The best violin playing in the world. Famous classical violinists

Black Violin, Lindsey Stirling, David Garrett, Damien Escobar, Vanessa May, Alexander Rybak and other violinists popularizing the classical violin

Is the violin only for the Philharmonic? But no! Today we will tell you about 10 violinists, in whose hands this classic instrument becomes a tool for creating the most fashionable music in the world in the styles of R&B, funk, hip-hop, dubstep, Brit-rock, and acoustic fusion. If you hear a violinist who does not play classical music, then in the American style it is called crossover violin. You can be smart and don’t say thank you! Better yet, read and listen!

Black Violin– Q Marcus and Kevin Sylvester from the USA did not want to become violinists as children, however, life constantly brought them to the music class. That's how they met at Dillard High School of Performing Arts, and later their common instrument teacher helped create Black Violin. The group took its name in honor of the last album of jazz violinist Staff Smith, who had a great influence on the guys. Black Violin plays many styles, but they are called hip-hoppers due to the offset rhythms and beats in the tracks. In 2004, the group entered the Billboard hit parade by recording a track with Alicia Kiss. They also collaborated with Linkin Park, Kanye West, Tom Petty, Lupe Fiasco, Aerosmith and played at one of the inauguration balls of US President Barack Obama.

American violinist Lindsey Stirling Since childhood, I wanted to dance as much as music. All her life she has been proving to the world that sweeping batmans do not interfere with playing the violin. Judge for yourself. The violinist, who performs classical and R&B, also works in the genres of EDM and dubstep, and constantly participates in the talent shows America’s Got Talent and Dance Showdown. Lindsey Stirling found real fame on YouTube, where in 2012 the Crystallize video took 8th place in terms of views, and in 2013, a cover of Radioactive, jointly with Pentatonix, won the Answer of the Year nomination at the first YouTube Music Awards ceremony.

German David Garrett perhaps the most famous Western non-classical male violinist in Ukraine. His priorities are the synthesis of classical works with jazz, rock and folk compositions. The musician was born in Germany, and as a child he had a lot of fame in Europe as a promising classical performer, but he moved to the USA and entered Juilliard School. There he began creating his own arrangements, replaying famous rock compositions and performing with his own band.

Garrett also played on the same stage with opera singers Jonas Kaufman and Andrea Bocelli, Deep Purple guitarist Steve Maurice and American R&B singer Nicole Scherzinger. From 2007 to 2017 he recorded 13 studio albums. Happens often in Kyiv! Do not miss!

Damien Escobar from the USA he first took up the violin at the age of 8, and at 10 he was already accepted into the prestigious Juilliard School of the Arts. During Barack Obama's first inauguration, Escobar shared the stage with Jon Bon Jovi, Shakira and Beyoncé.

His second solo disc Boundless within 24 hours hit the top ten of the Billboard Classical Crossover Charts and the first lines of the R&B/Soul section in iTunes. Today the musician creates tracks at the intersection of classical, R&B, hip-hop and pop music. This style is called crossover violin. Some time ago, the performer presented his new program in Kyiv.

Vanessa Mae- a violinist from Great Britain, who is famous not only for stage success, but also for high-profile Olympic scandals, since from 2002 to 2014 she tried to perform in Salt Lake City under the flag of the Thai team and even performed in alpine skiing disciplines at the Olympics in Sochi, but was disqualified for falsifying the results.

Studied at the Royal College of Music. In the mid-1990s, her second studio album, The violin player, climbed the charts in more than 20 countries, and she was nominated for a BRIT Award for Best British Act, but did not receive it. During her musical career, she recorded a dozen and a half studio albums and released many singles in the “violin techno-acoustic fusion” style.

Edvin Marton, although he lives in Hungary, originally from Ukraine (Transcarpathian region), this violinist and composer studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, an Emmy Award winner, after winning a national competition, the Hungarian government entrusted him to play the 1697 Stradivarius violin. He wrote a lot of music for figure skaters' programs and performed at Eurovision in 2008 together with Dima Bilan and Evgeni Plushenko.

