Word: oistrakh
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Bach: Six Sonatas for Clavier and Violin (Violinist Henryk Szeryng, Harpsichordist Helmut Walcha, Philips; 2 LPs). Several virtuosos have recorded these crystallizations of the baroque sonata style (Oistrakh, Menuhin, Laredo), but none can beat the suave brilliance of this set. Szeryng plays with an impassioned aristocrat's clarity, grace and brio. Walcha, a virtuoso in his own right, is appropriately brought to the fore by Philips' bright tonal presence...
Tongue-in-cheek, Menuhin describes the typical violinist as "more sensual than intellectual, somewhat narrow in outlook, and probably vain." But for those who might in actuality be considered his rivals he has nothing but praise, defending Jascha Heifetz against charges of coldness and mourning the late David Oistrakh as "a friend beyond price...
...mother and father were both professional violinists. Gidon's maternal grandfather handed down his fiddle when the boy was still in his teens; it just happened to be an 18th century Guadagnini. At the Moscow State Conservatory, Kremer caught the eye and ear of the late David Oistrakh and worked with him for eight years. In 1970 at the age of 23, Kremer won Moscow's esteemed Tchaikovsky Competition. Last week he arrived in the U.S. for the first time, and once again he was a winner. The occasion: a brilliant New York debut at Lincoln Center...
...enthusiastic audience, which included a large proportion of emigre Russians, students and critics, fastened on Kremer's gaunt, almost spectral appearance as well as his spellbinding playing. Whatever a Soviet fiddler should look like (Oistrakh was round and beefy, his rival Leonid Kogan short and slender), Kremer does not fit the image. His is more that of an intellectual rock-'n'-roll star badly in need of a square meal. He weighs but 125 lbs. and consequently looks a foot taller than his 5 ft. 9 in. He wears his brown hair long and his sideburns...
...takes the risk." In Hurok's case, the impresario was also a man who changed and enriched the taste of a people and persuaded nations to become cultural friends. For more than 50 years he brought to the U.S. the performing geniuses of his native Russia: Pavlova, Chaliapin, Oistrakh, Ulanova. His proudest accomplishment? "Bringing ballet to America and the American public to ballet...