David Oistrakh (violin)
The Warner Remastered Edition
Complete Columbia and HMV Recordings; Premières, Rarities and Live Performances
Warner Classics 5054197963520 [58 CDs: 54 hrs & 3 DVDs]
This year is the fiftieth anniversary of David Oistrakh’s unexpectedly early death, which occurred in Amsterdam in 1974 when he was 66 – flogged to death, Yehudi Menuhin states in one of the accompanying DVDs, by the Soviet authorities after already having survived two minor heart attacks. The box consists of his standard HMV repertoire, the same 17 CDs that can be found on ‘The Complete EMI Recordings’ box set, to which there’s a hyperlink below to the Musicweb review. There are two differences here with regard to that legacy. Firstly, the ‘Original Jackets’ principle means those 17 CDs are here expanded or bloated (take your pick) to 27 CDs. Second, Art & Son has remastered everything from the original tapes in HD 192kHz/24-bit.
That EMI box was released in 2008 with remasterings that varied from 1987 up to 2008. The new Art & Son work has brought certain undeniable advances. The first is clarity and definition. The strings in the Brahms Violin Concerto, directed by Klemperer, sound more refined than in older restorations whilst the Stockholm strings in the Sibelius have a more defined bass line and the winds are more focused. There is also a greater and beneficial spatial separation which you can hear in Tartini’s Devil’s Trill sonata where Yampolsky’s piano is given a greater presence and definition and the distance between violin and piano is not as flat as it was, even in this mono recording. There is also the distinct advantage that this disc also includes the first release of the stereo versions of the Tartini and the Mozart Sonata No.32 in B flat major. The stereo omits the first movement repeat in the Mozart but they are both valuable to have. On balance then, this comprehensive restoration of Oistrakh’s EMI legacy has been successful throughout and though it can’t work miracles with mono recordings, making one wish anew that Walter Legge had not been so dilatory about adopting stereo, it has brought more clarity to the sound.
Bruno Monsaingeon, whose project this is, has compiled the box – the rubric says he’s ‘curated’ it, but curating is best left to art galleries. He has certainly sourced a massive collection of discs, the majority from Soviet archives, CDs 28 to 58, that chart Oistrakh throughout his career in broadcast and live performances from the mid-30s onwards. The problem for Oistrakh collectors is the generally scattered, if not shambolic state of his non-EMI legacy. There are multiple editions on a number of labels devoted to Oistrakh. The last time I checked there were 20 volumes of largely live material on St Laurent Studio and 14 volumes of miscellaneous material, studio and live, on Doremi. Added to this, there are discs devoted to his artistry on Testament, Alto (several volumes), Vanguard, Regis, CDK, Denon, Heritage and a plethora of others, in addition to his EMI/Warner and Melodiya legacies. It’s the last of these, the Melodiyas, as I’ve written before, that is in the most disarray for those devoted to a cohesive look at his artistry from the late 1930s and 1940s and onwards. That element of his discography is not wholly resolved here.
Monsaingeon has arranged discs 28-58 under various headings – by composer or geographically (‘Eastern Europe’, ‘Spain’) or by a generic such as Bravura. Given that Gostelradiofund was active licencing a great deal of Oistrakh material to the West, and some appeared, for example, in two big 10-CD Brilliant Classics boxes of Concertos and chamber music, one has to step with caution through the material in this new box. What is most attractive is the premiere appearances of pieces as well as works new to Oistrakh’s discography. For instance, in CD 28 a number of pieces are making their first appearance on disc and three are new to Oistrakh’s discography – Paganini’s Caprice 24, Wieniawski’s Polonaise in D major and Zimbalist’s Golden Cockerel Fantasy. In CD 29, disc called ‘Virtuoso Rarities’, we find that small pieces by Grieg, Handel, Stamitz, Milhaud, Liszt, Scriabin and Vladigerov are new to his discography and some of the others make first appearances on disc. Don’t worry, it would be exhausting to provide examples for the remainder of the CDs, so these discs will have to remain indicative of the procedure – though they are unusually full of discographic novelties – which is to include material from broadcasts and live performances in these two discs’ case from 1946 to 1964. It might be useful to itemise the major works that are new to his discography in these 30 discs – Schumann’s First Sonata, Op.105, Kreisler’s Chanson Louis XIII and Pavane, and the Sicilienne and Rigaudon, as well as Tambourin chinois, and Grieg’s Third Sonata, with Lev Oborin in 1947, which rather amazingly he never recorded commercially, though the caveat is that it’s shorn of the second part of the central movement – about two minutes – and is in poorish sound. Some Stravinsky and Shostakovich pieces are also new as is Vivaldi’s Concerto in A major with Kondrashin, Weinberg’s Violin Sonata No.2 with Frida Bauer in 1962 and Alfred Mendelssohn’s Partita for solo violin.
