Fresh from my Shafran
marathon (more to come) Aulos now
sow fresh seed with David Oistrakh.
His early post-war discs have received
currency and labels such as Doremi have
been doing fine work in this field but
it’s always good to welcome well-engineered
newcomers and this is one such.
That said the selection,
under the rubric David Oistrakh plays
Devil’s Violin, is more than slightly
unfocused. The bulk of recordings date
from 1947 sessions but there are also
two sonata movements (live) with Richter
from 1972, the Tartini (which gives
the disc its putative title) from 1956
and the exquisite Gluck from 1949. Only
a solitary cough betrays that the Beethoven
is a live recital – though one can tell
from Oistrakh’s tone, fatter and with
greater spread, that this is late Oistrakh,
even though his vibrato in the Schubert
is still capable of exceptional speed
when necessary. When we step back to
his immediate post-War discs however
we hear the truly great player. His
Bartók has saucily whistled harmonics
and the tone has a smoky allure, the
technique in the devilish driving sections
as good as anyone’s. Vocalise
is here – one of his favourite encores
– though you might need a slight treble
cut (the original engineering was rather
bright and tiring). His Kreisler is
silkily phrased, the Wieniawski tossed
off with imperturbable wit though in
the 1960s he tended to play Widmung
with a heart stopping sense of exultation.
Back in 1947 he favoured more classical
restraint and it doesn’t quite take
wing.
His baroque showpieces
are of course powerful and magnetic
violinistically. The Vitali starts slowly
but has great delicacy as well as ranging
moods and power (though Melodiya preserved
a bad edit at 6.37 which Aulos hasn’t
been able to remove). Yampolsky, even
here, where he’s supposedly over shadowed
proves an accompanist of great skill
and colour. The Tartini is grandly conceived
and in the romantic manner with a glorious
cadenza. We finish with his Gluck; his
slides here are almost as many as in
his Vocalise. And it’s very true
to say that he conveys in the Gluck
a rare sense of delicacy, tranquillity
and vocalised intimacy. No wonder professionals
still love him or that he remains so
revered a figure.
This is a slightly
uneven selection – it doesn’t make for
logical programming – but adherents
won’t need a second invitation to acquaint
themselves particularly with the 1947
selection. Aulos’ transfer system is
excellent, albeit they haven’t quite
tamed the strident sound of the Russian
originals. But they do need to get a
proper English translator for their
notes. That aside, pure pleasure.
Jonathan Woolf
David Oistrakh (violin) 
