David Oistrakh, Klemperer & French National Radio Orchestra - Brahms Violin Concerto, Beethoven Triple Concerto (2019) [SACD]

A pretend Catholic, Jewish-German conductor born in Pussia, now Poland, with a French orchestra & a Jewish-Ukrainian playing an Italian violin. The very best of several musical worlds – the result is an intensity of music-making that keeps me on the edge of my seat every time I listen to it…& that’s going on 40 years now.
Brahms’s 1st & only violin concerto was mocked as being not with but‚ against the violin. This cutting remark was less directed at the tricky passages, which made enormous demands on the technical dexterity from the even the greatest virtuosi, but rather more at the challenge of asserting his small violin against the large orchestra. It was not only the soloist who had to possess star qualities in this symphonic masterwork, but the orchestra too. Let us begin with the conductor Otto Klemperer, who here proves his highly competent command of the tightly knit score. His celebrated analytic comprehension delves deep into the complex score & brings all the details together to create a melodious entity, whereby the French National Orchestra play with total commitment. David Oistrakh answers with a saturated tone & broad gestures on the violin. He lets the expansive melodies of the gigantic 1st movement emerge with wide sweeps of his bow, fills the slow movement with a wealth of lyrical sentiment, & in the fiery last movement he displays his entire skill as a brilliant virtuoso who amalgamates dancelike exuberance with dramatic presence. A truly referential recording!
‘King David’ at his best, playing his Stradivarius ‘Comte de Fontana’ with the legendary trio he formed with Lev Oborin & Svjatoslav Knuschevitzky outperforms his last meeting with Richter & Rostropovich. Of this legendary trio of brilliant musicians, critics wrote “When you listen to them, you keep forgetting these are 3 musicians… It seems to be 1 heart, 1 soul.”