A few thoughts occurred to me as I listened to these 30 discs, all of which have been remastered once again by Art & Son. One concerns presentation. Soviet performances of the time were often announced on-stage, particularly in recital when the announcer was likely to be the pianist’s page turner, and there are numerous occurrences of that in these discs, which adds period flavour, as does the retention of applause. The other concerns the inevitable variation in recorded quality, such as the cloudy wartime sound in Sarasate’s Carman Fantasy with Abram Makarov in 1943. Sometimes recorded dates don’t seem to be known and that’s the case with Vladigerov’s Two Improvisations with an equally unknown pianist. Mozart’s Concerto ‘No.7’ K.271a is nowadays known as the work of Eck though it’s still listed as by Mozart here but it’s robustly played. There are welcome glimpses of Oistrakh the chamber player in these live and recorded discs. Schumann’s Piano Quartet with Alexander Goldenweiser. Mikhail Terian and Sviatoslav Knushevitsky is a particularly fine example with a warmly expressive slow movement. His trio, with cellist Knushevitsky and with pianists Oborin and Goldenweiser are represented by both Schumann Piano Trios – the set is especially flush with superb Schumann performances.
The all-Kreisler disc contains originals and transcription. At least one of the novelties has poor sound, the Granados-Kreisler Danse espagnole (Andaluza) is undated though it is with Yampolsky, and watery sound – very watery in this case – afflicts Foster’s ‘Swanee River’ in this live 1945 performance. Oistrakh and Lev Oborin join the Borodin Quartet for a 1960 performance of Chausson’s Concert whilst Yampolsky is on hand to accompany the violinist in Shanghai in the Poème, in good 1960 sound from the city’s Grand Cinema. This work was not part of his EMI legacy. CD 38 also contains two performances of Debussy’s En bateau, one from 1950, the other immediately following from 1954. There’s little difference interpretatively but the 1954 version sounds like the engineer turned up the volume after a few bars.
There’s a Szymanowski disc (CD 39) where he takes the opening movement of the Sonata at a faster lick than he had done two years earlier in the studio for EMI. I reviewed the Concerto No.1 over twenty years ago when it appeared on CD Accord. There’s inevitably an all-Tchaikovsky disc with the centrepiece a scruffy-sounding 1938 recording of the Concerto with Alexander Gauk which isn’t especially kind to the violinist’s tone. The famous Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade recording is here though in the track listing it’s ascribed to the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra under Nikolai Anosov, Gennady Rozhdestvensky’s father, which I am assuming is a typo for Nikolai Golovanov. It’s in rather brutal in-your-face Soviet sonics recorded at an uncertain date – 1946 or 1947 or, as noted here, 1950 – and Oistrakh takes the concertmaster role with consummate eloquence. Its coupling is Prokofiev’s First Concerto, the composer conducting. The orchestra is rather distant but this 1938 recording retains is historic importance, if indeed it is what is claimed – I’ve never known the provenance of this recording.
It’s good that Otar Taktakishvili’s old-school Concerto is included, the composer conducting in 1959, as is Nikolai Rakov’s profusely lyrical Violin Concerto No.1, with Kondrashin in 1958. Both these are from Oistrakh’s Melodiya recordings. Glazunov’s Concerto with Kondrashin is making its first appearance though it’s not the Melodiya 78 set of 1947 but seems to date from a live performance given in January 1949. Next, we have two discs containing six concerto performances in piano reductions. Two of them derive from the Shanghai concert already referred to, two come from Moscow and one from Montevideo. Dating from 1950 to 1957, these offer concerto richness for occasions when an orchestra is not available and was a frequent pre-war practice, one that lingered for many years for good practical reasons. If you want to hear the skeletal remains of Mozart’s D major, the Sibelius – an especially interesting example and full credit to Yampolsky at the keyboard – Vieuxtemps’ Fourth (sounds like it was recorded on a cassette or primitive reel to reel; it’s very distant), Bach’s A minor, Bruch’s G minor and the Dvořák, head to CDs 44 and 45. Strangely, though the Bach and Bruch were both recorded in the Grand Cinema, Shanghai, the Bach is much clearer.
