David Oistrakh, proclaims the cover in both English and Cyrillic, followed by “The Essential”. Lest the unsuspecting prospective listener think this two-disc set is a compilation of the great violinist’s essential recordings, it’s not. Many will prefer other Oistrakh versions of some of these pieces offered here. And while he plays everything with his consummate skill and emotional intensity, he’s undercut by shrill sound on the first disc of the set (disc two is quite acceptable). The result: an unpleasant glare in the violin’s higher reaches and a thinning out of Oistrakh’s trademark tonal lushness. The crummy original Soviet engineering isn’t helped much by German BMG’s aggressive transfer techniques which compromise some of the label’s other Melodiya reissues.
Disc One is made up of live concert performances from 1963 and 1968. It opens with Mozart’s Concerto No. 1, played with Romantic ardor and a marvelously inward Adagio movement that’s irresistible despite the strictures of the period performance police. A dynamic Brahms Concerto with Kondrashin follows, seething with the tension of its concert setting. It’s a fascinating document but so are Oistrakh’s versions with Klemperer, or Konwitschny, each quite different from the other. The disc ends with Beethoven’s two Romances for Violin and Orchestra, lovely in conception and execution.
Disc Two is indeed “essential” Oistrakh–the two Shostakovich Concertos. He premiered the first and was the dedicatee of the second. Here we get the First in Oistrakh’s 1956 partnership with Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic a year after the pair premiered the work (the only item on the set that’s not in stereo). It’s a gripping performance, full of passion and drive, fortunately impactful in this transfer. It’s cut from the same cloth as Oistrakh’s recording made the same year with Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic in even better mono. The Second Concerto with Kondrashin at the helm, dates from 1967 and has the best sound on the set–full-bodied, wide-ranging stereo. Maxim Vengerov’s Teldec versions of the two concertos are excellent alternatives in modern sound, but these are works Oistrakh owned and go far to justify the set’s “essential” tag.
