专题片《David Oistrakh-Artist of the People?》，其标题仅以一个问号，就定下了全片的基调：怀疑和争议，而且是永恒的怀疑和争议。

大卫·费奥多洛维奇·奥依斯特拉赫（David Feodorovich Oistrakh，1908－1974)，前苏联著名的小提琴家。五岁开始学琴，1926年在敖德萨音乐学院毕业，1934年进莫斯科音乐学院高级班。先后获得全苏小提琴比赛一等奖、全提乌克兰小提琴比赛首奖、全苏表演家比赛会优胜、维尼亚夫斯基国际小琴比赛二等奖、依萨伊国际小提琴比赛会优胜、维尼亚夫斯基国际小提琴比赛二等奖、依萨伊国孙小提琴比赛冠军等。他的演绎以情感取胜，有时嫌较腻，但是总之是属于能够比较地道地演奏任何作品的那种“有保证”的演奏家（正如J. Heifetz、A. Rubinstein、S. Rostropovitch等）。如今他演奏的版本是乐迷最容易得到的，也是最容易被接受的。但是在这些散发着高贵、浪漫和自由气息的音乐背后，有着所有前苏联人民，尤其是名人所难以冲破的铁幕。

苏联指挥家Gennady Rozhdestvensky在专题片中说到（英语字幕，下同）：

Many young musicians who went to competitions at that time were under tremendous pressure. They had to win. This is because your victory was not yours but the people’s and, consequently, the system’s. It was the same thing in sports. Imagine what a colossal additional burden that was. Everyone followed the competition results, and got a sense of pride from them. But you were obliged to win first prize. If you didn’t, you had to answer for it…The state won the prize. The system. That’s what was implied. That’s just the wy things were. It was 1937…Just take a look at all the different hurdles he had to overcome, like all the other artists.

影片中也播放了一个片段，在取得1935年维尼亚夫斯基国际小琴比赛二等奖后，年青的Oistrakh在镜头前说：

As representatives of our country’s young musicians, we have demonstrated the brilliance of music and the success of socialist culture in the Soviet Union.

这对我们的耳朵来说是多么的熟悉：是祖国和人民使给我音乐的才能，我的一切荣誉归祖国。这是很好，不好的其实是，当我没有获得荣誉的时候，那我就是辜负了祖国和人民的厚望，浪费了人力物力。实际上，这一切都是政治，其潜台词无非是社会主义国家急于显示其文化的“优越性”同时反衬出资本主义文化的“腐朽和没落”。这是大方向，这是主旋律。一切文化宣传均服从于这一条。在这种情况下，代表着社会主义国家参加在国际比赛，本身就只许胜不许败。当然，也是看中你有得胜的能力，才给你这种机会。总之一切是为政治服务的，是政治的筹码。但是，作为表面的宣传，这种集体主义荣誉感的确能大大地振奋人心。所有人都以某位“英雄”为豪。Y. Menuhin提到这样一个小细节：

…In charge of the airport they had one of these Russian women…She looked at me up and down and said, ‘You have been heard of Oistrakh?’ ‘Yes, indeed. One of the world greatest violinists and I’m looking forward to meeting him.’ Then she looked me up again and said, ‘Have you ever won any medals?’ I said, ‘No.’ She said, ‘Oistrakh has!’

这就是获得“人民艺术家”称号的真实情况。人民的艺术家说白了就是统治机构的艺术家，为统治机构服务。当然了，当统治机构把人民拉向了自己这边时，那也就是在为“人民”服务了。

Y. Menuhin在担任联合国UNESCO国际音乐委员会（International Music Committee, IMC）主席时同当时苏共中央总书记勃列日涅夫的一段来往也许是比较广人所知的事情。在影片中，事件的两个当事人互相印证了事情的经过：

S. Rostropovitch: Yehudi Menuhin had asked me to play in a trio with him and wilhelm Kempff. The authorities refused. Menuhin got in touch with Moscow. He was chairman of the UNESCO International Music Commettee. They replied that Rostropovitch was sick. He called me at home. My wife answered the phone…

Y. Menuhin: I said ‘I hear Slava is ill.’

S. Rostropovitch: ‘Terrific, fine, he’s in tip-top shape’, she answered. ‘So he can come?’ Menuhin said. ‘Yes. He’s dreaming of playing with you.’ Afterwards Menuhin sent a telegram to Brezhnev, who was Secretary General of the Party’s centreal committee at the time. The message was very furioius and very serious…

Y. Menuhin: ‘All the press will be on this concert. Television of the world. And I’ll tell them the simple fact that you’re liers. You told me he’s sick. He’s well…’

最终Rostropovitch得以成行。历史是这么说的：

{p. 106}Three years later, for instance, at a special twenty-fifth anniversary celebration ofthe IMC in Paris, the cellist Rostropovich mysteriously failed to show up. Oh, he’s had a heart attack and cannot travel, Yehudi was told. Horrified, Yehudi managed to get hold of Rostropovich’s wife, Galina Vishnevskaya, on the telephone. Rostropovich was in Georgia, giving a concert, she said. He’d been sent there by the Ministry. A heart attack? she asked in amusement. Who has told you this lie? Yehudi was furious and cabled the Ministry of Culture. No, Rostropovich was unavailable,

{p. 107} but would Mr Menuhin accept Shostakovich and his new quartet as a substitute? (This must have been Shostakovich’s 15th String Quartet, among his most bitter and personal attacks on the Soviet system. So the offer had an extraordinary irony and further demonstrated to Yehudi the total stupidity of the Ministry of Culture.) No, said Yehudi, he would accept no substitute and decided to cable Brezhnev himself, threatening to expose the lies the Ministry was telling. It is doubtful whether Brezhnev had ever heard of Menuhin; but Rostropovich got his visa and the Paris concert went ahead without further mishap.

–TONY PALMER, MENUHIN: A Family Portrait, faber and faber, London 1991

可见，当局（意图）完全掌控音乐家的每一项艺术活动，严防他们同西方的任何“计划外”接触。这种做法，同其声称“优越性”时的自信表现完全大相庭径。在全民被自欺欺人的共产主义激情所统治的情况下，恰当的谎言只会被当作必要的宣传，做liers无非是一种习惯罢了。不过，这种管制的stupidity似乎也是难以避免的。到底是政治操纵文化得以成功，还是文化左右政治博弈的成败？这个问题的答案是根本的，但在某些人那里无非只能充当一个解释。

越是在那种逼着人两面三刀，说一套做一套的环境里，音乐就越是显得可贵。音乐就是感情的直接表现。直接——这就是可贵之处。既然言语会杀人，而且无法选择缄默，那就只有靠音乐去忏悔。这也许就是为什么前苏联艺术家能给我们留下这么多情感丰富而真实的演绎。不知道当时的听众，在不必张嘴的时候，听着这些音乐，心里的状态是否仍如平日那样或者杯弓蛇影，或者剑拔弩张？

真理总是不能靠赞成或反对些什么来建立，但很少人明白这一点，离真理越来越远。