Oistrakh can be heard talking very briefly about Ysaÿe in CD 46 where he has a French translator. He plays two of the Solo Sonatas, Nos 3 and 6, with tremendous brio and Amitié with his son, Igor. The Locatelli Sonata he plays in this volume is heard in Ysaÿe’s arrangement. The ‘Italy and Spain’ volume is largely though not exclusively Baroque, with a performance of Vitali’s Chaconne live in 1949 to match that contained in CD 58 where he plays it in a Moscow recital in February 1960. Oistrakh played with expressive opulence, but such unostentatious refinement that was always irradiated with expressive slides and candour. The Vitali is no different and especially effective in the earlier performance where his slides are beautifully calibrated. He, Menuhin and Grumiaux combine to play Vivaldi’s Concerto for Three Violins, in a collegiate performance in Brussels in 1959. The ‘Czechoslovakia’ album contains a magnificent performance of a favoured work of his, Martinů’s Third Sonata with Frida Bauer which must rank alongside the Suk-Hála as one of the best performances it has received. It’s also in the Brillant Classics Chamber Music box.
Medtner’s Third Sonata is part of his Melodiya commercial legacy and dates from 1959, whereas the Weinberg No.2 is new, as noted above. He and Oborin play Taneyev live in 1950, and the Zara Levina Sonata No 1 with Goldenweiser live for Moscow Radio in 1947 and thus not to be confused with the commercial recording he made with Levina herself as pianist on Melodiya, and recently transferred by Biddulph. He recorded the Stenhammar Sonata in A minor with Greta Erikson for Swedish Radio in Stockholm late in 1971. It’s one of the disappointments in this set, of which there are relatively few. It’s well enough played but recorded as if from the last row of the stalls so one can’t really hear much. I’m amazed it’s via Swedish Radio.
Three discs of chamber performances follow. There are Brahms (Op.51/1), Beethoven (Op.74) and Tchaikovsky (Op.11) Quartets with his ensemble which included Piotr Bondarenko, Mikhail Terian and Knushevitsky. There are also a few quartet movements which include the slow movement from Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’. Though obviously an outstanding soloist he plays with generosity in the quartet which only existed to record or to give broadcasts. Apparently, when Bondarenko emigrated to Israel after Oistrakh’s death, Soviet authorities destroyed all the quartet’s recorded performances they could find. A disc also contains the group’s 1950 collaboration with leading clarinettist Vladimir Sorokin in the Mozart and Brahms Quintets. There’s a charming performance of Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet with Oborin, Yakov Kaplun, Knushevitsky and double-bassist Joseph Gertovich from 1947 that can be listened to alongside the HMV Octet recording of 1955.
Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy and the Hindemith Concerto with Rozhdestvensky were recorded on 24 December 1960 and 25 February 1962 and are well-known – you can find them in the Brilliant Classics box, though there the Hindemith seems to be slightly misdated as December 1962. I’m assuming this new box is correct. Bach’s Double with Enescu was made in Moscow in 1946 directed by Kondrashin and Oistrakh’s admiration for Enescu, as for Menuhin, and Heifetz, is well documented. Discs 56 and 57 contain some very early material going back, it’s claimed, to an isolated recording in 1932, when Oistrakh was 24 and also including things he recorded around the time of the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in March 1935 when he famously came second to Ginette Neveu, whom he praised in letters to his wife at the time. Later in the year he appears to have recorded a Wolf song transcription in Warsaw which is included in the box. There are many nuggets of this kind, some in very echo-laden and imperfect sound, real rarities that may well have been excavated before but form a necessary and important place as one follows the violinist’s development. Such as, for example, what might be the only American work in his recorded repertoire, Natalie Townsend’s salon-sweet Berceuse, probably recorded in 1935. His 1960 Moscow recital is on CD 58 where he finds far greater drive in Brahms Sonata, Op.108 than he managed in Brussels in 1955 for EMI. He could be a little inconsistent in Brahms, as many violinists are – but not if you’re Suk, or Goldberg or Kogan.