Israeli violinist Miri Ben-Ari lives in the USA. You could hear her violin, for example, in the album Intense by Armin Van Buuren. The artist has been nominated for a Grammy more than once, including for creating her own unique style at the intersection of jazz, R&B, hip-hop and classical music.

Lebanese Ara Malikyan lives in Spain. The area of ​​his creative experiments is the combination of folk music with classical forms. For example flamenco and Bach.

A Norwegian violinist and singer of Belarusian origin Alexandra Rybak, whom many know from his participation in Eurovision, has many more milestones in his career. For example, he received an educational scholarship as a talented violinist, at a fairly young age he already played in the Norwegian musical M. Harket, the vocalist of the group A-ha, performed with an orchestra and the song Fairytale in front of Nobel Prize laureates, and at Eurovision he broke all records for points scored ( 387, instead of the previous record of 292).

In Eurovision 2018 he took 15th place with the song “That’s How You Write A Song”.

Career of a Ukrainian violinist Denis Boeva, like many performers, began at 4 years old. He graduated from the Cherkassy Music College, the Kyiv Conservatory. P.I. Tchaikovsky, studied at the Nuremberg Conservatory, toured the USA with an ensemble of Ukrainian folk music. Rock began playing in the band The Brothers Karamazov. Today his violin can be heard in the tracks of Valery Meladze, the group VIA GRA, Ivan Dorn, and many other pop performers. He records music for the Inter TV channel, takes part in STB projects, and appears in videos for pop artists and films.

Denis Boev's solo program consists of covers in the styles of rock, folk rock, funk, pop, as well as works by modern Ukrainian composers. He sees one of his stage tasks as collaboration with modern Ukrainian composers, whose works do not belong to the style of pop music. For his next concert on May 29, you can buy tickets at all ticket offices in Kyiv.

Review: Daria Litvinova

Leader - Stradivarius?

The most famous violins are not only the most expensive or the best sounding. The rating of instruments also includes violins, which have become famous due to their unique design.

Is it worth asking the question, what are the most famous violins that sing in the hands of modern performers? Surely there will be only one answer - Stradivarius violins. As a last resort, they will be able to remember about Amati’s tools. Is it really?

Top 5 from the end

If we list the top violins, then 5-6th place is occupied not by works of ancient masters, but by modern instruments - electric violins made for the talented musician Stoppprd Linzi, who ordered them. The violins have a special sound and... a unique design, which explains the price - 2.2 million dollars. Each instrument contains 50,000 Swarovski crystals!

The next place in the ranking is occupied by the violin played by Niccolò Paganini himself. It came out from the hands of Guarneri del Gesù, an Italian master, in 1742. It was on this violin that Paganini performed his legendary concert, during which all his strings broke. For a long time they thought that this was just a beautiful legend. But it turned out that the violin exists! And a private buyer, who did not want publicity, purchased it for his collection for $5 million.

The Guarneri violin, created in 1741, takes an honorable third place. Currently, experts value this unique instrument at $7 million. But its owner, a Russian entrepreneur, once bought it for half the price.

Second place went to Stradivarius violins, one of which was sold for $9.8 million. The great master gave a name to all his children - that’s what he called the instruments - and his dearest daughter is called Lady Blunt. This instrument was made, one might even say performed, in 1721.

And in first place in the ranking is again the Guarneri violin - Vietan. It was brought to light by the brilliant violinist Niccolo Paganini. It is considered the most valuable not only in monetary terms, but also in sound. The price of the instrument is 18 million dollars. It is owned by the Belgian Eugene Ysaye.

Although Stradivarius violins take second place in the ratings, most modern performers prefer them. The instruments have a completely unique sound, and each Stradivarius violin can be identified by its voice. In total, the master made more than 1,100 instruments. Less than half have survived to this day.

Remembering the most famous violin makers and the most famous violins, one cannot help but recall the instruments made by the Russian serf master Ivan Andreevich Batov. Once upon a time, Nicollo Paganini’s rival, Karel Lipiński, played Batov’s instrument.

