Word: violiniste
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...weeks before the running, the odds were on the Russians to sweep the field in Belgium's first postwar revival of its violin international-the Concours Eugène Ysaÿe, this year renamed for Queen Mother Elisabeth. There was a notable precedent : brilliant Soviet Violinist David Oistrakh (TIME, Aug. 2, 1948) won the grand prize in the first contest in 1937. Moreover, the simple fact that the Russians entered meant that they were confident their violinists were good enough...
From the first preliminaries, there was little doubt among spectators or judges (among them: Violinist Jacques Thibaud, Oistrakh himself) as to the winner. Leonid Kogan, 26, native of Dnepropetrovsk, sounded brilliantly above the rest. But all four Russian entrants were among the twelve who survived the first high hurdles -a Bach sonata, a sonata by Ysaÿe, the great Belgian violinist (1858-1931), two concertos and six pieces of the contestants' choosing...
Between the preliminaries and the finals, the Russians stuck strictly to business, practiced hard. In the quiet music academy outside Brussels where the finalists were lodged, the Russians rose at 6, often started playing before breakfast. Said Houston, Tex. Violinist Fredell Lack, 29: "And you could hear them still going at night when the rest of us went to bed." Exasperated Dutchman Theo Olaf finally complained: "Is it absolutely necessary for you to practice until the middle of the night?" The Russians, who had been aloof at first but warmed up a bit when they asked for borsch...
...week's end, Brussels music lovers got a rare dividend: a performance by the great David Oistrakh himself. Wearing his Stalin Prize medal, 42-year-old Oistrakh hypnotized them with a splendid playing of Bach's double concerto (with Belgian Violinist Arthur Grumiaux). At the end, the audience, including Queen Mother Elisabeth, stood and gave a four-minute ovation to the man who is Russia's finest violinist, and surely one of the finest in the world. It was his first performance in Western Europe in 14 years...
...tactile. Acting on the principle that good music deserves a good performance, he has not confined himself to Harvard-Radcliffe material. Non-Cambridge talent constitutes an important part of the organization, and nearly all the trombone players are conservatory students. He has even procured the services of a professional violinist (Ruth Posselt) to play Hindemith's Violin Concerto for the second concert...