Search - Oistrakh :: Russian Archives: Oistrakh Plays Russian Violin Concertos

David Oistrakh is regarded to this day as the greatest violinist to emerge from Russia in the 20th century. Born in Odessa in the Ukraine in 1908 to Jewish parents, his early years were spent in a musical household, before at the age of 5 he took lessons with Piotr Stolyarsky on both violin and viola. A fellow pupil at this time was the great Nathan Milstein. His first public concert was in 1914, and he entered the Odessa Conservatory in 1923. He performed the Glazunov concerto under the composer in 1927, and engagements with Nikolai Malko and the Leningrad Philharmonic followed. Friendships and music partnerships blossomed with Lev Oborin, Jacques Thibaud, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Richter, among others. These 3 CDs contain the music by composers he knew well and was friends with, plus the Taneyev Suite and Tchaikovsky Concerto- a particular favourite of Oistrakh. These recordings are a fitting memorial to a truly great artist.