This landmark album, originally released on Columbia in 1956, features David Oistrakh in two cornerstone works: Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata and Mozart’s Violin Sonata in B-flat major, K. 454.
Giuseppe Tartini (8 April 1692 – 26 February 1770) was an Italian composer, violinist and leading figure of the Baroque era. Born in Pirano in the Republic of Venice (now Piran, Slovenia). Tartini was a prolific composer, composing over a hundred pieces for the violin, the majority of them violin concertos. Among these, the Devil’s Trill Sonata stands apart, owing as much to its remarkable technical demands as to the enduring legend surrounding its creation.
Tartini's own account of how he came to write the last movement of the G minor Sonata almost suggests the dreams and phantasies of the more heady nineteenth century romantics. " One night I dreamt that I had made a bargain with the devil for my soul... the idea struck me to hand him my fiddle to see what he could do with it... but how great was my astonishment when I heard him play with consummate skill a sonata of such exquisite beauty as surpassed the boldest flights of my imagination... seizing my violin I tried to retain the sounds I had heard. But it was in vain. The piece I then composed, although the best I ever wrote, how far below the one I heard in my dream!”
While he claimed he composed the sonata in 1713, scholars think it was likely composed as late as the 1740s, due to its stylistic maturity – the music is galant in idiom, that is, transitional between the Baroque and Classical periods. It was not published until 1798 or 1799, almost thirty years after the composer's death. The sonata would become the basis for Cesare Pugni's 1849 ballet Le Violon du diable, as well as Chopin's Prelude No. 27.
Paired with Mozart’s elegant and expressive K. 454 sonata, Oistrakh’s playing brings both works to life with remarkable depth, warmth, and technical mastery.
Cut directly from the original dedicated mono analog master tapes, through our unique all valve 1965 Ortofon / Lyrec vinyl cutting system in True Mono*. No equalisation, compression or any other processing was added during the cutting process.
All sleeve artwork made by hand and authentically letter-pressed on a 1963 Heidelberg SB.
This edition of 300 copies is priced at £395.00 UK pounds. Order here.
*Where everything in the chain from the tape head, the tape pre-amplifier, the cutting amplifier and the dedicated mono cutter head is a single channel pathway: This early technology avoids phase issues (smearing of the sound) that is frequently encountered when cutting with todays dual” or “pseudo” mono cutting systems.
