David Oistrakh: The Complete EMI Recordings

For those who do not have a problem with shelf space, or those who have not yet collected much of Oistrakh's EMI legacy, this box really is a great deal.David Oistrakh was inarguably one of the 20th century's supreme artists. He won several major competitions in his life time (though, perhaps more famously, he finished 2nd to Ginette Neveu in the Wieniawski competition of 1935). He worked with many of the greatest artists of his day, was the dedicatee of several famous works, and Shostakovich wrote both of his violin concertos for him. The respect of his peers is evident in numerous writings, and many violinists of today view him as a role model. His influence on the next generation is large, having, at some point, taught many of the professional violinists to emerge from the USSR during his long tenure wth the Moscow Conservatoire. He received several awards from the Soviet state, most notably the Stalin Prize in 1942 following his performing on the front (there is a wonderful tale of him performing during the bombing of Stalingrad).The contents of this 17 cd box set includes an awful lot of top grade material available in other releases. These include:--  Brahm's violin concerto with Klemperer  and Mozart's Sinfonia concertante with Oistrakh on viola, his son Igor on violin.-- Mozart's violin concertos, released in two disks:  1 to 3  and  4 and 5 .-- The violin concertos of  Beethoven and Sibelius with Ehrling  (on Testament).-- The famous recording of  Beethoven's triple concerto  with Oistrakh, Richter and Rostropovich, released with Oistrakh's recording of Brahms' double concerto with Rostropovich.-- The box also includes Oistrakh's preferred recording of the double concerto of Brahms, his recording with Fournier. This comes in several releases. For instance, it is coupled with  Bruch: Violin concerto No.1 . It is also in an earlier  2 cd set  which includes Oistrakh's recordings of the Mozart violin concerto #3 (mentioned above), the Prokofiev violin concerto #2, and Brahms' triple concerto again, this time with long-time partners in crime, Oborin and Knushevitsky. (All of these recordings are also in the box set under review!)-- The "creator's" recording of  Khachaturian's violin concerto , with the composer conducting, Oistrakh being both the dedicatee and the author of the cadenza.-- A wonderful selection of  showpieces for violin and piano  with one of Oistrakh's most regular accompanists, Vladimir Yampolsky.I could go on; the above were pulled up in about 10 minutes. I suspect if I felt utterly compelled (and believed the reader had infinite patience!), then I could find releases of all of the works in this box from within the last 10 years or so. For the sake of the reader's sanity, I'll refrain!Now, the observant reader will have noticed there are several doublings in this set. None of the doublings are disappointments; in fact most of them are viewed as classics in their own right (another testament to Oistrakh's talent). Specifically, the doublings are-- 2 recordings of Beethoven's violin concerto: one with Cluytens, one with Ehrling (both are wonderful).-- 2 recordings of Beethoven's triple concerto: one by Oistrakh, Richter and Rostropovich with von Karajan conducting, the other by Oistrakh, Oborin and Knushevitsky with Sargent conducting (I admit I prefer the latter one).-- 2 recordings of Brahms' violin concerto: one with Klemperer, one with Szell (I like both, but in fact prefer a recording of the work by Szeryng).-- 2 recordings of Brahms' double concerto: with Rostropovich and Szell, the other with Fournier and Galliera (I agree with Oistrakh, the Fournier does seem better).-- 2 recordings of Mozart's violin concerto #3: the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Philharmonia Orchestra.Before ending this (to everyone's relief!), it would be remiss of me to fail to mention two more things. Firstly, Oistrakh gives a magnificent performance of the solo cadenza in the 3rd movement of Shostakovich's violin concerto #1. And secondly, the last disk provides a really excellent performance of Schubert's octet (this was released most recently by Monopole in 2007, only a year before this box set was released). In fact, much of the chamber work in this release is first rate.So to end this, what can I say? Those who own and love Oistrakh will already own much of what lies in this (not so) little box. For those, the benefit of purchasing this set lies in the fact that pretty much everything here appears to have been remastered relatively recently. For the rest, especially those in the process of building a quality personal collection, face up to the reality that you are always going to end up with an odd doubling or two, grab this opportunity by the scruff of the neck, and buy this great release by EMI.

As a lifelong fan of Oistrakh who has wandered the hall of many CD stores looking in vain for CD versions of his recording, I jumped at this and the Historial Russian Archives collection and am thrilled to have two such wonderful collections in my possession. The recordings are fabulous, the sound is fabulous, Oistrakh is magnificent. The only quibble I have is that whoever coded these pieces for the computer was very tired, very drunk, completely ignorant of the English language, or all of the above. The title of the series was mispelled. Entire CDs were completely mislabelled. For example, Beethoven's violin concerto in D was labelled Brahms Violin Concerto in D. A Sibellius violin concerto was labelled as a Dvorak violin concerto. A CD labelled "Mozart flute concertos" by the London Symphony orchestra was eventually revealed to be two MOzart Violin concertos and the Sinfonia concertante, played by David Oistrakh (with Igor Oistrakh helping out on the Synfonia) with the Berliner PHilharmoniker . . . about half the CDs in both collections were similarly mislabelled.I spent a fair bit of time listening to CDs and correcting the data entry so that I have the correct labels in my own computer and MP3 player.So if you buy either or both of these collections and intend to store them on your computer and MP3 player, BEWARE! Unless you are so familiar with all the pieces that it doesn't matter because you know what you're listening to and who is playing, or unless you really don't care if you know what or who you're listening to, you're going to have to go through the same process of re-cataloguing.Anyone who isn't mobile with their music won't be affected, but so many people are these days. And like it or not, these things do get shared and swapped, meaning that an unknown number of people are going to go through life believing that Brahms wrote the Beethoven Violin Concerto in D and so forth. One might say it serves them right for ripping off the record companies, however it also seems highly disrespectful of the artists and composers who are thereby not being admired for who they really are. It's disappointing that more care wasn't taken with these details.

