LETTERS
In his Jan. 24 review of the Los Angeles Philharmonic [“Major Soloist, Minor Work”], Chris Pasles compared Gil Shaham’s performance of Aram Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto with that of the piece’s dedicatee and its original champion -- the legendary David Oistrakh -- stating that “Shaham, unlike the stern-faced Oistrakh, displayed exemplary warmth in his playing.”
If warmth of playing is measured by the number of beatific smiles on the soloist’s face, then Shaham, who is without a doubt a very fine violinist, would certainly be in a class all by himself. But in terms of warmth of tone and interpretation, no violinist dead or alive has surpassed the great Oistrakh -- whose exceptional personal warmth, by the way, matched that of his playing.
Full disclosure: I had the pleasure of studying with Oistrakh during the last three years of his life.
Mark Kashper
Los Angeles
The writer is a violinist with the L.A. Philharmonic
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
