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Editorial Reviews

This isn't the transcendent recording of Brahms' "Violin Sonata in D minor" by David Oistrakh. That was the 1968 live recording with Sviatoslav Richter, a performance so sublime that women sob and men weep during the Adagio. This is merely the very, very great recording of the "Violin Sonata in D minor" by David Oistrakh. This is the 1955 live performance with pianist Vladimir Yampolsky, a performance of deep melancholy and profound consolation, a performance of heartrending beauty and ineffable tenderness, a performance of almost unequaled grace and power. Oistrakh plays with such purity of tone, such perfection of technique, and such exquisite expressiveness that almost no other recording can touch it. But great as this recording is, the 1968 recording simply goes further into the essence of Brahms' compassion and sorrow and expresses it with such consummate mastery that even so great a recording as this is but a shadow of its Platonic ideal. A very, very great performance of the D minor, but not the greatest performance of the D minor ever recorded by Oistrakh. James Leonard, All Music Guide

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