Word: oistrakh
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What concerts stand out as being particularly memorable? Oh, there are any number. My memory bank is full. Certainly, the first time I heard the Shostakovich violin concerto with [Russian violinist] David Oistrakh at its premiere in 1956 at Carnegie Hall. It was an amazing sound. A high point for me was doing the Freedom Concert in East Berlin, when we did Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on Christmas morning in 1989. The wall was coming down, and Leonard Bernstein changed the German text in the Ode to Joy from "joy" to "freedom." It was a very moving experience. You heard...
...never recorded commercially, such as Fritz Reiner's elegant, pastoral reading of Brahms' Symphony No. 2 and the lyrical and propulsive performance of Chopin's Concerto No. 1 by Bruno Walter and Arthur Rubinstein, who, under contract to different labels, were never permitted to record together. There are David Oistrakh and Dimitri Mitropoulos in their nonpareil, rivetingly intense U.S. debut of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto, and memorable farewells like the thrilling immolation scene from Wagner's Gotterdammerung in 1952 with Walter and Kirsten Flagstad in her last appearance with the Philharmonic, which had the audience applauding for 21 minutes...
...last movement of the Sibelius has been described as a "Polonaise for polar bears," but those seeking robust playing should look elsewhere. Rather than the incessant, almost primitive drive of Heifetz or even Oistrakh, one finds a laid-back and almost casual interpretation here, with Midori deferring almost immediately. Is she willing to take on the orchestra in a head-to-head battle? Has she forgotten that the term concerto translates more or less as "a contest...
...Sibelius dressed in a black shirt and pants, canary yellow jacket and yellowish how tie. A former student of David Oistrakh. Kremer uncharacteristically let his innovation stop with his wardrobe. Instead of inserting strains of modern composers' work, as he has with cadenzas by Schnitke and Robert Levin '68, he stuck to Sibelius's own cadenzas...
...third solo part and cadenza. Kremer showed a pair of weaknesses. His violent charging at his violin with the bow occasionally gave his notes unsteady attacks. If the problem was due to excess energy, it's excusable: few violinists have so able a bow arm as Oistrakh had. In addition, Kremer's tone seemed to run sharp now and then. Perhaps he was rattled by losing a string from his bow during the lick...