Melodiya presents a set dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the great twentieth-century violinist David Oistrakh.

'The king of the violin, David Oistrakh’s road to music was a permanent and steady ascent to the musical Everest. He was recognized as violinist No.1 many years ago when the Soviet art entered the international scene for the first time'. These are the words of Evgeny Svetlanov before David Oistrakh's tribute concert.

Among the numerous celebrated violinists that the previous century gave to the world, David Oistrakh held a unique place. Dubbed by German music critics 'King David', he reigned over the violin world from the post-war years. 'Oistrakh is great not because he is a virtuoso, but because he is a genuine, inspired musician', wrote the press during his first visit to the USA in 1955. It is known that Oistrakh had to play his first recital at Carnegie Hall on the same day when Nathan Milstein and Mischa Elman performed in New York.

Thanks to Oistrakh’s intensive concert and studio activities of forty years, the amount of his recordings is incredible. He re-recorded a number of concertos and chamber works many times with different musicians and orchestras. The violinist’s repertoire covered music of three centuries – from Corelli and Tartini to Honegger and Shostakovich.

This set features recordings that captured the versatility of Oistrakh’s performing genius – from early phonographic records of the 1930s, when his triumphs at the competitions in Warsaw and Brussels made him a world class performer, to the never before released recital of 28 December 1972 when the artist performed onstage despite his serious heart disease. These are also ensembles with Konstantin Igumnov, Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, Abram Diakov and the legendary Beethoven Quartet; sonata cycles with the outstanding Lev Oborin and Frida Bauer who were Oistrakh’s partners of many years; and the recital of 8 February 1962 with the Moscow Philharmonic conducted by Kirill Kondrashin.

What makes this set particularly special is the recording of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sonata made together with the composer at his home in 1968, on the eve of the official premiere. The set also includes a recording of the premiere of Shostakovich’s Seven Poems by Alexander Blok that took place in 1967 in Moscow and featured Galina Vishnevskaya, Mstislav Rostropovich and Mieczysław Weinberg.