein, the key to Jerusalem, the copy of City Lights that Chaplin had given him, the lot. Neighbours assumed he was moving, and helped the KGB agents with the trunks...he behaved with complete stoicism.

I had a ticket to hear him play the Tchaikovsky in 1971 in the RFH. This was cancelled after the expulsion of the 101 Soviet "diplomats" by the Heath govt. (we got Ida Haendel instead) I saw him twice the following year, when he played Prokoviev 1 and Shostakovich 2 on successive nights (the second night being the western premiere of Shosta 15, cond. Maxim with DSCH present).

A monument was erected on his grave in 1976. As Dubinsky says, "Many people gathered for the ceremony. Tamara [his wife] was calm. That evening, at home alone, she put on the dress Oistrach liked best, sat in a chair, and, one by one, swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills".

Wow. I had no idea.
Is the author of that book the former first violinist of the Borodin Quartet?

[Richard Tarleton]

Yes - and it's a remarkable tale.

copies still available via Abebooks http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Se...tormy+applause

[Barbirollians]

I am reminded by LMP on another thread of his Hindemith Violin Concerto recording with the composer- it truly is in a class of its own . It is a concerto seldom heard but I have never heard a recording or performance that has come within a country mile .

[Richard Tarleton]

I am reminded by LMP on another thread of his Hindemith Violin Concerto recording with the composer- it truly is in a class of its own . It is a concerto seldom heard but I have never heard a recording or performance that has come within a country mile .

I still have that on LP - with Bruch's Scottish Fantasy on the other side, IMV preferable to Heifetz's.

[aeolium]

One of my favourite recordings of Oistrakh is the one he made with his brother and Vladimir Yampolsky of Handel's trio sonata in G minor op 2 no 6 and in particular the beautiful arioso with its interweaving violin lines. No-one would play Handel in this way today but it is a very moving performance.

[Barbirollians]

I had not until last week owned his 1950s and early 1960s DG recordings .

The Brahms and Tchaikovsky with Konwitschny are marvellously individual but as others said above so musical and successful in putting across the composer's contentions . The mono recording occasionally becomes congested in forte . Both are outstanding .

The Bach including the double with Igor O is very stylish for 1962 and holds its own now . The Beethoven Romances are played for all they are worth. Well worth getting this 2CD set.