David Oistrakh

Born in September 1908, David Fyodorovich Oistrakh came up through the Soviet music establishment and landed a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory. He collaborated with orchestras across continents and became the dedicatee of some of the era's defining violin works: both Shostakovich concerti, the Khachaturian concerto. In 1953 he was named People's Artist of the USSR; seven years later came the Lenin Prize. He also took up the viola and conducting. He died in October 1974, leaving a recorded legacy that still defines what the instrument can do.