Oscar Shumsky plays Kreisler
Jul 17th, 2008 by oldfogey
In the early eighties, to escape the dismal surroundings of the Government Offices in Marsham Street where I was working (now mercifully demolished), every Friday lunchtime I would dash across to St John’s Smith Square to catch their broadcast concert. Unusually the concert on 30 October 1983 was packed and I was lucky to get in. I didn’t know who or what I was going to hear till I sat down. It was the American violinist Oscar Shumsky, accompanied by Roger Vignoles on piano. After years of teaching he had decided to return to the concert platform.
He played Saint-Saens and Kreisler and you could see what the fuss was about. He was a violinist that seemed to have walked in from another generation. His tone and performance were larger than life, expressive of someone at ease with his gifts, with a technical command complete for what he wanted to express. Not straining for effect, no display of technique for its own sake.
Here is an excerpt from that concert, Kreisler’s Chanson Louis XIV.
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