"King David" was the nickname given to one of the most famous violinists of the USSR, David Oistrakh. He introduced the Soviet audience to many violin compositions, including those from the 20th century. One such discovery was recorded by "Melodiya" in 1962. The Violin Concerto No. 1 by Béla Bartók and the Violin Concerto by Paul Hindemith are now available in digital format.
The work on the Soviet premieres of Bartók's and Hindemith's Violin Concertos in the 1960s can be seen as a logical continuation of David Oistrakh's earlier projects. In the 1940s, he conceived the cycle of concerts "Development of the Violin Genre," where works by Stravinsky, Sibelius, Khachaturian, Bartók, and Hindemith were first heard in the USSR.
Bartók and Hindemith were experimental composers often performed together. Both had a significant influence on 20th-century music and remained distinct from major trends. Bartók was called a "restrained expressionist," with music directed inward towards introspection. Hindemith composed romantic, expressionist, and neoclassical works.
Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 1 was written in his youth in 1908. He dedicated the composition to the Hungarian violinist Stefi Geyer, whom he was in love with. The concerto is notable for its form: two contrasting parts instead of the classical three, representing two "portraits." The slow, elegantly mysterious music depicts Stefi Geyer, while the fast, grotesque music portrays Bartók himself. The manuscript of the concerto was revealed in 1956 after the composer's death, and David Oistrakh became the first Soviet violinist to perform it.
Hindemith's Violin Concerto appeared in 1939, a period when the composer often turned to compositions for large orchestra. A violinist and remarkable violist, as well as a longtime member of the famous "Amar-Hindemith" quartet, Hindemith used the expressive and technical possibilities of the violin in his own distinctive manner.
