David Oistrakh ‎– Play Concertos EMI Box

Box is complete with booklet and original EMI inner sleeves

Oistrakh’s debut outside of the Iron Curtain in the 1950s detonated an explosion in the music world. Everyone was talking about the brawny virtuoso whose Soviet recordings didn’t always do justice to his talents; here was a musician who could be mentioned in the same breath as Jascha Heifetz. In some ways, the two violinists were polar opposites. The stereotypes about Heifetz are that he was a consummate technician, albeit emotionally frigid, and often unable to connect with music that was deep – Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin, for example. He was all fire and no heat. Oistrakh is supposed to have had plenty of warmth and emotional intensity, but less interest in raising goosebumps with his technical abilities. Of course the truth is not as simple as that, but this comparison will serve to suggest why Oistrakh’s first Western appearances were regarded with such interest. Columbia (now Sony) was on hand to record him when he appeared in the United States, whereas his European appearances were used as an opportunity to hustle him in front of microphones belonging to EMI.