David Oistrakh on Warner: First Viennese School

David Oistrakh on the cover of the Warner box set of his recordings (from the Amazon.com Web page for his release)

The first anthology to come my way in the New Year was a Warner Remastered Edition box set compiling all the recordings that Russian violinist David Oistrakh made for Columbia and HMV. Oistrakh was one of the leading violinists in the twentieth century, with a reputation comparable to that of Jascha Heifetz, who was born in Lithuania but moved to the United States in 1917, where he subsequently became a citizen in 1925. He was a major recording artist beginning in November of that same year at the Victor Studios in Camden and then become one of the major artists for RCA. All of his recordings were ultimately compiled in a 46-volume CD release entitled The Heifetz Collection. It would be fair to say that the “lion’s share” of my awareness of the violin repertoire can be traced back to that collection, which I continue to consult frequently.

The Oistrakh release is somewhat more modest. It consists of 58 CDs, which is somewhat more modest, since many of the Heifetz volumes consist of multiple CDs. However, it would be fair to say that much of the repertoire can also be found in the Heifetz anthology. This is particularly the case where the First Viennese School is concerned. As with many anthologies, I try to work with “mind-sized chunks” defined by different periods in history; and the First Viennese School is almost always one of those “chunks.” To be fair, however, the composers in the Oistrakh collection are only Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert. (To be just as fair, Joseph Haydn’s contribution of the violin repertoire is pretty much dwarfed by the other genres in which he thrived!)

As might be expected, Beethoven gets the most attention with seven CDs. Mozart, on the other hand, is limited to four full CDs and one that he shares with Giuseppe Tartini. Schubert is limited to two CDs, each consisting of a single composition.

Oistrakh accounted for all five of Mozart’s violin concertos. One of them, K. 216 (the third in G major), was even recorded twice, first with the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1958 at the Abbey Road studio in London and then with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1971 at the Zehlendorfer Gemeindehaus in Berlin. Oistrakh served as conductor for both of these occasions, as well as soloist. There is also a Berlin Philharmonic recording of K. 364, the “Sinfonia concertante;” but, for that session, Oistrakh played the viola part. The violin was played by his son, Igor.

Beethoven’s works for violin were much more extensive. However, there are only seven CDs in the Warner collection; and two of his compositions enjoy two different recordings. The more familiar of these is the Opus 61 concerto in D major, performed under two different composers of two different nationalities. The 1954 recording took place in June with Sixten Ehrling conducting the Stockholm Festival Orchestra. This was followed by recording sessions at the Salle Wagram in Paris with André Cluytens conducting the Orchestra National de France (then known as the Orchestre national de la Radio-télévision française), which took place in October of 1958.

There are also two accounts of the Opus 56 “triple” concerto, each featuring a different trio led by a different conductor. The earlier of these took place in 1958 with Oistrakh performing with cellist Sviatoslav Knushevitsky and Lev Oborin on piano. One might be justified in thinking this was a Russian performance, but the soloists performed under the baton of Malcolm Sargent conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. The second recording was made in 1969 and was clearly an “all-star” undertaking. Herbert von Karajan conducted the Berlin Philharmonic; and Oistrakh was joined by cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and Sviatoslav Richter on piano. The trio with Knushevitsky and Oborin also recorded the Opus 97 (“Archduke”) piano trio in B-flat major.

Finally, there are two sonata recordings. Oborin again appears, this time on an earlier (1953) recording of the Opus 47 (“Kreutzer”) in A major (the ninth). The other selection was recorded two years later. However, the music is earlier: the third of the Opus 12 sonatas in E-flat major. The pianists for these two performances are Oborin and Vladimir Yampolsky, respectively.

Each of the Schubert CDs is devoted to a single composition. The first of these is the D. 803 octet in F major. For those not familiar with this piece, Schubert seems to have taken a string quartet as his point of departure, added a part of double bass and then included clarinet, bassoon, and horn. Knushevitsky is the cellist in the quartet, joined by Piotr Bondarenko (second violin) and violist Mikhail Terian. The wind players are (in the previous order) Joseph Gertovich, Vladimir Sorokin, Joseph Stidel, and Jacov Shapiro. The other CD presents the D. 898 (first) piano trio in B-flat major, again with Knushevitsky and Oborin.

For the most part, I would say that, in the context of my many past Heifetz experiences, I found myself more interested in personnel than in repertoire. It is hard to resist describing the 1969 account of Beethoven’s Opus 56 as anything but an “all-star” affair. Nevertheless, to mix metaphors, each of the “stars in that crown” seemed perfectly at home in “playing well with others!” Nevertheless, I must confess that I still tend to favor the “Americanized” Heifetz over the Russians I have encountered thus far in this new collection.