David Oistrach - Artist of the People? - Warner Music Group Germany

Great Artists of the 20th Century is a series of filmed portraits of the lives and works of three musical giants of the century: Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrach and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. These three artists, along with Menuhin, Rostropovich, Casals and Callas, represent a truly golden era of great artists, not only remembered for their extraordinary live performances, but whose musicianship has also left to the world and unrivalled legacy of recordings.

David Oistrach (1908-1974), nicknamed "King David" by his countrymen, was among the great violinists of his day, and the most characteristic representative of the Russian school. This film tells the dramatic story of an inspired violinist and a man forced by the Soviet regime to conform to its iron rule, an artist torn between his devotion to Russia and his passion for the violin.

Oistrakh is remembered by his son Igor, as well as Yehudi menuhin, Gidon Kremer, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and Mstislav Rostropovich, who sums up Ostrakh's view of life with the words, "Music was his only window to the sun".

Performance extracts includes works by Debussy, Sibelius, Shostakovich, Brahms, Lalo, Beethoven, Bach, Paganini, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Tschaikowksy, Kreisler, Ravel und Chopin.