Customer Reviews

David Oistrakh: The Complete EMI Recordings

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A violinist's violinist who was simultaneously adored by the general public. EMI presents in one compilation the entire recorded legacy of David Oistrakh. I simply wanted to list the works and co-performers in this collection. The recordings really do not need any cerebral reviews as they are undeniably wonderful. Enjoy!

DAVID OISTRAKH with:

Lev Oborin / Sviatsolav Knushevitzky -
Philharmonia Orchestra / Malcolm Sargent - Concerto for Violin Cello Piano and Orchestra in C op.56 'Triple Concerto' (Beethoven)
Piano Trio No.7 in B flat op.97 'Archduke' (Beethoven)
Piano Trio No.1 in B flat D898 (Schubert)

Lev Oborin - Violin Sonata No.9 in A op.47 'Kreutzer' (Beethoven)

Sviatoslav Richter / Mstislav Rostropovich / Berliner Philharmoniker / Herbert von Karajan - Concerto for Violin Cello Piano and Orchestra in C op.56 'Triple Concerto' (Beethoven)

Cleveland Orchestra / George Szell -
Mstislav Rostropovich - Concerto for Violin Cello and Orchestra in A minor op.102 'Double Concerto' (Brahms)
Violin Concerto in D op.77 (Brahms)

Stockholm Festival Orchestra / Sixten Ehrling -
Violin Concerto in D op.61 (Beethoven)
Violin Concerto in D minor op.47 (Sibelius)

Orchestre National de la Radioffusion Francaise -
Andre Cluytens - Violin Concerto in D op.61 (Beethoven)
Otto Klemperer - Violin Concerto in D op.77 (Brahms)

London Symphony Orchestra / Lovro von Matacic -
Violin Concerto No.1 in D op.19 (Prokofiev)
Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor op.26 (Bruch)

Berliner Philharmoniker
Violin Concerto No.1 in B flat K207 (Mozart)
Violin Concerto No.2 in D K211 (Mozart)
Violin Concerto No.3 in G K216 (Mozart)
Sinfonia Concertante in E flat K364 (Mozart)
Violin Concerto No.4 in D K218 (Mozart)
Violin Concerto No.5 in A K219 'Turkish' (Mozart)
Adagio in E K261 (Mozart)
Rondo Concertante in B flat K269 (Mozart)
Rondo in C K373 (Mozart)
Igor Oistrakh / Concertone in C K190 (Mozart)

Philharmonia Orchestra -
Maxim Shostakovich - Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor op.99 (Shostakovich)
Aram Khachaturian - Violin Concerto in D minor (Khachaturian)
Nicolai Malko - Suite de Concert op.28 (Taneyev)
Jean Martinon - Symphonie espagnole op.21 (Lalo)
Violin Concerto No.3 in G K216 (Mozart)
Alceo Galliera - Violin Concerto No.2 in G minor op.63 (Prokofiev)
Pierre Fournier / Alceo Galliera - Concerto for Violin Cello and Orchestra in A minor op.102 'Double Concerto' (Brahms)

Vladimir Yampolsky -
Six Pieces op.7 : No.1 Love Song (Suk)
Three Hungarian Folksongs (Kodaly)
Legende op.17 (Wieniawski)
Mazurka in G op.26 (Zarzycki)
Suite bergamasque : Clair de lune (Debussy arr Poulenc)
Suite populaire espanola : Jota (Falla)
Scherzo-valse op.34 (Tchaikovsky)
Extase op.21 (Ysaye)
Violin Sonata No.32 in B flat K454 (Mozart)
Violin Sonata No.3 in E flat op.12/3 (Beethoven)
Violin Sonata No.3 in D minor op.108 (Brahms)
Violin Sonata No.2 in D op.94 (Prokofiev)
Violin Sonata in A (Franck)
Violin Sonata in D minor op.9 (Szymanowski)
Violin Sonata op.1 (Karen Khachaturian)
Violin Sonata in G minor 'The Devil's Trill' (Tartini arr. Kreisler)

Peter Bondarenko / Mikhail Terian / Sviatoslav Knushevitzky / Vladimir Sorokin / Joseph Gertovich / Joseph Stidel / Jacov Shapiro - Octet in F D803 (Schubert)

Clam-shell box packaging - recorded 1953-1972

As a violinist who has occasionally been known to utter things like "Oistrakh is God!" I am very happy to see this collection come out and I may well pick it up, even though I have almost all the recordings on vinyl. But a few words of caution might be in order, given what I can glean from the track listings and the review that lists the performers and tracks more thoroughly.