Batov restored many of the Stradivarius violins, which are now heard in the hands of Russian performers. Rumor has it that one of these instruments is ranked ninth in the world violin rankings. Its cost is 1.2 million dollars.

But you can still see that the majority of famous violins are violins made by Italian masters. And it is very pleasant that among the wonderful instruments there are those that passed through the hands of a Russian restorer.

The world of violin music knows many outstanding talents. All of them left their mark on history thanks to their virtuoso mastery of the instrument and are incredibly charismatic personalities. Their performances caused and still cause not only a pleasant thrill in the soul of the listener, but also endless admiration. Let's talk about five incomparable masters who top the “great violinists” rating. The list of them, of course, is conditional. After all, each era is famous for its musical standards and listener preferences.

Niccolo Paganini

The details of his career are known to few, but perhaps everyone has heard the name of this musician. He lived and worked during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, and his fame, like his contemporary, has overcome centuries. Niccolo Paganini was born in 1782 into a simple Italian family. At the age of five he began his musical education. First he mastered the mandolin, and a year later - the violin. Already at the age of 13, Paganini masterfully played the instrument and gave his first solo concert. He dreamed of raising money to continue his education in Parma. However, the teachers refused him, since the young violinist was already incredibly talented and had his own playing technique, which he hid for the rest of his life. He was not only a performer, but also a composer. At the age of 19, Niccolo won the title of first violin of the Duchy of Lucca. Paganini's tireless work and self-improvement, natural artistry and genius conquered first Europe and then the whole world. Many great violinists of our time recognize him as a master of classical music.

David Oistrakh

The 20th century showed the world a new musical genius in the person of David Oistrakh. He was born in 1908 in Odessa. Like his predecessor, he took his first steps in music at the age of five and made his debut on stage a year later. He graduated from the conservatory in his hometown. And soon he became not only a famous violinist, but also a violist, conductor, and teacher. He went through a bright, eventful, but difficult creative path. So, during World War II he continued to tour and performed for soldiers.

Oistrakh is considered one of the great violinists, of course, thanks to his undeniable talent, hard work and charm. He became the winner of many music competitions, winner of awards, laureate of the Stalin and Lenin Prizes.

Itzhak Perlman

It can be called modern, although Perlman’s life and musical path began in the last century. He was born in 1945 in Tel Aviv. His love for the violin began at age four after listening to a classical music concert on the radio. Perlman began his musical studies, and soon the young violinist himself began giving mini-concerts on the radio.

At an early age, Perlman suffered from polio, so he was forced to walk on crutches. The consequences of the illness affected the violinist’s playing style. He performs all his works while sitting.

Today, Perlman's achievements include victory in the prestigious American Leventritt Competition, five Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a well-deserved bronze in the "Great Violinists of the World" list.

Julia Fisher

It is difficult to argue with the statement that Julia Fischer is one of the most talented and charming violinists in the world. She was born on June 15, 1983 into an intelligent family. Her father was a mathematician, and her mother was a music teacher. But not at the insistence of her mother, but at her own request, Julia began to show a serious interest in music at the age of four, and at the age of 9 she entered the Munich Academy of Music. After winning the Eurovision music competition (Lisbon, 1996), her professional journey began.

In addition to the violin, Julia Fischer plays the piano masterfully. And since 2006 he has been a professor at the Music Academy in Frankfurt. By the way, in the entire history of the educational institution, she is the first person to receive such a high academic degree at such a young age (23 years old).

Among the achievements of the German violinist are also the Gramophone, ECHO-Classic, Diaposon d’Or, etc. awards. Every year she gives about a hundred concerts around the world, and her repertoire covers famous classical works that were previously composed and performed by great violinists. Among them: Bach, Vivaldi, Paganini, Tchaikovsky and others.

Vanessa Mae

Undoubtedly, the world's great violinists are virtuosos not only in performance, but also in musical understanding and improvisation. Therefore, the golden five cannot do without the famous Vanessa Mae. She became famous for her original technical adaptations of classical works, giving them new life and a new sound.

