More Oistrakh, More Shostakovich

Fortunately, David Oistrakh’s valuable collaborations with Shostakovich came at a moment able to capture their development in the studio and in the concert hall. In one case, it was even able to capture composer and performer on the phone – more on that later.

The First Concerto is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the most frequently listed piece in the Oistrakh discography, but at least three other pieces – the Second Violin Concerto, the Violin Sonata and the Second Piano Trio – received recordings by the great violinist.

Piano Trio No 2 in E minor, Op 67 (1944)

Oistrakh recording with the composer comes pretty early in the Oistrakh-Shostakovich relationship, indeed shortly before the time that Shostakovich began working on the First Violin Concerto and it’s tempting to think we might be hearing part of process that led to the composition of that masterpiece:

1946 – DO with Dmitri Shostakovich and Milos Sadlo (released a number of times on CD; most easily available on the first volume of Doremi’s Oistrakh collection)

Violin Concerto No 2 in C# minor, Op 129 (1967)

The story goes that Shostakovich intended to mark Oistrakh’s 60^th birthday with another violin concerto, but was a year premature. Given the piece was written only seven years before Oistrakh’s death, in 1974, we don’t have as many recorded performances, but we have the rather significant recordings of both the official premiere (preceded by a few “unofficial” performances) and the Western premiere from London, a concert under Eugene Ormandy apparently organised at short notice. And for the really keen, it’s worth seeking out Bruno Monsaingeon’s documentary David Oistrakh: Artist of the People?, which includes a remarkable phone conversation following the first performance between Oistrakh and Shostakovich, in which the composer comments “it’s as though I was playing it myself!” 

October 26th(?) 1967 – Film of the first official performance, with Kirill Kondrashin and the Moscow Philharmonic (available on DVD from VAI)

November 19th1967 – First performance in the West, with Eugene Ormandy and the LSO at the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Legends CD)

August 22nd 1968 – Live Proms performance with Evgeny Stetlanov and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra (BBC Legends CD with 1962 Edinburgh 1^st Concerto)

September 27th 1968 – Live performance with Gennady Rozhdestvensky and the Moscow Philharmonic (Released a few times by Brilliant Classics)

Violin Sonata in G major, Op 134 (1968)

Oistrakh’s actual 60^th birthday was marked with the terse sonata and, remarkably enough, a recording exists of Shostakovich and him playing the piece in the composer’s home. Oistrakh then made the piece a part of the recital repertoire he played with Sviatoslav Richter, another remarkable Soviet musician, but one with a more distant relationship with Shostakovich.

December 1968 – DO and Dmitri Shostakovich at the composer’s home

May 3rd 1969 – World premiere performance in Moscow with Sviatoslav Richter (issued by Melodiya)