First I should say that there are many great recordings here. The Cluytens/Beethoven Concerto is certainly up there with the greatest recordings of this piece, as is the Brahms Double with Szell and Rostropovich. And no one plays Mozart better than Oistrakh; the set is surely worth owning for the Mozart concerti alone. His EMI recordings of the Khatchaturian and Shostakovish #1 concerti are the definitive versions of those works (with one caveat: he does not play Khatchaturian's original cadenza, which is fine with some people, but I personally wish he had.) The recordings of both Prokofiev concerti and the Violin Sonatas are also all but definitive; I know of none better, though occasionally someone comes close. Of great interest to me is the recording of the Lalo Symphonie Espagnole with Jean Martinon; my collection of more than 40 Oistrakh disks includes a great performance of this piece with Kondrashin, but I have never heard the one in this set.

That said, I have several reservations about this edition. First, I am of the remastering school. I have hardly ever heard a CD transfer, classical or otherwise, that was not improved by a careful remastering job (though a lousy job can surely destroy a recording too). I do not see any reference to remastering in the listing, so I assume it is a straight transfer. Which would be too bad, because no recorded legacy is more worthy of careful remastering than that of David Oistrakh. On the other hand, the set would surely have doubled in price, so I suppose there is something to be said for mass availability.

Second, I'm afraid this does not look to me like the complete EMI collection. Some of the things I noticed missing are the second Shostakovish violin concerto (not equal to the first, but necessary for completeness), and the recordings made with Frida Bauer: Didone Abandonata and Devil's Trill sonata of Tartini, and Brahms Sonata #1. These gaps are based on a quick perusal of my recordings; it would surprise me if they were the only ones. Incidentally, the track listing (in both the Amazon track list and the user review) includes a Mozart violin sonata "#32 in B-flat, K.454". There is no such work. The work is probably the Mozart violin and piano sonata #15, K.454, and it is in E-flat.

Third, while this should not discourage anyone from acquiring this rich collection of recordings, I cannot help but be reminded how many of Oistrakh's most important recordings were not on EMI. His mesmerizing recordings of the Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Dvorak concerti are nowhere to be found here. Neither is his greatest recording of the Sibelius concerto, with Ormandy. His recording of the Bach sonatas for violin and harpsichord, released on DG, are surely among my desert island disks. There is no recording here of the Chausson Poeme, at which he is one of the great masters. Ditto the Ysaye Ballade and the Debussy Sonata, both released on a Phillips collection. The first Schubert Piano Trio is there, but the David Oistrakh Trio also recorded the second one for Melodya, which jointly released it with a German label. And there is not a single example of his joint recordings with Igor, who was, by some bizzare miracle of nature, almost as great a fiddler as his father.

So all in all, my advice is: enjoy this collection, but don't forget it just scratches the surface of the work of this musical genius.

My only hesitation in ordering this CD set was questioning the quality of the sound. I have numerus other recordings on CD of Oistrakh and most sound like bad vinyl records. This set is flawless. Not a single hiss, pop, or cough. Every note is as clear as if the violinis was playing live in the same room. The other reviews speak adequately to the artist and the works in the set.

For those who do not have a problem with shelf space, or those who have not yet collected much of Oistrakh's EMI legacy, this box really is a great deal.

