“No one has ever played the violin like that,” exclaimed Jackques Thibaud when he heard the violinist play. “Leonid Kogan doesn’t play the violin, he creates music on it”, said another prominent violinist Isaac Stern. Kogan’s artistic activities was incredible, just like the geography of his concert performances – from the United States to New Zealand, and his all-embracing repertoire – from Bach and Paganini to Shostakovich and Berg. Whatever Leonid Kogan played, his inspired artistry and emotional energy carried the listeners away making them give in to the power of impression and deeply feel a living pulse of each composition. That is why the violinist preferred live performances to studio recordings. There’s no contemporary violinist who would go past the Brahms and Tchaikovsky violin concertos now – nor did Leonid Kogan who performed them on a number of occasions with different orchestras. His performance of the Brahms concerto at Carnegie Hall was a particularly thrilling experience as it was his debut in the United States. However, the triumph of the Soviet violinist was indisputable. The concerto was recorded with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Monteux. The Tchaikovsky concerto was recorded during Kogan’s recitals in Paris in 1959. It was the violinist’s third coming to the French capital (he debuted there in 1955 to an enthusiastic response of the demanding audience). Le Figaro wrote: “With closed eyes, one could feel a real wizard playing before you”. The Tchaikovsky concerto is performed with the Paris Conservatory Concert Society Orchestra conducted by Constantin Silvestri.
