Shostakovich - V Con No 1 - A Cluytens, Belgian Nat O, Alexei Michlin (vn) (6-13-63, live) [Philidor; FLAC]

It's not always the greatest performers who rise to the top. Many reasons can press forward lesser artists, or keep back better ones. Case in point: Alexei Michlin, who won 1st Prize in the violin division at the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium Competition in 1963. This is the hair-raising performance of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto that took him over the top, with a frenzied accompaniment by Andre Cluytens. (Cluytens was very much a Jekyll-Hyde conductor by this time: dull and stodgy in studio recordings, capable of taking fire in select live ones.) Michlin was an Oistrakh pupil, and I'll go so far as to say while Oistrakh's version of the work is great, this one I find superior. It is simply the best I've ever heard.

Yet Michlin left the Soviet, and vanished. One report has placed him in Oviedo Spain, teaching at the Conservatory. Perhaps he found concertizing too much, or never got the breaks some of his colleagues did after he emigrated. Maybe academic life suited him. Whatever the cause, this live performance remains a testament to a remarkable talent.


You can find all my classical uploads by searching on Philidor, or by checking this thread:

http://kickasstorrents.ee/community/show/philidor-s-classical-stuff/?page=3#post15679929