David Oistrakh was inarguably one of the 20th century's supreme artists. He won several major competitions in his life time (though, perhaps more famously, he finished 2nd to Ginette Neveu in the Wieniawski competition of 1935). He worked with many of the greatest artists of his day, was the dedicatee of several famous works, and Shostakovich wrote both of his violin concertos for him. The respect of his peers is evident in numerous writings, and many violinists of today view him as a role model. His influence on the next generation is large, having, at some point, taught many of the professional violinists to emerge from the USSR during his long tenure wth the Moscow Conservatoire. He received several awards from the Soviet state, most notably the Stalin Prize in 1942 following his performing on the front (there is a wonderful tale of him performing during the bombing of Stalingrad).

The contents of this 17 cd box set includes an awful lot of top grade material available in other releases. These include:

-- Brahm's violin concerto with Klemperer and Mozart's Sinfonia concertante with Oistrakh on viola, his son Igor on violin.

-- Mozart's violin concertos, released in two disks: 1 to 3 and 4 and 5.

-- The violin concertos of Beethoven and Sibelius with Ehrling (on Testament).

-- The famous recording of Beethoven's triple concerto with Oistrakh, Richter and Rostropovich, released with Oistrakh's recording of Brahms' double concerto with Rostropovich.

-- The box also includes Oistrakh's preferred recording of the double concerto of Brahms, his recording with Fournier. This comes in several releases. For instance, it is coupled with Bruch: Violin concerto No.1. It is also in an earlier 2 cd set which includes Oistrakh's recordings of the Mozart violin concerto #3 (mentioned above), the Prokofiev violin concerto #2, and Brahms' triple concerto again, this time with long-time partners in crime, Oborin and Knushevitsky. (All of these recordings are also in the box set under review!)

-- The "creator's" recording of Khachaturian's violin concerto, with the composer conducting, Oistrakh being both the dedicatee and the author of the cadenza.

-- A wonderful selection of showpieces for violin and piano with one of Oistrakh's most regular accompanists, Vladimir Yampolsky.

I could go on; the above were pulled up in about 10 minutes. I suspect if I felt utterly compelled (and believed the reader had infinite patience!), then I could find releases of all of the works in this box from within the last 10 years or so. For the sake of the reader's sanity, I'll refrain!

Now, the observant reader will have noticed there are several doublings in this set. None of the doublings are disappointments; in fact most of them are viewed as classics in their own right (another testament to Oistrakh's talent). Specifically, the doublings are

-- 2 recordings of Beethoven's violin concerto: one with Cluytens, one with Ehrling (both are wonderful).

-- 2 recordings of Beethoven's triple concerto: one by Oistrakh, Richter and Rostropovich with von Karajan conducting, the other by Oistrakh, Oborin and Knushevitsky with Sargent conducting (I admit I prefer the latter one).

-- 2 recordings of Brahms' violin concerto: one with Klemperer, one with Szell (I like both, but in fact prefer a recording of the work by Szeryng).

-- 2 recordings of Brahms' double concerto: with Rostropovich and Szell, the other with Fournier and Galliera (I agree with Oistrakh, the Fournier does seem better).

-- 2 recordings of Mozart's violin concerto #3: the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Before ending this (to everyone's relief!), it would be remiss of me to fail to mention two more things. Firstly, Oistrakh gives a magnificent performance of the solo cadenza in the 3rd movement of Shostakovich's violin concerto #1. And secondly, the last disk provides a really excellent performance of Schubert's octet (this was released most recently by Monopole in 2007, only a year before this box set was released). In fact, much of the chamber work in this release is first rate.

So to end this, what can I say? Those who own and love Oistrakh will already own much of what lies in this (not so) little box. For those, the benefit of purchasing this set lies in the fact that pretty much everything here appears to have been remastered relatively recently. For the rest, especially those in the process of building a quality personal collection, face up to the reality that you are always going to end up with an odd doubling or two, grab this opportunity by the scruff of the neck, and buy this great release by EMI.

For the money, you really can't do much better - this is simply a steal. This man was one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. The recordings here are crystal clear and beautiful-I listen to the cds in six channel stereo mode on a Yamaha receiver - what a joy! 17 discs full of absolutely stunning, captivating music - full orchastra, trios, sonatas... a smorgasborg for the classical music lover.

