Word: oistrakhs
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Once, so the story goes, a Soviet commissar visited Violinist David Oistrakh in Odessa, looked into a cradle and sternly ordered, "Make that boy as good a violinist as his father." For a while it looked as if nothing like that could ever happen. David Oistrakh was already on his way to being one of the world's finest fiddlers, and young Igor showed signs of detesting violin sounds from the time he started making them at the age of six. But they kept his bow to the catgut. At 18 he entered the Moscow conservatory, became a master...
...played César Franck's Sonata in A with half-closed eyes focused on his finger board, his lips compressed, mouth working. It was an impressive, boldly colored performance. The next work, Bach's knuckle-busting G Minor Sonata, is a test for any violinist. Violinist Oistrakh seemed to anticipate it with both distaste and fear and played as if to get it over with. It was, however, the evening's only disappointment. After works by Prokofiev, Szymanowski and Saint-Saëns, the audience dissolved in cheers...
First Violinist Helmut Heller of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was one of the many professionals in the crowd. Said he: "Igor Oistrakh is a virtuoso performer reminiscent of Heifetz. I have heard the boy several times, and it is clear to me that he has not reached his father's stage of development. The son plays largely from the subconscious; the father has succeeded in ennobling his art by playing consciously without sacrificing those qualities of the subconscious that enrich his playing...
This is one of the all time great violin records. David Oistrakh and Isaac Stern each play a Bach Concerto, then they join for the Vivaldi. Eugene Ormandy keeps the Philadelphia Orchestra incisive and alive. Oistrakh and Stern are each at their best, and make a surprisingly cooperative team...
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto, Opus 99 (David Oistrakh; New York Philharmonic-Symphony, conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos; Columbia). The finest moments of Soviet Violinist Oistrakh's recent visit to the U.S. (TiME, Jan. 9) sound even better on records. Reason: in this concerto, the violin's rhythm often runs against that of the orchestra; in a large hall with a full orchestra, the violin part is sometimes buried, but studio technicians, who can magnify small sounds, restore the balance...