From the age of three, Vanessa began playing the piano. A little later she became acquainted with the violin. Royal College became her musical alma mater, where the violinist was the youngest student.

Vanessa Mae has been playing the electric violin since 1992. It was from this moment that her rapid creative rise began, which the violinist continues to this day.

P.S.

According to instrumental music lovers, these five masters occupy the top of the “Great Violinists of the World” ranking. The list, however, changes periodically and is replenished with new names. And, undoubtedly, it is good that the famous classics have a worthy replacement.

Any anthology, poetry or prose, any collection of essays about great musicians, composers or actors, always bears the stamp of taste of the author or compiler of this anthology. In Soviet times, some literary anthologies suffered (as did their authors and compilers) enormous and sometimes dangerous difficulties. It is enough to recall the history of only two literary collections: “Literary Moscow”, which was published only twice and was subjected to devastating criticism along with the authors published there, and another literary collection, “Tarussky Pages”, if I remember correctly, was published only once!

Books dedicated to music and musicians also bore the stamp of strict censorship and the indispensable “political correctness” of those years. Often, authors who had already prepared their books for publication could not publish their works, since the people about whom these works were written had no “value” in the eyes of the authorities and were, as they put it then, “impractical” for publication in wide editions . All this is now well known.

It is less known that foreign compilers of anthologies very often also followed the “logic of state expediency.” Even violin art was also strictly censored. I remember a book published in Germany in 1943 on the history of violin performance, where such historical figures as Joseph Joachim, Ferdinand Laub, Fritz Kreisler were not mentioned at all. Among the “non-Aryans”, the Frenchman Jacques Thibault barely “slipped through”! The most important luminary of all times and peoples in that book was the German violinist Willi Burmeister! Who knows and remembers this name today, except teachers of children's music schools, where children play some arrangements of ancient composers by this violinist, forgotten today?

I recently received a book by the famous Austrian musicologist Kurt Blaukopf, “The Great Virtuosi,” published in German in the mid-1950s. Even he, living in a country of relative freedom of speech, could not resist the temptation of being influenced by the “political correctness of those years” in his selection of “great virtuosos”, devoting quite a lot of space to the then popular Soviet violinist Igor Bezrodny, completely bypassing the names of such young virtuosos as Yulian Sitkovetsky , Igor Oistrakh, Eduard Grach, Rafail Sobolevsky, Nelly Shkolnikova and even Leonid Kogan! and some others. Perhaps the fact was that until the summer of 1955, Austria was still under occupation by three coalition allies in World War II. But this is just a guess. Naturally, any author-compiler is guided by his own taste and preferences, and also partly by the fashion of the time. Thus, Kurt Blaukopf devoted a lot of space to the Soviet violinist Igor Bezrodny, famous since the late 1940s, a truly exceptionally talented artist and one of the most “promoted” among his classmates and colleagues who studied at the same time in the class of A.I. Yampolsky.

In 1951, a 3rd year student at the Moscow State Conservatory, Bezrodny, received the Stalin Prize for “outstanding achievements in concert and performing activities,” which caused great bewilderment among the oldest professors of the Conservatory. The choice of the Austrian musicologist seems even more strange today. Bezrodny was a brilliant artist, a very talented musician, but was never a “great virtuoso” - he never publicly performed works by Henri Vietun, Niccolo Paganini, Pablo de Sarasate. Only once did he record Variations on a Theme of Rossini's Othello by G. Ernst on Moscow radio. The author did not include in his collection such a world-famous virtuoso as Leonid Kogan! In his best years, Igor Bezrodny performed excellently the Concertos of Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Taneyev's Suite, Chausson's "Poem", and Ravel's "Gypsy". Then the music authorities wanted to see him replace David Oistrakh. He, of course, did not and could not become a “replacement”.

So let’s take it for granted that all anthologies are compiled in accordance with the spirit of the time and the taste of the author, which, of course, makes the selection biased and sometimes biased. It should be noted in advance that the author was guided by the principle of publishing materials about the famous violinists of the last 20th century - long gone not only from the stage, but also from life. The history of young virtuosos of the 21st century (for example, Russian: Sergei Stadler, Vadim Repin, Alena Baeva, Nikita Borisoglebsky, Maxim Vengerov and Er.), presumably, will be written by researchers of a new generation.

