GREAT RECORDINGS phase 10

BRAHMS: VIOLIN CONCERTO
*VIOLIN SONATA No.3
David Oistrakh
Cleveland Orchestra/George Szell
*Vladimir Yampolsky

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'There is now scarcely any need to write about Oistrakh's performance of the Brahms Concerto, combining as it does such complete command of technique with deep maturity of interpretation, nor of Szell's particular gift as an accompanist, so that one need only say that both are on the finest form here.' (Gramophone)

The great Russian virtuoso violinist David Oistrakh (1908-1974) recorded the Brahms Concerto four times in the studio (and at least five live performances have been available on CD). This famous recording from 1969 was his last and arguably his best.

It came about through EMI's wish to match some of its great Russian instrumentalists with the superb Cleveland Orchestra and its long-time conductor, the Hungarian-born George Szell. In 1968, the pianist Emil Gilels recorded the Beethoven piano concertos with them, and the following year Oistrakh and Mstislav Rostropovich went to Ohio to record the Brahms string concertos (the Double Concerto, coupled with Beethoven's Triple, is already available as a Great Recording of the Century).

Oistrakh made only one recording of the third of Brahms's violin sonatas (in 1955 in Brussels, when he and his regular recital accompanist Vladimir Yampolsky were on tour). In 1958, when the original LP was released, it was hailed in Gramophone as 'a performance of real breadth and comprehension'.