Briefly explore the contrast in the life of a conductor and a violinist:
1. Herbert von Karajan (April 5, 1908 – July 16, 1989) was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor, one of the most renowned twentieth century conductors, and a major contributor to the advancement of classical music recordings.
Karajan held the position of music director of the Berlin Philharmonic for 35 years and made numerous audio and video recordings with that ensemble.
Although his Nazi past resulted in his being shunned by prominent Jewish musicians, his career in European music capitals was nevertheless one of the most successful in the annals of twentieth century classical music. He also played an important role bringing credibility to London’s Philharmonia Orchestra in the 1950s.
2. David Oistrakh was born in the cosmopolitan city of Odessa in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) into a Jewish family of merchants. His father was David Kolker and his mother was Isabella Beyle (née Stepanovsky), who later on married Fishl Oistrakh. At the age of five, young David began studying violin and viola seriously with a local teacher named Pyotr Stolyarsky. He was Oistrakh’s first and only teacher. Stolyarsky also taught Nathan Milstein, with whom Oistrakh was to share his first concert appearance in 1914, when Milstein graduated from the Conservatoire.
In the same year, Oistrakh decided to move to Moscow where he gave his first recital and met his future wife Tamara Rotareva, a pianist, whom he was to marry a year later. In 1931, their only child Igor was born, a son who was to follow in his father’s footsteps and would be heard later playing violin with his father in works such as the Bach Double Concerto and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante.