I have been a collector of classical recordings ( no atonals included except Stravinsky)for over 45 years.I went through 78's, 45's and finally CD's. This past summer I purchased a season ticket to a segment of the presentations of a local International Music Festival. In addition to the season ticket presentations, I and my granddaughter(9 years old) attended many of the presentations of the students of the festival (200+ individuals). We had a wide exposure to all types of instrumentations. Myself, an unaccomplished pianist, fell in love for the first time with the violin and the other related strings. My grandaughter still leaned toward her piano but I sense a musical growth. To make a long story short I began a CD collection of violin selections and eventually fell under the spell of Hilary Hahn whom I have almost a complete collection. Early this year I had the opportunity to attend a much too short concert at the Nursing Home my wife resides in, given by the Daponte String Quartet( minus one: the second violinist was home with a brand new baby girl).SIDEBAR: The violist was a former chemistry "A" student of mine ( who said musicans can't count? ). After the music there was a question and answer session.I asked the cellist ( call him Myles ) whom he felt was the greatest violinest of the Twentieth century;( expecting Hilary). Without hesitation, he answered, " David Oistrakh ". Which led me to youtube and later to Amazon where I made thepurchase of a 17 CD collection of Oistakh, and which proved Myles' point. Hilary will be the best in the twentyfirst!

I agree with the rave reviews here of this marvellous box. It is a wealth of great music, superbly played by one of the very greatest of all violinists. I thought it might be helpful to post a list of (most of) the works included as there isn't one on this page:Beethoven:Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello in C major, Op. 56(with Lev Oborin, piano) & Sviatsolav Knushevitzky, cello)Piano Trio No. 7 in B flat Major, Op. 97 'Archduke'(with Lev Oborin, piano) & Sviatsolav Knushevitzky, cello)Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello in C major, Op. 56(with Sviatoslav Richter, piano) & Mstislav Rostropovich, cello)Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61(with Stockholm Festival Orchestra)Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61(with Orchestre National de la Radioffusion Française)Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 'Kreutzer'(with Lev Oborin, piano)Violin Sonata No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 12 No. 3(with Vladimir Yampolsky, piano)Brahms:Double Concerto for Violin & Cello in A minor, Op. 102(with Mstislav Rostropovich, cello)Double Concerto for Violin & Cello in A minor, Op. 102(with Pierre Fournier, cello)Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108(with Vladimir Yampolsky, piano)Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77(with Orchestre National de la Radioffusion Française)Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77(with Cleveland Orchestra)Bruch:Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26(with London Symphony Orchestra)Debussy:Clair de Lune(with Vladimir Yampolsky, piano)Falla:Jota(with Vladimir Yampolsky, piano)Franck, C:Violin Sonata in A major(with Vladimir Yampolsky, piano)Khachaturian:Violin Concerto in D minor(with Philharmonia Orchestra)Violin Sonata, Op. 1(with Vladimir Yampolsky, piano)Kodály:Three Hungarian Folksongs(with Vladimir Yampolsky, piano)Lalo:Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21(with Philharmonia Orchestra)Mozart:Violin Sonata No. 32 in B flat major, K454(with Vladimir Yampolsky, piano)Violin Concerto No. 1 in B flat major K207Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major, K211Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K216Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K218Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K219 "Turkish"Adagio for Violin and Orchestra in E, K261Rondo for Violin and Orchestra in B flat, K269(with Berliner Philharmoniker)Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola & Orchestra in E flat major, K364(with Igor Oistrakh, viola)Concertone in C for 2 Violins and Orchestra, K190(with Igor Oistrakh)Prokofiev:Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19(with London Symphony Orchestra)Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63(with Philharmonia Orchestra)Violin Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 94a(with Vladimir Yampolsky, piano)Schubert:Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat major, D898(with Lev Oborin, piano) & Sviatsolav Knushevitzky, cello)Octet in F major, D803(with Peter Bondarenko, Mikhail Terian, Sviatoslav Knushevitzky, Vladimir Sorokin, Joseph Gertovich, etc)Shostakovich:Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 99(with New Philharmonia Orchestra)

I have received the suite yesterday, Sir Oistrakh The Great Recording. The CD quality is very good, and the sound is excellent while playing with my Tannoy Prestige. I think Warner Classics no not apply things like noise reductions or equalizations to the CDs, this gives me the original tracks. That is also excellent! Thank you Amazon, I'm look for new tracks now!

Just for the famous Beethoven Violin & Triple Concertos, Brahms Double Concerto and Mozart Sinfonia Concertante plus more. Playing from the heart to the heart. Great value, great music

Very good

wonderful collections, reasonable price