David Oistrakh - Early Years

Early Years

He was born in the cosmopolitan city of Odessa in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) into a Jewish family of merchants of the second guild. 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 Oistrakh began his studies of violin and viola as a pupil of Pyotr Stolyarsky. In his studies with Pyotr Stolyarsky he made very good friends with Daniel Shindarov, with whom he performed numerous times around the world, even after becoming famous, for students at Stolyarsky School of Music. He would eventually come to predominantly perform on violin.

In 1914, at the age of six, Oistrakh performed his debut concert. He entered the Odessa Conservatory in 1923, where he studied until his graduation in 1926. In the Conservatory he also studied harmony with composer Mykola Vilinsky. His 1926 graduation concert consisted of Bach's Chaconne, Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata, Rubinstein's Viola Sonata, and Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major. In 1927, Oistrakh appeared as soloist playing the Glazunov Violin Concerto under the composer's own baton in Kiev, Ukraine—a concert which earned him an invitation to play the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in Leningrad with the Philharmonic Orchestra under Nikolai Malko the following year.