Dmitry Shostakovich had completed his First Violin Concerto during the 1950’s, and he dedicated it to the great Soviet violinist David Oistrakh. But the score was not suitable to the the times. It was too abstract, and not sufficiently affirmative in style. So he withheld the work for a number of years and finally let it come to performance in 1955 (two years after Stalin’s death).
Only after his Tenth Symphony had been accepted by the Soviet Composers’ Union did Shostakovich bring out the Violin Concerto, one of his most original works. Yet the work was at first threatened with oblivion, simply because none of the leaders of the Composers’ Union dared to make any significant comments about it, and until they did no musicologist or critic was willing to accept the responsibility of saying anything favorable.
Finally, in July 1956, David Oistrakh himself stepped into the breach with a daring article in Sovyetskaya Muzyka (Soviet Music) attacking the strange silence that greeted the new work on the part of leaders of the Composers’ Union. Having accepted the dedication of the score and lived with the work long enough to learn it and to prepare a magnificent performance (which he twice recorded), Oistrakh was fully committed to the piece, and the fact that he published his views in the leading musical journal lent considerable weight to his opinion.
Oistrakh noted that the Concerto, which avoids easy crowd-pleasing techniques, needs to be lived with in order for performer or listener to grasp the full depth of its message. His comments helped keep the work from slipping into an undeserved oblivion.
Here is violinist Nicola Benedetti with an extract from this music:
