The David Oistrakh Centenary at the Kennan Institute was opened with a string performance by Jonathan Carney, Concertmaster, and Igor Yuzefovich, Assistant Concertmaster, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.



Victor Yuzefovich, musicologist and art critic, and former Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center, then spoke about the legacy of David Oistrakh. He prefaced his lecture by noting that he had been personally acquainted with the great maestro himself. It was this direct contact, as well as the collected testimonies of Oistrakh's family and friends, that formed the basis of V. Yuzefovich's forthcoming book on Oistrakh, co-authored with the maestro's son, Igor Oistrakh.



Born in the multiethnic and culturally diverse Odesa in 1909, David Oistrakh received his first toy violin when he was only three years old. Then, the little boy dreamed of becoming a street performer. He was given his first real violin in 1914 at the age of five. It was at this young age that he made his debut at the students' matinee performance of Petr Stoliarskii School – a "talent factory" of the day. Oistrakh remained faithful to the training he received there throughout his career. After graduating from the Odesa Conservatory, Oistrakh performed his other great debut in Leningrad in 1928 – a success that paved his way to the Soviet capital, where he debuted in 1929.



"What was Oistrakh like as a violinist at that time? What really made Oistrakh—dubbed ‘Tsar David' by critics—as we know him?" asked V. Yuzefovich. "His immense creative will, desire, ability to work hard, and urge for self-perfection as a musician" were the key components that made the phenomenon of David Oistrakh, V. Yuzefovich said. By 1929, he was already playing in all major concert halls of the country, as well as small towns and even collective farms. After his first victory at the 1935 All-Union violin competition, judged by Dmitrii Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, and other prominent musicians, Oistrakh entered the international music scene and solidified his renown with victories at the Henryk Wieniawski competition in Warsaw (1935) and the Eugène Ysaÿe violin competition in Brussels (1937). The triumph of his unique performances carried on as Oistrakh himself later became a judge for international competitions in Paris, Bucharest, Brussels, and numerous other cities. He also served as chair on the panel of judges for the Moscow Tchaikovsky violin competition, but he never adhered to the dogma that victories in grand music competitions establish great talents.



In 1943, he played concerts for besieged Leningrad dwellers. It was then and there that one of the great chamber ensembles of the 20th century was born – a piano trio including David Oistrakh, Lev Oborin, and Sviatoslav Knushevitskii. Following World War II, Oistrakh continued to impress international audiences, including Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, one of his fondest admirers. According to V. Yuzefovich, however, the Cold War held a tight grip over Oistrakh's ability to travel to Western Europe and the United States. In 1955 he was finally able to visit the U.S. He gave a performance at Carnegie Hall that was lauded by American music celebrities of the time to be one of the first "breaches in the Iron Curtain." American violin virtuoso Isaac Stern described Oistrakh as "a musician who did great honor to the violin with his playing."



Strict classicism, combined with a romantic view of the world, a slightly melancholic poeticism, and integrity of attitude toward the world are the distinctive features that V. Yuzefovich noted in Oistrakh's playing. It is often questioned whether the optimism of his style—ultimately a reflection of his people, according to V. Yuzefovich—causes his music to be devoid of any internal conflict. In truth, V. Yuzefovich contended, Oistrakh's music was not blind to the harshness of the age of Stalin and Hitler that surrounded him. Rather, "it was a glimpse into the perfect world that he envisioned," while living and working in a totalitarian country and managing to stay "unaffected by the corrosion of the 1930s and 1940s," V. Yuzefovich said.



Oistrakh's triumphs coincided with the peaks of Stalin repressions; music and politics were paradoxically intertwined. Although Oistrakh once confessed to Mstyslav Rostropovich that he was not a fighter, the famous violinist did stand up to authority by playing pieces by Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn in Third Reich Berlin in 1936, and by refusing to sign a letter from Soviet cultural elites reprimanding the Israeli government for inviting Jews to leave the Soviet Union for Israel in 1968. Despite such resistance, Oistrakh was never arrested, for "the power of music turned out to be stronger than the pressure of authorities," V. Yuzefovich claimed.



A talented conductor and professor of music at the Moscow Conservatory for 40 years, Oistrakh's indelible legacy was unmatched in the 20th century. "The Russian history of performing arts consists of wonderful artists who have attained great respect during their lifetime and who have left significant contributions in the development of techniques for playing instruments," V. Yuzefovich concluded. "There are few artists, however, whose artistry substantially impacted the musical art form, and, moreover, artistic culture as a whole. One of those rare persons was David Oistrakh."



A music performance by Carney and I. Yuzefovich completed the evening.