Warner’s “David Oistrakh Quartet” CDs

Three of 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 have been given the subtitle David Oistrakh Quartet. By all rights, this subtitle should be given scare quotes, since there does not appear to be any reference to a “David Oistrakh Quartet” during Oistrakh’s lifetime. Rather, that name was given to a quartet whose members are violinists Andrey Baranov and Rodion Petrov, Fedor Belugin on viola, and cellist Alexey Zhilin in 2012.

In the Warner collection, Oistrakh leads a quartet whose other member are Piotr Bondarenko on second violin, violist Mikhail Terian, and Sviatoslav Knushevitsky on cello. The CDs themselves account for only three string quartets performed in their entirety, two recorded in 1952 and one in 1950. The third CD, on the other hand, presents two clarinet quintets recorded in 1950 with clarinetist Vladimir Sorokin. This is a “two centuries” album, coupling Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 581 quintet with Johannes Brahms’ Opus 115 quintet in B minor. (K. 581 is sometimes known as the “Stadler” quintet, since it was composed for the clarinetist Anton Stadler.)

Brahms can also be found on the first CD with the first of his Opus 51 quartets in C minor. This is coupled with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 11 (also a first) quartet in D major. These recordings definitely cast the quartet players in a favorable light, which they also enjoy on the clarinet quintet album. The second CD, on the other hand, accounts for only one quartet in its entirety, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 74, often known as the “Harp” for its extended pizzicato passages. It is coupled with two single-movement excerpts. The first of these is the second movement from Franz Schubert’s D. 810 quartet, consisting of variations of the theme of Schubert’s D. 531 song, “Der Tod und das Mädchen” (Death and the maiden). The other is the second Canzonetta movement from Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 12 (first) quartet in E-flat major, which used to be (and may still be) an encore favorite.

Pianist Lev Oborin (photograph taken in January of 1927, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

It may (or may not) be worth noting that Oistrakh’s Wikipedia page says  almost nothing about his performance of chamber music. There is a passing citation about teaching. However, where performance is concerned, there is only reference to a trio that Oistrakh performed with Knushevitsky and pianist Lev Oborin, previously cited on this site as accompanist for a Mozart sonata. My guess is that Oistrakh enjoyed the chamber music repertoire; but there were “powers that be” that limited his opportunities to account for that repertoire on recordings.