GREAT RECORDINGS phase 13

SHOWPIECES FOR VIOLIN & PIANO
by Debussy, Falla, Kodály, Suk, Tartini
Tchaikovsky, Wieniawski, Ysaÿe & Zarzycki
David Oistrakh & Vladimir Yampolsky

5 62914 2
(Angel: 5 62915 2)

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'The disc of encores is a well-planned and well-executed recital with playing that is as beautiful as one could imagine. It is to be warmly recommended to all lovers of fine violin playing. In the Tartini Sonata, strong playing throughout culminates in a most astonishing cadenza.' (Gramophone)

One of the greatest violinists of his time and a characteristic representative of the Russian school of violin playing, David Oistrakh (1908-1974) was a towering international figure in the middle decades of the 20th century.

He studied with Pyotr Stolyarsky in his native Odessa and after graduation from the Conservatory there he made his debuts in Moscow and Leningrad in his very early twenties. He was appointed a professor at the Moscow Conservatory in 1934 and his international career was launched when he won the Ysaÿe Competition in Brussels in 1937.

After the war, which he spent in Leningrad, he resumed his career and added to his already broad repertoire of concert and chamber works by playing new music written for him by, among others, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Khachaturian. This CD features recordings (issued originally on two LPs) of violin showpieces (including Tartini's spectacular 'Devil's Trill' sonata) made in the mid-fifties with Vladimir Yampolsky, Oistrakh's regular piano accompanist at that time.