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You are here: Home › Shostakovich Concertos/Oistrakh/BBC C

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Artistic Quality: 9

Sound Quality: 6

Shostakovich Concertos/Oistrakh/BBC CReview by: Jed Distler

The two Shostakovich violin concertos hardly suffer from lackof excellent modern recordings, as Ilya Kaler (Naxos), LydiaMordkovitch (Chandos), Dimitry Sitkovetsky (Virgin), andseveral other first rate soloists cogently prove. Yet to hearDavid Oistrakh’s artistry operating in music that Shostakovichspecifically tailored to the violinist’s all-encompassingtechnique and wide expressive gamut is tantamount to beingpresent at the creation. Oistrakh recorded the First Concertothree times: twice in mono (Mitropoulos/New York,Mravinsky/Leningrad), and in a fine stereo remake that’s neverbeen on CD, with the composer’s son Maxim at the helm ofthe New Philharmonia Orchestra. Several live versions havebeen published as well, including the American premiere withMitropoulos and a 1957 Prague Festival traversal withMravinsky leading the Czech Philharmonic.

This 1962 Edinburgh Festival recording essentially confirms rather than adds to what we know ofOistrakh’s way with this score, from his meditative eloquence in the Nocturne and soaring intensity inthe Passacaglia, to the effortlessly gauged mood swings in the cadenza and the controlledexcitement he generates in the Burlesca. I prefer the superior balances of the Mitropoulos studiorecording and that conductor’s weightier, bass-oriented Passacaglia, as well as the tightersolo/orchestra exchanges in Mravinsky’s Scherzo (especially in Prague, where the Czech winds trulyamaze).

Oistrakh’s 1968 Royal Albert Hall performance of the Second Concerto does not differ substantiallyfrom the excellently engineered world premiere recently reissued by RCA (type q1692 in SearchReviews). Pressed to choose I’d opt for the RCA, chiefly because of Kyril Kondrashin’s edgierconducting and the Moscow Philharmonic’s slightly tauter ensemble work in the Finale. Lastly, IgorOistrakh joins his father for Eugene Ysaÿe’s Amitié. This rhapsodic, evocative symphonic poemdeserves a better fate than the oblivion it now enjoys, but the father-and-son team’s rapturous give-and-take certainly honors what the composer had in mind. Neither should Malcolm Sargent’s plush,forward-moving support go unnoticed. Excellent notes cap this admirable if perhaps not reallyessential release.

Recording Details:

Reference Recording: Sitkovetsky (Virgin)

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