The Oistrakh Trio’s
recordings are an important part of
the violinist’s discographic legacy
and it’s good to see Doremi picking
up on the Tchaikovsky, a work I don’t
believe Preiser has (yet) included
in their first-class trawl through
the Melodiya back catalogue of this
august ensemble. Otherwise the trio
and quartet recordings of the late
1940s and early 1950s remain under-appreciated
even by admirers of the violinist,
an impression only increased by the
greater celebrity and relative ubiquity
of the recordings of that other stellar
post-War Soviet ensemble, the Gilels-Kogan-Rostropovich
trio. Indeed this 1948 Oistrakh traversal
of the Tchaikovsky trio was pretty
comprehensively eclipsed by the later
recording by their friendly rivals
– a performance, it has to be said,
of astonishing power and conviction.
Still, this earlier
reading has more than its share of
moments. Tempi are fluid and forward
moving and tempo relationships, not
least in the variations of the second
movement, are splendidly controlled.
Timbral matters are assured, the two
string players blending and shading
their tones and there’s plenty of
warmth, both in ensemble and individually.
Oistrakh frequently floats his tone
with marvellous affection, the less
effusive Knushevitzky shadowing and
answering with great sensitively.
Oborin plays with accustomed assurance
- and the most judicious balancing
of chords into the bargain. The climax
of the first movement is graded with
great perception and the variations
of the second are characterised with
colour and feeling – note the drone
passages, the sturdy fugato and the
passionate approach to the funeral
march.
All this is worthy
of the highest commendation. The recorded
quality however is rather dampened
down and airless. Certainly these
are rather difficult 78s from which
to work but it seems to me that the
battle between conservation of treble
airiness and reduced surface noise
has been tilted rather decisively
toward the latter. As such there are
moments when you will wonder how much
you’re missing from the originals;
I think rather too much.
There are some weighty
bonuses from around the same time.
The Méditation is charismatic
and superbly done; bewitching slides,
some in daringly rapid succession,
and very evocative - in slightly more
open sound as well. We also have the
Waltz –Scherzo which features
brilliantly light bowing and electric
trills as well as much obvious warmth,
and to finish, with Kondrashin, the
Sérénade Mélancolique.
This is the earliest of the recordings,
from 1945, and rather dim sounding
though as was almost invariable with
Russian discs of the time the violin
is boldly spotlit at the expense of
some orchestral detail. Despite that
it’s again rather over-filtered for
my taste.
This is the sixth
in Doremi’s continuing Oistrakh edition.
I can certainly recommend that interested
readers acquaint themselves with the
Trio performance and enjoy, if they
can and budgets stretch that far,
systematic comparison with the Kogan-led
performance. Some worries about the
filtering, few about the performances.
Jonathan Woolf
David Oistrakh (violin) with 
