COMPOSERS: Stravinsky/Mozart
LABELS: Philips Collector
WORKS: Violin Concertos
PERFORMER: David Oistrakh (violin); Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux/ Bernard Haitink
CATALOGUE NO: 434 167-2 ADD (1963)
One of the greatest violinists of the century, David Oistrakh had a repertoire which extended from the Baroque to the work of composers like Shostakovich who were his contemporaries. Stravinsky’s neoclassical concerto is an ideal vehicle for his dazzling technical skill and he turns in a well-integrated performance which does as much justice to the work’s lyricism as its spiky virtuosity.
There is plenty of sparkle too in Mozart’s early First Violin Concerto, which in Oistrakh’s hands sounds more substantial than it is. The slow movement is lovely and the cadenzas stunning. Haitink provides first-rate support and the recordings wear their years lightly. David Michaels