This past Tuesday I prepared readers for the 31 CDs classified as Premières, Rarities & Live Performances in the Warner Remastered Edition box set collection of recordings of performances by Russian violinist David Oistrakh. This “appendix” to the collection was curated by Bruno Monsaingeon, whom I had previously encountered through the videos he had produced for another major Warner Classics anthology, The Menuhin Century. While I was not particularly taken with his video skills, his efforts with Oistrakh’s audio archives seem to be at least a bit more promising.
Dividing this new collection into “mind-sized chunks” (a phrase readers may recall from my articles about the Warner Remastered Edition of recordings of the conductor Otto Klemperer) was not a particularly easy matter. Nevertheless, I knew exactly where to begin: with the two CDs identified as Early Recordings. To be more specific, “early” accounts for a period between December of 1935 and October of 1949. It includes two multi-movement compositions from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and one from the late nineteenth century. The earliest of these is Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1043 concerto for two violins in D minor, with Georges Enescu (probably better known to most readers as a composer) taking the other violin part. This is followed by Franz Schubert’s D. 667 (“Trout”) quintet (whose other performers are probably unfamiliar). The “late work” is Ernest Chausson’s “Concert,” scored for violin, piano, and string quartet, from which the second (“Sicilienne”) movement has been omitted.
Now, to be fair, I have been a sucker for D. 667 for the better part of my writing career (if not my entire life). If the quality of the sound leaves much to be desired, I can still appreciate that balance maintained by pianist Lev Oborin in performing with the “non-standard” (violin, viola, cello, and double bass) quartet. Similarly, this was my first encounter with Enescu as a performer; and, while his performance with Oistrakh may not have been “historically informed,” I still enjoyed the interplay of their two solo parts. On the other hand, I came away with the impression that the Chausson selection was included because Monsaingeon did not know where else to put it!
Efrem Zimbalist, one of Oistrakh’s contemporaries, with his violin (from the George Grantham Bain collection at the Library of Congress, digitally altered by Royalbroil, no known copyright restrictions)
Where the shorter pieces are concerned, most readers probably have already seen my citation of “the generous number of encore selections that were recorded by Jascha Heifetz.” Ironically, two of those selections were recorded by Oistrakh, the arrangement of Claude Debussy’s song “Beau Soir” and the Sarabande movement from Bach’s BWV 808 in G minor, the third of his “English” keyboard suites. Also, as a Philadelphian, I could appreciate the arrangement by Efram Zimbalist of the “Persian song” from Mikhail Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. (When I was growing up, Zimbalist was Director of the Curtis Institute of Music, although, at that time, I was more interested in his son’s television career!)
Oistrakh also took on five (count them!) solo piano compositions by Frédéric Chopin. These included two mazurkas, two nocturnes, and one étude. I fear these fall into the dog-walking-on-hind-legs category of the achievement being done at all, regardless of whether it was done well! The fact is that, when I attend a recital, I usually I find a recitalist playing too many encores to be a bit irritating; and that is basically the impression that these Early Recordings CDs left with me. Perhaps it is just that I cannot relate to Monsaingeon’s talents as a curator.
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