David Oistrakh, violin
London Symphony Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy, conductor
Maxim Shostakovich, conductor


Recorded: Royal Festival Hall, London, 19 November 1967 & 26 November 1972


David Oistrakh’s 1967 performance of Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with Eugene Ormandy conducting the LSO was the Western European Premiere of the work. This is a major historical document.

Since this was a Gala concert in aid of the LSO Trust, the Shostakovich performance was preceded by a Fanfare composed by Arthur Bliss and this has been included.

The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto from 1972, a work very much associated David Oistrakh, was performed during a Russian Festival in London’s Royal Albert Hall is conducted by Maxim Shostakovich, the composer’s son. This makes a great combination.

Both recordings are in very good stereo and David Oistrakh’s playing is sensational.

David Oistrakh has a large and varied BBC Legends catalogue including a later version of the Shostakovich Violkin Concerto No.2 with Svetlanov (BBCL40602).


“Shostakovich planned his Second Violin Concerto as a 60th birthday tribute to Oistrakh. …it's a splendid performance, and very well recorded, as we can hear already in the introductory Bliss Fanfare, an extraordinary contrast to the sombre Concerto. Oistrakh appears to command the stage effortlessly and to catch the mood exactly, whether it's the melancholy musings at the start, the fierce, declamatory interruption in the slow movement or the finale's cadenza, emerging in Oistrakh's hands as a mad devil's dance. ...the LSO sounds wonderfully confident and forceful... Barry Tuckwell's account of the prominent first horn part is quite magnificent.”
Gramophone Magazine, February 2010