David Oistrakh on Warner: Nineteenth Century

As I continue to work my way through 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, I shall now focus on recordings of chamber music and concertos composed during the nineteenth century. This accounts for six of the CDs, and only one composer merits a “presence” on two of them. That composer is Robert Schumann, and even those recordings are not particularly comprehensive.

One CD presents the first two piano trios, Opus 63 in D minor and Opus 80 in F major, with Oistrakh joined by cellist Sviatoslav Knushevitsky. However, each trio has a different pianist with Lev Oborin in Opus 63 and Alexander Goldenweiser in Opus 80. The recording sessions were four years apart, in 1948 and 1952, respectively; and, since Oistrakh did not die until 1974, I was more than a little disappointed that he neglected to record the last of the trios, Opus 110 in G minor. Instead, he recorded the first (Opus 105) violin sonata with Vladimir Yampolsky; and the remaining selection Is the Opus 17 Fantasie, which was composed for solo piano. This was arranged for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler, but the recording is an orchestration of this version by Sarah Feigin. I must confess that I much prefer the “original version;” but, apparently, the “powers that be” behind the USSR Symphony Orchestra had ideas of their own about repertoire!

Eugène Ysaÿe with his violin (photograph from the George Grantham Bain Collection at the Library of Congress, public domain)

Each of the remaining four CDs is devoted to a single composer. On “order of appearance” in the box set, these are Edvard Grieg, Karol Szymanowski, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Eugène Ysaÿe. Greig receives a more thorough account than Schumann with a CD of all three of the violin sonatas. On the other hand I would have preferred recordings of all six of the Ysaÿe solo violin sonatas, rather than the assortment of selections, which also include piano and orchestral accompaniment. Similarly, I would have appreciated a more thorough account of Szymanowski selections. The Tchaikovsky Opus 35 concerto was, of course, inevitable; but the remaining shorter selections on the CD struck me as a hodgepodge of encore pieces.