David Fyodorovich Oistrakh was born on 30 September 1908 in Odessa and studied there from the age of five with the celebrated teacher Pyotr Stolyarsky. He came to wide notice by winning second prize at the 1935 Wieniawski Competition in Warsaw and first prize at the 1937 Ysaye Competition in Brussels. He joined the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory in 1934 and became a professor there in 1939, and was named a People’s Artist of the USSR in 1953. He died of a heart attack in Amsterdam on 24 October 1974 while on tour.

Oistrakh was the pre-eminent Soviet violinist of his generation, admired for a warm, full tone and an unforced technical command. Shostakovich dedicated both of his violin concertos to him and Prokofiev’s First Violin Sonata received its premiere at his hands, making him central to the Soviet repertoire of his century. He formed a celebrated piano trio with Lev Oborin and Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, performed as a violist in chamber music, and appeared increasingly as a conductor in later years. As a teacher he trained Gidon Kremer, Viktor Tretiakov and his son Igor Oistrakh, with whom he frequently performed duo concertos.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Oistrakh