Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, Franz Konwitschny :: Tchaikovsky: Concerto for violin, Op. 35; Mozart: Concerto for violin, K219

Oistrakh at His Height; Excellent Mono Sound; Live Performan

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 05/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Among the great Russian violinists of the twentieth century, David Oistrakh was almost unique in that he did not study with Leopold Auer, the great Hungarian-Russian violinist/pedagogue. Tchaikovsky wrote his violin concerto for Auer, but Auer initially refused to play it; he later relented and made it a centerpiece of his repertoire and taught it to the likes of Heifetz, Elman and Milstein. Oistakh recorded the concerto numerous times; the performances we are probably most familiar with were recorded in the 1960s. This performance, though, is from 1954, when Oistrakh was in his late forties and at the very peak of his powers, obvious from this recording which is among the best I've ever heard. His passagework in the outer movements is impeccable (not always true with Oistrakh) and his tone is HUGE. In the lyrical middle movement the ineffable sweetness of his tone is much in evidence in a somewhat slow reading and all the more gorgeous for that. He somehow manages to put a Russian sob into that melancholy first theme. Franz Konwitschny, a Moravian conductor hardly remembered now except by collectors of old recordings, is a sensitive accompanist. The Dresden Staatskapelle, on whose Edition Staatskapelle Dresden this issue appears, is as always silken at the same time that they are emotionally with the soloist all the way.



The Mozart Fifth Violin Concerto, KWV219, is given an old-fashioned reading with a full-sized orchestra, lush strings and all. Still, there is much to be said for such a reading. And one simply cannot resist Oistrakh's romantic reading of the work. Who cares if the thing sounds more Russian than classical Viennese? I certainly don't. I've loved Oistrakh's playing from early days. My first exposure to his playing was the now-revered first recording, with the New York Philharmonic under Mitropoulos, of the First Violin Concerto of Shostakovich; admittedly music from an entirely different world than these two works, but still informed by Oistrakh's huge tone, emotional generosity and musical integrity as are the present performances.



I loved these performances. Sound, although mono, is quite good for its era. I am glad Profil and the Dresden Staatskapelle saw fit to release them. To the best of my knowledge neither has been available before, or at least recently.



Scott Morrison"