The phenomenon of David Oistrakh the “violinist No. 1” of the former USSR, has undergone extensive research. Almost all of his preserved recordings – and his performances were constantly recorded from 1932 to 1974 – have been released, albeit not given a scholarly systematization up till now. His artistry has served as the subject of reputable monographic works and doctoral dissertations. However, not one of these contains the answer to the crucial question: why is it that Oistrakh has always been and remained the first violinist?
Nonetheless, it is possible to give several answers to this question. The first one, which is heard very often in the lobbies of the Russian violin schools, sounds approximately the following way. The totalitarian era, during which the first half of Oistrakh’s artistic path coincided, had projected its own organization onto all the spheres of life. In each sphere of life it was necessary to bring out one solitary star, whereas all the others had to abide in his shadow. The choice fell on Oistrakh, as in the beginning of the 1930s the competing generation had not grown up yet. Hence, as it was supposed, the careers of his young competitors were deliberately ruined. In reality, it was not so: his younger contemporaries – Goldstein, Gilels and Fichtenholz had various reasons, albeit quite different ones, to take up those positions in the history of the art of violin playing which they have assumed and still hold up to the present day. The fact that after Stalin’s death Oistrakh was compelled to share the laurel wreath of top ranking with Leonid Kogan is no more than a coincidence.
A more truthful answer is deemed by us to be the following. The sole teacher of Oistrakh, one of the grandest world virtuosos of the 20th century, was Pyotr Solomonovich Stolyarsky, an outstanding pedagogue of the violin for children, the founder of the famous Odessa music school. Some people may consider this fact to indicate a lack of education. Still, this seeming “drawback” did not hinder, nonetheless, for the artist to turn the attention of the musical community on himself as early as the late 1920s, and to win a number of prizes, one by one, and later, upon becoming the first violinist in the USSR, to engage in broad teaching activities. Having had the luck of escaping the destiny of a “child prodigy” and the focus on pure virtuosity in his career growth (as did Sviatoslav Richter), as a result of his unique artistic discipline, Oistrakh developed his own unique style of performance. Similarly to his teacher Stolyarsky, Oistrakh possessed an exceptional will power and was able to set before him the solely right goals (in the context of his artistic individuality). The ability to calculate one’s energy and to be fully in possession of the sphere of one’s emotions should be intrinsic to each violinist. But only in the case of geniuses of the rank of Oistrakh this ability and possession reached virtually an absolute level. The development of the violinist’s talent went following an absolutely straight line, in which the surges and descents were practically imperceptible.
Judging by the recordings, both the studio and the broadcasting ones, with the passing years the style of Oistrakh veritably did not undergo perceptible change, merely perfecting itself from inside, “from the depth,” reaching its peak during the 1950s and 1960s, when the violinist engaged himself seriously in conducting.
Oistrakh’s concert performances in Russia and abroad, not to mention his recordings, always produced a great impression on his audiences: deviations from his extremely high standard, set by the violinist himself, were practically unnoticeable. The “ultimate objectivity” of his renditions (with his extremely broad repertoire) created a twofaced sensation: on one hand, it was an ideally perfect interpretation in terms of style and technique, and on the other hand, the personal approach of Oistrakh was always very perceptible in this interpretation: the artist’s scale of personality was all too great. On stage Oistrakh was distinguished by an enviable longevity.
Oistrakh always remained singular, isolated and inaccessible, even when other violinists appeared on the stage who earned their renown in the post-war period – Leonid Kogan, Yulian Sitkovetsky, and later – Igor Oistrakh, Mikhail Vaiman, Pikaizen and Klimov. At the close of his career in the early 1970s Oistrakh still continued to play in full force, when an extremely young generation of violinists appeared on stage – Gidon Kremer, Oleg Kagan, Mark Lubotsky, Victor Tretyakov and Vladimir Spivakov. It is difficult to overestimate the influence of Oistrakh as a teacher and artist on the mentioned musicians.
Feodor Sofronov