I have listened to the cds from start to finish - honestly there is not a bad one in the package. True, I do have favorites, but I never felt while listening at any time that I needed to stop listening. My point is that all the music is enjoyable...all the music is pleasant to the ears.

Once again, 17 cds of beautifully rendered music for such a reasonable price - buy this boxed set - you'll thank me and the others who have made it a part of our collections - make it a part of your collection!

As a lifelong fan of Oistrakh who has wandered the hall of many CD stores looking in vain for CD versions of his recording, I jumped at this and the Historial Russian Archives collection and am thrilled to have two such wonderful collections in my possession. The recordings are fabulous, the sound is fabulous, Oistrakh is magnificent. The only quibble I have is that whoever coded these pieces for the computer was very tired, very drunk, completely ignorant of the English language, or all of the above. The title of the series was mispelled. Entire CDs were completely mislabelled. For example, Beethoven's violin concerto in D was labelled Brahms Violin Concerto in D. A Sibellius violin concerto was labelled as a Dvorak violin concerto. A CD labelled "Mozart flute concertos" by the London Symphony orchestra was eventually revealed to be two MOzart Violin concertos and the Sinfonia concertante, played by David Oistrakh (with Igor Oistrakh helping out on the Synfonia) with the Berliner PHilharmoniker . . . about half the CDs in both collections were similarly mislabelled.

I spent a fair bit of time listening to CDs and correcting the data entry so that I have the correct labels in my own computer and MP3 player.

So if you buy either or both of these collections and intend to store them on your computer and MP3 player, BEWARE! Unless you are so familiar with all the pieces that it doesn't matter because you know what you're listening to and who is playing, or unless you really don't care if you know what or who you're listening to, you're going to have to go through the same process of re-cataloguing.

Anyone who isn't mobile with their music won't be affected, but so many people are these days. And like it or not, these things do get shared and swapped, meaning that an unknown number of people are going to go through life believing that Brahms wrote the Beethoven Violin Concerto in D and so forth. One might say it serves them right for ripping off the record companies, however it also seems highly disrespectful of the artists and composers who are thereby not being admired for who they really are. It's disappointing that more care wasn't taken with these details.

Superb range of Violin repetoire, played with utmost technical precision and melodic warmth and feeling by a truly vertuoso master violinist. The price was a gift.

Oistrakh's Slavic soul burns through in all these performances. At first, you might think it a cheap stunt for EMI to include multiple recordings of the same work (two of Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C, one with Oborin and Knushevitsky, the other with Richter and Rostropovich, the second being about a minute longer; two of his Violin Concerto in D, one with Sixten Ehrlin and the Stockholm Festival Ortchestra, the other with Andre Cluytens and the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Francaise, Cluytens adding a good two minutes to Ehrling's pace), but Oistrakh's violin makes each its own masterpiece. In the works by Khatchturian and Kodaly, among others, Oistrakh turns us all into gypsies.

These are sensational recordings by the most powerful violinist I have ever heard.

Aún estoy disfrutando esta completísima colección de música de cámara y conciertos para violín del maestro David Oistrakh. Para todos los amantes de este solista esta antología es INDISPENSABLE. Puntos altos de esta caja: conciertos para violín de Khachaturian, Sibelius, Beethoven y Brahms. El sonido es más que satisfactorio considerando la antigüedad de algunas de las grabaciones, pero más importante es la calidad de la ejecución: extraordinaria. Sin duda Oistrakh es uno de los mejores exponentes en el arte de tocar el violín. Para mí, el mejor junto a Heifetz. Otro punto a considerar es la gran cantidad de discos de esta antología (¡17!) y su precio absolutamente conveniente. Es un deber tener esta colección de los trabajos de Oistrakh publicados por EMI. Entonces, a disfrutar...

My only hesitation in purchsing this box set was concern about the sound quality. I did a Google search and found this link to EMI in the UK, which not only lists all the works but shows which ones have been digitally remastered: [...] So purchase this set by the greatest violinist of the 20th century with peace of mind; I did.