How many listeners are looking for a great recording of Dvorák's Violin Concerto? Probably not many: the race to write the most popular nineteenth century Central European Violin Concerto was won by Beethoven's epic and Brahms' dramatic concertos, while Dvorák's lyrical concerto came in a distant fourth after Mendelssohn's elfin concerto. How many listeners are looking for a great recording of Glazunov's Violin Concerto? Probably even fewer: the race to write the most popular nineteenth century Russian violin concerto was won by Tchaikovsky's sparkling concerto while Glazunov's charming concerto came in a distant second. And how many listeners even thought of looking for a great recording of Kabalevsky's Violin Concerto? Probably next to no one: the race to write the most popular twentieth century Russian violin concerto was won by
Prokofiev's glowing and
Shostakovich's glowering concertos and Kabalevsky's folksy concerto came in a distant fourth after
Khachaturian's epic concerto.
But if any listeners are looking for great recordings of Dvorák's, Glazunov's, and Kabalevsky's concerto, they need look no further than this disc featuring
David Oistrakh, the best Russian violinist of the middle years of the twentieth century. Recorded at an indeterminate time in the early '50s,
Oistrakh's Dvorák concerto is evanescent and ethereal, his Glazunov concerto is affectionate and radiant, and his Kabalevsky is essentially definitive, conducted as it is by the composer himself. With the
State Symphony Orchestra led by
Kiril Kondrashin in the Dvorák and Glazunov, and, of course, Kabalevsky in the Kabalevsky,
Oistrakh's accompanists are among the most capable available. And with Preiser's sometimes dim, occasionally dull but always honest sound,
Oistrakh's recording was better than one would have believed possible for the time, place, and circumstances.