He had one of the most rich and noble tones ever created by a violinist and a technique to match his interpretive gifts. Oistrakh was the finest Russian violinist after Heifetz. This is doubly interesting since the great school of Leopold Auer that produced Heifetz and so many other top-notch players was in Kiev, not Odessa. Oistrakh was a student of Pyotr Stolyarsky. He eventually settled in Moscow and by 1930, the word was out in Europe that there was a tremendous new talent in the USSR.

His international career began in 1937, but was interrupted by WWI where Oistrakh played on the front lines for thousands of soldiers. News travelled to England very soon after the end of hostilities when Yehudi Menuhin played with Oistrakh in Moscow and his USA debut followed in 1955 with the Shostakovich 1st concerto which was written for him.

Through all the political ups and downs between East and West in the 1950s and 60's Oistrakh continued concretising internationally at the top of his form. He was an ardent champion of his Soviet contemporary composers and all of them wrote for him, including Prokofiev and Khachaturian. He played chamber music with Lev Oborin and Vyacheslav Knushevitsky and countless recitals with Oborin.

Oistrakh was active in the recording studios for all of his international career and several of his finest efforts are available on the Universal labels.