A number of the small-scale pieces are available in the Brilliant Classics box – a couple of the Vladigerov pieces, for example, as well as the 1947 versions of Suk’s Un poco triste and Burleska from the Four Pieces. I distinguish the date, as 1949 performances of the same pieces are also included. I suspect the Bartók Six Romanian Folk Dances are also the same as in the Brilliant box though their date is about a week out. Locatelli’s Caprice ‘Labyrinth’ is definitely the same, as are the Smetana ‘From my Homeland’, Dvořák’s Mazurek and Szymanowski’s Myths.
Monsaingeon has filmed an immensely sympathetic new introduction to his DVD, ‘David Oistrakh: Artist of the People’ of which there is a review below. It hasn’t lost its impact. The concert footage from the other two DVDs is familiar from Medici, VAI and Euroarts discs and focuses on Moscow performances of Brahms and Sibelius 1966 directed by Rozhdestvensky. There is also the undated Tchaikovsky which I assume comes from 1968. There is a typo in the Beethoven sonata movements with Richter which date from 1970 and not 1953, as printed. It’s a pity that the opening movement of the Kreutzer, a run-through with the violinist casually dressed, wholly ignores the pianist, Frida Bauer, who was not notably bashful. Fortunately, elsewhere she is very visible. Vsevolod Petrushansky is a more reserved and subservient performer, not least when it comes to bow-giving and taking applause. His and Oistrakh’s performance of Ravel’s Sonata is missing the opening movement.
The further these recordings go back in time, the more problematic the remastering, though admittedly Art & Son is occasionally working with some pretty intractable material. I’ve written elsewhere that I don’t much like their restoration of 78s and I’m not sure if they were working from originals of pre-LP material – that’s to say the 78s themselves – or tapes. Either way, I can imagine it being done significantly better. In fact, it has been done better by other labels, where comparison allows.
Monsaingeon seems to have a preference for pre-1964 material and there’s hardly anything later than that. I don’t know whether that is a necessity or a prerogative but I think it accords well with the common view of Oistrakh, which is that as the 1970s dawned his playing had become a touch sluggish and his vibrato had broadened. He was at his peak from his 1937 Ysaÿe Competition win until around the mid-60s, when he was in his later 50s. I doubt that Monsaingeon, himself a violinist, would agree with that, as he considers Oistrakh and Menuhin to be the greatest fiddlers of the century with Heifetz, Kreisler and Milstein alongside them in the mighty handful. However, he has compiled wisely, avoiding obvious choices and therefore there’s no surfeit of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. They and other works central to his repertoire can easily be found elsewhere.
As a footnote to the above it seems that no evidence now remains of the exhaustive cycle of Concertos that Oistrakh played after the War, which means that in all probability we will never hear him playing, for example, the Elgar and Walton concertos that featured in that series.
So, in conclusion, this isn’t a perfect set. The EMI legacy could and should have been 17 CDs which means the box is going to cost you more than it should. There are some typos and inaccuracies in the track listing but the accompanying book is 162 pages long, in three languages – French, English and German – and has well-chosen photographs. There is variation in sound quality and some of the earliest recordings are in poor sound. Set against that is the clarity of Art & Son’s new transfers of the HMV LP legacy which is a definite improvement on anything heard before. On balance, then, this is a thoughtful and intelligently compiled set that makes considerable claims on the Oistrakh collector. If only Oistrakh’s rival Leonid Kogan had a Monsaingeon – it’s Kogan’s centenary year (he was born in 1924) and thus far we have had nothing devoted to him. It’s eight years until the 50th anniversary of his death so here’s hoping.
However, I commend this Oistrakh box, the product of Monsaingeon’s unswerving devotion, with some small caveats.
Jonathan Woolf
Review of related releases
DVD 1 “David Oistrakh: Artist of the People?”
Recorded Rarities from Melodiya
David Oistrakh – The Complete EMI Recordings
David Oistrakh. Violin Concertos – Historic Russian Archives
Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free.
