David Oistrakh
David Oistrakh was a renowned Soviet violinist, born in a musically rich family in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1908. He began his violin studies at a young age and progressed under the guidance of notable teachers, eventually graduating from the Odessa Conservatory in 1926. Oistrakh's career gained momentum after he won several prestigious competitions, and he became a prominent performer, educator, and collaborator with distinguished composers and musicians. His performances during World War II, where he played for soldiers at the front, highlighted his commitment to music as a source of morale.
Known for his remarkable technique and expressive musicality, Oistrakh's playing was characterized by a powerful yet warm sound, allowing him to convey a wide range of emotions. He had a diverse repertoire, performing major works from various musical periods while maintaining a distinctively Romantic style. Oistrakh also championed contemporary compositions, premiering works by composers such as Shostakovich and Prokofiev.
As a teacher, Oistrakh emphasized the importance of self-criticism and authenticity in interpretation, fostering a generation of musicians who valued the emotional and intellectual depth of music. His legacy continues to be celebrated for its unpretentious beauty and profound impact on the world of classical music. Oistrakh passed away in 1974, leaving behind a rich musical heritage that resonates with audiences and musicians alike.
Subject Terms
David Oistrakh
Ukrainian classical violinist
- Born: September 30, 1908
- Birthplace: Odessa, Soviet Union (now in Ukraine)
- Died: October 24, 1974
- Place of death: Amsterdam, Holland
A celebrated violinist, Oistrakh embodied a singular combination of technical virtuosity, a strength and variety of tonal production, and a gifted musicality.
The Life
David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (OY-strahk) was born into a musical family: his shopkeeper father played several instruments proficiently, and his mother sang professionally in the Odessa Opera Chorus. At age five, Oistrakh received a one-eighth-sized violin, and he promptly entered the studio of the Ukrainian violinist Pitor Stolyarsky. The youth progressed steadily, though not with the exceptional rapidity one typically attributes to a child prodigy. Oistrakh continued under the tutelage of Stolyarsky upon matriculation into the Odessa Conservatory in 1923. He graduated from the school in 1926, and within two years he made his Leningrad debut in a performance of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major (1887).
In 1930 Oistrakh was awarded first prize at the All-Ukraine Young Violinists Competition; that same year he married Tamara Rotareva, a pianist who had also studied at the Odessa Conservatory. Their only child, Igor (who was to become a renowned violinist in his own right), was born in 1931. Marital happiness was mirrored by a series of career accomplishments: Oistrakh accepted an assistant professorship at the Moscow Conservatory in 1934, he received second prize at the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in 1935, and he procured first prize at the first Ysaÿe Competition in 1937.
When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Oistrakh enthusiastically agreed to perform for troops at the front lines, fulfilling this dutiful task often in conditions of bitter cold or under the threat of enemy attack. The postwar years produced a vigorous performance schedule for the violinist, but foreign appearances were greatly restricted until the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. In 1954 Oistrakh made his debut in England, and in 1955 he made his debut in New York. By the 1960’s, he was teaching extensively at the Moscow Conservatory; conducting and performing internationally; collaborating with composers Dmitri Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian, and with performers Mstislav Rostropovich, Yehudi Menuhin, and his son Igor; and making frequent recordings of classic works as well as of contemporary works. The sheer quantity of engagements required of Oistrakh was immense. He dutifully fulfilled the countless requests of the Soviet state, which may have precipitated his death on October 24, 1974, of a heart attack.
The Music
Much of the brilliance of Oistrakh lay in his ability to balance virtuosity and musicality and his ability to harmonize personal expression with adherence to the composer’s score. Put another way, he adapted his stunningly effortless technique to serve each composer’s musical intention. This technical faithfulness to compositional intent restrained his distinctive Romantic expressiveness, keeping it from sentimentalism.