1. Fritz Kreisler - the greatest violinist of the 20th century (“Virtuoso Concerto”)

Several years ago, an acquaintance sent me a short story by Hermann Hesse, “The Virtuoso Concert.” If you don’t know anything about Herman Hesse, then the reader may think that this short story was written by an immigrant from the “first Russian post-revolutionary wave” - the author (being maybe after admitting that he was given a ticket to the concert?). This feeling was strengthened by the fact that the author had a clear dislike for wealth in general and for the wealthy audience who gathered for the concert of the famous virtuoso, in particular.

An acquaintance of mine sent me a story so that I could answer the question – who is this famous virtuoso, whose concert is dedicated to Hesse’s story. It was not difficult for me to immediately identify the name of this artist, who influenced all violinists in the world without exception - the most famous and unknown - all violinists of the 20th century. But not only violinists, but even such a great artist as composer-pianist S.V. Rachmaninov. I told all this to my friend who sent me this text. Later, the temptation arose to let my friends and acquaintances - musicians and non-musicians - read this story for the same purpose for which the story was sent to me. To some extent, the answer to this question was an indicator of knowledge about the performing arts and its peaks in the past century. But first, let's take a little look at this not-so-well-known story, published in 1928. Here are the main excerpts from it.

“Yesterday evening I was at a concert that was significantly different from the concerts that I am used to listening to in general. It was a concert of the world-famous secular violin virtuoso, an enterprise, therefore, not only musical, but also sports, and, above all, social...” “The program, however, promised for the most part real music... There were wonderful things in it: the Kreutzer Sonata, Bach's Chaconne, Tartini's Sonata... These wonderful works filled two-thirds of the concert. Then, however, towards the end the program changed. There were musical plays with beautiful, promising titles, lunar fantasies and Venetian nights by unknown authors, whose names pointed to peoples who had not yet advanced in music... In a word, the third part of the concert was very reminiscent of the programs posted in the music pavilions of fashionable resorts. And the ending consisted of several plays that the great virtuoso composed himself. With curiosity I went to this evening. In my youth I heard Sarasate and Joachim play the violin... and was delighted with their playing..."

“Long before I reached the concert hall, it became clear to me by many signs that today we are not talking about what my friends and I call music, not about some quiet and fantastic phenomenon in an unreal, nameless kingdom, but about a very real matter. The events of this evening... powerfully set in motion engines, horses, wallets, hairdressers and everything else in reality. What happened here... was very similar to other powerful manifestations of life - the stadium, the stock exchange, festivals.” “It was difficult in the streets adjacent to the concert hall to break through the streams of rushing spectators, through the lines of cars...” “And already on the way... among hundreds of cars, all rushing, as one, to the concert hall, I received information about the great man, his glory pounced on me, penetrated my loneliness, and made me, who does not go anywhere and does not read newspapers, an astonished connoisseur of interesting details. “Tomorrow evening,” I heard, “he will already be playing in Hamburg.” Someone doubted: “In Hamburg? How will he get to Hamburg by tomorrow evening? "Nonsense! He will, of course, fly in an airplane. Maybe he even has his own airplane.” “And in the wardrobe... I learned from the lively conversations of my comrades that for that evening the great musician asked for and received fourteen thousand francs. Everyone mentioned this amount with reverence. Some truly believed that art was not only for the rich, but such a request was approved, and it turned out that most would be glad to receive tickets at a normal price, but that still they were all proud that they had paid so much. I was unable to understand the psychology of this contradiction, because my ticket was given to me as a gift.”

The violin is an amazing instrument. Mastering the art of playing it is difficult, but when the initial path is completed, you hear the enchanting sounds of the violin. For four years now I have been learning the secrets of mastering the violin. In addition to special subjects, our class hosts homework hours during which we get acquainted with the work of famous violinists of the past and present. We try to prepare information about the life and work of violinists ourselves, using the literature suggested by the teacher, as well as literature from the library collection. In the 2008-2009 academic year, the theme of the class hours was “Violinists - virtuosos of the 20th century.”