Contents
CD 1 Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 “Kreutzer” (Lev Oborin, piano / Paris 1953)
CD 2 Franck: Violin Sonata in A major / Karol Szymanowski: Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 9 (Vladimir Yampolsky, piano / Stockholm 1954)
CD 3 Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 (Stockholm Festival Orchestra, Sixten Ehrling / Stockholm 1954)
CD 4 Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Op. 47 (Stockholm Festival Orchestra, Sixten Ehrling / Stockholm 1954)
CD 5 Edouard Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole, Op. 23 (Philharmonia Orchestra, Jean Martinon / Abbey Road Studios London 1954)
CD 6 Max Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 / Serge Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19 (London Symphony Orchestra, Lovro von Matačić / Abbey Road Studios London 1954)
CD 7 Aram Khachaturian: Violin Concerto in D minor (Philharmonia Orchestra, Aram Khachaturian / Kingsway Hall London 1954)
CD 8 Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 3 / Johannes Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 (Vladimir Yampolsky, piano / Salle Coloniale Brussels 1955)
CD 9 Serge Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 2 / Aram Khachaturian: Violin Sonata, Op. 1 (Vladimir Yampolsky, piano / Salle Coloniale Brussels 1955)
CD 10 Franz Schubert: Octet in F major, D. 803 (Peter Bondarenko, Mikhail Therrien, Svyatoslav Knushevitsky, Vladimir Sorokin, Yosif Gertovich, Yosif Steidel, Yakov Shapiro / Moscow 1955)
CD 11 Giuseppe Tartini: Violin Sonata in G minor “Devil’s Trill” / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Sonata KV 454 (Vladimir Yampolsky, piano / Abbey Road Studios London 1956) / Bonus: Both sonatas as stereo recordings (Abbey Road Studios London 1956)
CD 12 Sergei Taneyev: Concert Suite for Violin & Orchestra, Op. 28 (Philharmonia Orchestra, Nikolai Marko / Abbey Road Studios London 1956)
CD 13 Claude Debussy: Clair de Lune / Manuel de Falla: Jota / Eugène Ysaÿe: Extase, Op. 21 / Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34 / Josef Suk: Love Song / Henryk Wieniawski: Legend, Op. 17 / Aleksander Zarzycki: Mazurka, Op. 26 (Vladimir Yampolsky / Abbey Road Studios London 1956)
CD 14 Johannes Brahms: Concerto Op. 102 for Violin, Cello, Orchestra; Tragic Overture, Op. 81 (Pierre Fournier, Philharmonia Orchestra, Alceo Galliera / Kingsway Hall London 1956)
CD 15 Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 97 “Archduke” (Lev Oborin, Svyatoslav Knushevitsky / Abbey Road Studios London 1958)
CD 16 Ludwig van Beethoven: Triple Concerto, Op. 56 (Lev Oborin, Svyatoslav Knushevitsky, Philharmonia Orchestra, Malcolm Sargent / Abbey Road Studios London 1958)
CD 17 Schubert: Piano Trio No. 1
CD 18 Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3; Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
CD 19 Beethoven: Violin Concerto
CD 20 Brahms: Violin Concerto
CD 21 Brahms: Double Concerto
CD 22 Brahms: Violin Concerto
CD 23 Beethoven: Triple Concerto
CD 24 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concertos No. 1 & 2; Sinfonia Concertante KV 364 (Igor Oistrakh, Berlin Philharmonic / Zehlendorf Community House 1971 / 1972)
CD 25 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3; Concertone in C major KV 190 for 2 Violins & Orchestra (Igor Oistrakh, Berlin Philharmonic / Zehlendorf Community House 1971 / 1972)
CD 26 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concertos No. 4 & 5 (Berlin Philharmonic / Zehlendorf Community House 1970 / 1970)
CD 27 Dmitri Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 (New Philharmonia Orchestra, Maxim Shostakovich / Abbey Road Studios London 1972)
CD 28-58 Live and studio recordings from Oistrakh’s early career and post-war period with numerous world premieres and first releases on CD
DVD 1 “The David Oistrakh Cycle” – A Musical Portrait
DVD 2 “Recitals in Moscow”
DVD 3 “David Oistrakh: Artist of the People?” – A Film by Bruno Monsaingeon
