This is an important release, representing two of the world's greatest soloists caught live during the historic Russian Festival in London in 1965. The great violinist David Oistrakh (1908-1974) first appeared in Europe in the early 1950s and made his US debut in 1955. Oistrakh gave first performances of concertos by Khachaturian, Maiskovsky and Shostakovich as well as collaborating with Prokofiev in the 2nd Violin Sonata. He died in Amsterdam in 1974. The cellist Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-), like Oistrakh, started to travel to the West in the 1950s and made his London debut in 1956 and his US debut at Carnegie Hall the same year. In 1970, he openly attacked the Soviet restrictions on cultural freedom and as a result his travels to the West were curtailed. Only in 1974 was he officially allowed to leave the Soviet Union and set up in the UK.

 

David Oistrakh's 1961 performance of Brahms Violin Concerto with the LPO has already appeared on BBC Legends (BBCL41022) and received excellent reviews. The memorable performance recorded here is being released because in the autumn of 1963, London played host to a series of unforgettable concerts given by a remarkable team of Soviet artists (a forerunner of London’s 1965 Russian Festival) including David Oistrakh and the first visit of the Moscow Philharmonic to the capital under Kyrill Kondrashin. The recording has been sourced from outside the BBC archive.

 

The collaboration of Oistrakh and Rostropovich produces a great performance which was filmed at the time by the BBC and later issued as a DVD by IMG/EMI. David Nice wrote in his note on the DVD that "the fact that Oistrakh appeared as controlled as ever is belied by so many outstandingly passionate sequences to which conductor Kyrill Kondrashin contributes...moments such as these bear out Oistrakh's attitude towards "high artistic mood" in performance which he lamented could never be recreated in the studio". The recording has been sourced from the British Library Sound Archive.

 

 

The Russian National Anthem / Brahms: Violin Concerto - Recorded: Royal Festival Hall, London, 19 September 1963
Brahms: Double Concerto - Recorded: Royal Albert Hall, London, 9 October 1965