Technique and Style. Part of what captivated audiences across the globe was the pure power of Oistrakh’s sound. In passages demanding strength and projection (for example, in the solo-violin opening phrase in Johannes Brahms’s Violin Concerto in D Major from 1879), he evenly applied the weight of his hefty bow arm in order to attain a remarkably expansive volume that never lost its tonal quality. Unlike Jascha Heifetz, who produced a pointed sound by transferring a substantial amount of downward pressure onto the strings, Oistrakh played with less vertical force and achieved a certain measure of roundness, engendering strength of tone while avoiding harsh sonorities. However, Oistrakh’s sound was never monotonal, as his music was expressed in a variety of colors and contrasts, often realized by varying the speed of his finger-vibrato (or by not vibrating at all). In some instances (for example, in the cadenza from Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, No. 1 of 1955), he created an airy and mysterious atmosphere by bowing near the fingerboard or by varying bow-speed in conjunction with minimal downward pressure. Oistrakh’s spiccato (a short, rebounding bow stroke) was one of exceptional clarity and rhythmic consistency, owing partly to the quickness of the fingers on his left hand. Confident of his complete mastery of technique, he appeared calm on the stage, his motions relaxed, with what Menuhin once described as a “wonderful freedom of the neck.” Interpretation and Repertoire. A glance at Oistrakh’s discography reveals the enormity of his repertoire as well as the vast range of his musical interests. Although Oistrakh retained a fundamentally Romantic sound in performing the musical repertoire of the Baroque and classical periods, he generally avoided the use of excessive rubato, thus creating an air of classicism in such Romantic interpretations. Like his counterparts Menuhin and Heifetz, Oistrakh effectively recorded all major violin concerti of the nineteenth century. In later years Oistrakh exhibited a special affinity for the music of Brahms, infusing the three violin sonatas with richly expressive lyricism.
An almost daily appetite for new music led Oistrakh to develop close relationships with several composers; during his lifetime he premiered works of Sergei Prokofiev, Khachaturian, and Shostakovich (who dedicated both of his violin concerti to Oistrakh). The prodigious violinist was uncommonly adept at conveying the variety of moods embedded in Shostakovich’s music. Anguish, desolation, grotesqueness, folk-song playfulness—all such ambiences and emotional states flowed naturally and with authenticity from Oistrakh’s instrument.
Oistrakh was a soloist, a chamber musician (collaborating, for example, with pianists Lev Oborin and Sviatoslav Richter, and cellist Rostropovich) and, particularly in later years, a conductor. On the conductor platform he was most at home with violin concerti, the repertoire with which he was most familiar.
Musical Legacy
As a teacher, Oistrakh encouraged positive self-criticism and worked toward the cultivation of the student’s specific talents. He also warned against the dangers of interpretive narrowmindedness and the allure of virtuosity for its own sake; he perceived in such pitfalls the potential for the profanation of music. Indeed the extraordinary musical vitality of Oistrakh was never compromised by showiness or sentimentalism. A modest man, he revered the intellectual and emotional insights of the composer whose work was on his music stand, and he sought to form an interpretation untainted by overpersonalization. Perhaps here lies the source of Oistrakh’s tremendous success: His humility allowed him to communicate the inherent universality of the music. The unpretentious beauty and genuineness of expression of his art are still widely celebrated today.
Principal Recordings
albums:Trio for Piano and Strings No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 100—Franz Schubert, 1947; Beethoven: String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, Op. 74—Harp, 1951; Brahms: String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 51, 1952; Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19, 1952; Mozart: Sonata for Violin and Piano in B-flat Major, 1956; Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35—Tchaikovsky, 1960; Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77, 1961; Haydn: Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello, 1961; Beethoven: Sonata for Violin and Piano, No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24—Spring, 1962; Violin Concerto—Paul Hindemith, 1962; Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola in E-flat Major, 1963; Beethoven: Romance for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 40, 1966; Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Op. 47, 1966; Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major, 1970; Beethoven: Violin and Piano Sonata, No. 7 in C Minor, Op. 30, 1974; Mozart: Sonata for Violin and Piano in F Major, 1974; Schubert: Sonatina for Violin and Piano in G Minor, Op. 137, 1974; Schubert: Violin and Piano Sonata in A Major, Op. 162, 1974.
Bibliography
Roth, Henry. “David Oistrakh.” In Violin Virtuosos: From Paganini to the Twenty-first Century. Los Angeles: California Classics Books, 1997. A short essay that serves both as biography and as critique in this collection of essays by Roth. Includes photographs.
Soroker, Yakov. David Oistrakh. Jerusalem, Israel: Lexicon Publishing House, 1982. Written by a former student of Oistrakh, this biography reveals the Russian maestro through the use of letters, memoirs, and interviews. Includes a chronology and a discography.