Musicians - David Oistrakh

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	Musicians - David Oistrakh

David Fiodorovich Oistrakh (Russian: Давид Фёдорович Ойстрах; September 30, 1908 – October 24, 1974) was a Jewish Soviet violinist who made many recordings, and was the dedicatee of numerous violin works.

He was born in Odessa, Ukraine, and studied violin as a child with Stolyarsky in Odessa, making his debut there at the age of 6. He then continued his studies with Stoliarsky at the Odessa Conservatory (1923-26) and appeared as soloist in Glazunov's Violin Concerto under the composer's direction in Kiev in 1927.

His recordings and performances of Shostakovich's concerti are particularly well known, but he was also a performer of classical concerti. He worked with orchestras in Russia, and also with musicians in Europe and the United States. Another famous recording is the one he made of Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich. The violin concerto of Aram Khachaturian is dedicated to him, as are the two violin concerti by Dmitri Shostakovich.

Oistrakh received his first and only training from the violin pedagogue Pyotr Stolyarsky. Contrary to popular belief, Oistrakh was not a born virtuoso. He actually started by playing viola in the Conservatoire orchestra. Only a couple of months later he rose to the level of soloist and made his debut playing the Bach A minor concerto with the orchestra. A year later, he made his debut as a solo recitalist. He toured Russia for the next two years, and finally made his Leningrad debut on the Tchaikovsky violin concerto.

In 1936 Oistrakh won second prize at the Wieniawski Competition, losing to the 15-year-old Ginette Neveu. This further dispels the myth that Oistrakh was a born virtuoso. He finally made a mark on the international scene by capturing top prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition (then known as the Ysaÿe Competition) in Brussels. Oistrakh's career was set from this point, except for one small hitch - the Soviet Union was ultra-protective of its people and refused to let him leave. He continued to teach in the Moscow Conservatory, but when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he went to the front lines and played for the troops to keep morale up.

For around ten years, Oistrakh played the 1702 Conte di Fontana Stradivarius that he traded for the 1715 Ex Marsick Stradivarius in June 1966. He was a well respected pedagogue, who spent his formidable years on the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory among such greats as Yuri Yankelevich and Boris Goldstein.

David Oistrakh was the father of violinist Igor Oistrakh and the greatfather of violinist Valéry Oistrakh. The two made numerous recordings together.

He passed away while in Amsterdam in 1974. His remains were returned to Moscow where he was interred in Novodevichy Cemetery.

David Fiodorovich Oistrakh (Russian: Давид Фёдорович Ойстрах; September 30, 1908 – October 24, 1974) was a Jewish Soviet violinist who made many recordings, and was the dedicatee of numerous violin works.

He was born in Odessa, southern Ukraine, and, initially known as David Kolker, he took the name of his stepfather, an amateur violinist himself who also owned a basement shop in the town. Oistrakh's mother, Isabella Stepanovka, was also a musician, singing at the state Opera House where she often took her young son to hear the orchestra. At the age of five, young David began studying violin and viola seriously with the local teacher, Piotr Stolyarsky, amongst whose other pupils was the great Nathan Milstein, with whom he was to share his first concert appearance in 1914, when Milstein graduated from the Conservatoire. Having made his debut in Odessa at the age of 6, Oistrakh entered the Odessa Conservatory in 1923 where he studied until 1926 - here he played the Bach A minor Concerto. His 1926 graduation concert consisted of Bach's Chaconne, Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata, Rubinstein's Viola Sonata and Prokofiev's D major Concerto. He appeared as soloist in Glazunov's Violin Concerto under the composer's direction in Kiev in 1927 - a concert which gave him an invitation to play in Leningrad with the Philharmonic Orchestra under Nikolai Malko the following year.

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