David Fedorovich Oistrakh is one of the brightest representatives of the outstanding Russian violin school. September 30, 2008 marked the 100th anniversary of his birth.

David Fedorovich Oistrakh

David Fedorovich Oistrakh was born on September 30, 1908 in the city of Odessa, where he spent the first 20 years of his life. He was born into the family of a modest employee and a chorus girl at the Opera House. We lived in a small, dark room with a lantern instead of a window. The financial situation was, as they say, below average. But peace and harmony always reigned in the family, everyone was friendly and, as befits true Odessa residents, cheerful and witty.

The father, Fyodor Davidovich, had a noticeable influence on his son as a man of high moral virtue, a strict teacher and an excellent family man. A decisive role in the life of the future violinist was played by his mother, Isabella Stepanovna. She often took little Dodik – that’s what everyone affectionately called him – with her to the Opera House. Standing in the orchestra pit next to the old maestro Pribik (chief conductor of the Odessa Opera), he listened to the music, spellbound. Dodik's mother noticed his heightened musical sensitivity very early. But his father gave him his first violin. True, she was not real.

This is how David Fedorovich himself recalls in his autobiographical notes “My Path”: “I was three and a half years old when my father brought a toy violin into the house, “playing” which I very willingly imagined myself as a street musician - a sad profession that was widespread in those days. years in Odessa. It seemed to me that there was no, and there could be no greater happiness than walking around the yards with a violin.”

“Playing as a street violinist fascinated me so much that when, at the age of five, I finally got my hands on a real eight-piece violin and began learning music, this activity completely absorbed me.” At the same time, little David met his future teacher, Pyotr Solomonovich Stolyarsky.

The first period of communication with the violin was not cloudless. Dodik was no different from his peers either in his irrepressible energy or his love of pranks; he participated in their noisy games and entertainment, and if his activities interfered with this, he cut the strings of his violin or the hair on his bow. After a series of failures, David Fedorovich’s parents finally found an effective remedy. If the child did not study, and especially if he treated his instrument with such disrespect, the mother did not take him with her to the theater. The desire to be close to the conductor again was so strong that I had to become prudent.

The first and only music teacher was Pyotr Solomonovich Stolyarsky. Pyotr Solomonovich was not yet old when Oistrakh studied with him, but by that time he had gained good fame as the teacher of many talented violinists, and enjoyed in Odessa not only boundless respect, but also sincere love. Stolyarsky introduced elements of play into classes, knew how to interest children, and encourage them to study this or that play. He knew not only the musical abilities of each of his students, but also his character, inclinations, and hobbies. Pyotr Solomonovich rarely picked up the violin while studying in class. He did not show how to play this or that musical phrase, but, listening to the play of little violinists, he very skillfully corrected their mistakes. It is no coincidence that among the graduates of the Stolyarsky school were such great violinists as David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein, Samuel Furer, and Elizaveta Gilels.

By that time, little David had shown undoubted talent. Recalling later his years of studying with his best student, Stolyarsky wrote: “Since childhood, he showed exceptionally brilliant abilities and moved with almost dizzying speed along the path of mastering the difficult skill of violin.” Little Oistrakh was distinguished by a thoughtful, serious attitude to his studies. It is a great art to be able to practice, and David Fedorovich mastered it from a young age.

David Oistrakh began performing in 1914. He made his debut at a student matinee, opening it as the youngest participant (he was then five and a half years old). The first performance with the orchestra took place in 1923. David Fedorovich was then already a second-year student at the Music and Drama Institute - that was the name of the Odessa Conservatory at that time. The following year, Odessa residents saw Oistrakh’s name on posters for the first time. They announced the violinist’s recital, the program of which included Bach’s Concerto in a-moll, Tartini-Kreisler’s “Devil’s Trills,” Sarasate’s “Gypsy Tunes” and several minor virtuoso pieces. It was then that a corner appeared in the Oistrakhs’ house in which his posters were hung.

