David Oistrakh Brahms Sibelius Tchaikovsky
User Reviews
5 Stars Holy Grail
Oistrakh has always been my favorite violinist, I refer to him as the voice of god because of his musicality, lush tone, expressive vibrato, and the ability to create musical drama. Emotion seems to gush out of his instrument willingly. The playing on these videos aren’t always perfectly in tune and not always executed consistently without rubatos (like the chord sequence of the Brahms), but this is still an awesome display of how Mr. Oistrakh made all those gorgeous sounds. For many people like me, this video was unattainable or unknown for a long time so when it was reissued as a DVD it is sort of like finding the holy grail, a wonderful thing. So for me, this one was a must buy.
I can’t help but to wonder how much more footage there is out there of Oistrakh that hasn’t been released yet. If they keep releasing more footage of oistrakh, I will definitely keep buying them.
I have alot of emi dvds and about half of them don’t work anymore not because of anything I did. I was never able to record them in case something happened because there is some kind of anti copy thing on the dvd that wont let you record. Another reason I wanted to record the dvds I buy that have the emi red label on them is because I have to keep hitting the play button at the beginning of every video clip. I don’t want to have to do that, I just want to put it in and have it play without having to do anything at all.
5 Stars What a sound!
This DVD might be said to contain definitive Oistrakh performances of the Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius violin concerti. The reason has 80 per cent to do with the sound–monophonic, but of such excellent and satisfying quality that, as music-writers would say, “stereo is hardly missed”. The black-and-white images of Soviet orchestras–grainy and static though they be–serve to deepen the sound and even, in their way, to give a nostalgic glimpse of a bygone era. At such a fair price, the DVD is a “must” for admirers of Oistrakh, lovers of the violin, fans of music and adepts of history.
5 Stars Not for computers
I’ve noticed that reviews that complain about defective DVDs usually get inundated with negative responses. Since nearly every word out of my keyboard gets that, I might as well plunge on. This DVD has something called a DVD-ROM built into it. I didn’t try it. It’s supposed to allow you to print out a booklet of info presumably about the music and David Oistrakh. However, the DVD itself will not play right on a computer, which is where I usually watch DVDs. When you click on play the whole program, it plays the first piece (numbered the 2nd), then shows the title of the 2nd piece, but plays a snippet of the last piece and then cuts off and goes on to the 3rd piece (the Brahms). I spent years unsuccessfully trying to correct this and gave up. However, each selection has its own title in the “menu,” and by clicking on each title individually, you can hear the music okay. It just won’t play the whole DVD from beginning to end. I thought the thing was defective but decided not to return it, very inexpensive and I could always adjust, then got an idea, took it home and played it on a regular DVD player and it played perfectly. My friend who is a computer tech explained to me why this happened, but it went over my head. I’ll just watch it at home and be content. None of the other reviewers mentioned this, so I thought I would. And yes, the sound was fine, the picture was clear as water, the music was beautiful and Oistrakh was brilliant. His fingers flew over the strings, his slurs were perfect, his bow was straight as an arrow and (in accord with Menuhin’s dictum), his thumb was just even with the fingerboard. It was wonderful.
4 Stars King David of the Violin
I’d liked to say that I agree with Nabih Bulos’ comments on this excellent release. I found the sound and the video quality to be both quite good (although it’s all, of course, in mono sound and black and white). This is taking into consideration the source of almost all of the material, which is from the Soviet Union of the late 1920s (!) till the mid to late 1960s. I was amazed at the good quality of the oldest material, showing us a young and trim Oistrakh playing brilliantly. The three great concertos on this disc are all very well performed by both soloist and orchestra. The Sibelius receives a passionate reading, as does the Brahms and Tchiakovsky. A nice little extra is a very brief moment showing Shostakovich in the appreciative audience of the Tchiakovsky. The only caviet is a quibble since it’s about the very short extra material from Japan of a “rehearsal” of Beethoven’s “Kretizer” Sonata. It’s very ironic that this non-Soviet material is the only clunker in what is overall an excellent DVD of a great violinist, King David Oistrakh.
5 Stars A must have for violinists
Every violinist needs to watch this – you can go to concerts your whole life and never hear and see these great works played so brilliantly!
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