David Oistrakh: Artist of the People?

I have seen and listened David Oistrakh when I was a kid. He was one of the biggest violinist of the 20th century, and as the Soviet regime used his talent to promote the image of the 'new artist' and 'superior Soviet culture' he was filmed and recorded in a large number of occasions. This is so lucky for music fans as we can get today a good image of his immense talent and we can enjoy the love of music and life that radiates behind the image of the good jovial man playing with passion and immense skills.

Yet this film has an ambition that goes beyond just having us listen great music. It asks a sharp question - was Oistrakh what the Communist call 'an artist of the people'? what compromises he made and how he lived with them? Despite enrolling a range of other great artists like Menuhin and Rostropovich to witness the question is not fully answered. Unfortunately many of the witnesses of that age are no longer with us, and we can only speculate today and watch fiction in order to try to understand the life or artists in times like the ones of Stalin that Oistrakh went to. The authors of this documentary cannot at the end go completely on the way of investigation and preferred to keep a reverence tone. Maybe this film could have better ended with the words of one of the witnesses: 'yes, Oistrakh could have spoken up more at some times, but then he could not have done his music!'. What a tragic dilemma.