Soon Oistrakh's touring activities began. Together with the student orchestra of the conservatory, he went on his first trip to the cities of Ukraine in 1925.

In 1926, David Oistrakh brilliantly completed his studies.

The years 1926-1928 were the time of his amazingly rapid creative development. Performances became more and more frequent, the geography of tours expanded, and the repertoire rapidly expanded.

Oistrakh's first successes were widely commented on by the Odessa press. Reviewers inform music lovers about the expansion of the creative interests of yesterday's student - a participant in almost all the concerts of the season. They admire the ease and crystal clarity of the violinist’s playing.

The year 1928 became a turning point in the life of David Oistrakh. It was marked by a move to Moscow for permanent residence. The further formation of David Fedorovich’s artistic personality was greatly influenced by the climate of the cultural life of the capital with its theaters, museums, exhibitions, and concerts.

The end of the 20s - the beginning of the 30s was the period of active concert performances by David Oistrakh. He performed in the largest cities of the Soviet Union with solo and symphonic programs. On January 23, 1929, his first concert in the capital took place in the Mozart Hall.

D. Oistrakh's first competitive victory was the first prize he won in Kharkov at the First All-Ukrainian Violin Competition (1930). Five years separated the First All-Ukrainian Competition from the Second All-Union Competition, held in 1935 in Leningrad, where Oistrakh again became the first. The new victory opened up the broadest prospects for him. His name began to be mentioned next to the brilliant names of Kreisler, Szigeti, Heifetz, Milstein. However, the path to the heights of glory ran through two more international competitions - named after Henryk Wieniawski in Warsaw and named after Eugene Ysaye in Brussels.

1935, Warsaw. 55 applicants from 16 countries came to the homeland of the Polish violinist and composer Wieniawski to take part in the competition named after him. Among them is 26-year-old violinist David Oistrakh. The result of his performance was second place.

Soon after the competition, David Oistrakh's first concerts abroad took place: Moscow - Warsaw - Vienna - Budapest - Sofia - Istanbul. The intensity of his performing activity especially increased after his triumphant victory in 1937 in Brussels, at the Eugene Ysaïe competition. Returning to his homeland, Oistrakh plunged headlong into concert and touring activities. They wanted to hear it everywhere.

But the entire habitual way of life broke down at once, on one day: June 22, 1941, when the Great Patriotic War began. David Fedorovich Oistrakh was among those Moscow musicians who did not leave the capital, among those who flew to besieged Leningrad to perform in front of its heroic defenders. And in the spring of 1945, Oistrakh’s violin was heard in the liberated countries - Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

The post-war decades are a new chapter in the creative biography of David Oistrakh, a time of maturity of his art, a time of continuous triumphs in various parts of the world. Having performed in Portugal in 1961, he said that there was not a single country left in Europe in which he had not played.

In September 1968, David Fedorovich Oistrakh turned 60 years old. His performing activities continued for half a century. On his anniversary, he gave two concerts in which he performed as a violinist and conductor.

On October 24, 1974, during a tour in the Netherlands, David Oistrakh suffered a heart attack. He died in the arms of his wife. “It will pass now,” were his last words.

D. Oistrakh spoke simply about the purpose of his life in art: “I am trying to fulfill my destiny as an artist and I hope to open to many more people the rich world of music that brightens up everyday life. This is what I live for.” (autobiographical notes “My path”)

In conclusion, I would like to give several assessments of the creative appearance of David Fedorovich given by his contemporaries:

“The violinist played a Stradivarius violin. It sounded like he was born with it.” (Howard Taubman about Oistrakh's speech in America).

“He is an exceptional musician, a complete harmonious violinist in all respects. What is most striking about his playing is its simplicity and extraordinary skill, combined with great freedom in mastering the instrument.” (Violinist Abram Yampolsky).

“Exceptional nobility and simplicity, impeccable taste and sense of proportion, first-class virtuosity that never becomes the goal of intentions - all these qualities make Oistrakh, undoubtedly, one of the best violinists of our time.” (Pianist Alexander Goldenweiser).