Search - Joseph Szigeti :: Recital

A welcome but somewhat frustrating collection

Discophage | France | 09/11/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This disc (published in 1992) collates Szigeti recordings from various origins and recording dates. Corelli's La Folia variations (in an arrangement by H. Leonard) was recorded on June 5, 1940 and first came on Columbia Masterworks X-202 (78rmps). The pianist by the way was called then Andor Farkas. He changed his name somewhere between 1940 and 1942 and became more famous as Andor Foldes (not something you'll learn from the liner notes or the track listing). Beethoven's 6th Sonata with Horszowski from 27 Nov. 1953 came on Columbia ML 4870 with the 5th Sonata (now on Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Violin Sonata No. 5 "Spring"). Ravel's and Hindemith Sonatas with Carlo Bussotti were recorded in November and December 1953 and were originally published on ML 5178 with Prokofiev's 5 Melodies op. 35b and rare Sonata for Solo Violin op. 115. The three encores were recorded between 1941 and 1944. They were reissued in the LP era, along with the Corelli and Schubert's Fantasia (Joseph Levine at the piano) on ML 4338. The transfers are excellent and hardly any surface noise can be heard on the 78rpm-originated recordings. TT is a generous 75 minutes.



Still, all interpretive considerations aside (the disc is a must-have for the Szigeti admirer anyway), this kind of collection does entail some frustrations I find, less for what it offers than for what it omits, and also for its lack of program coherence. I could easily have done withtout the three encores - even Debussy's Clair de Lune is turned into a sentimental medley. On the other hand I am sorry not to have the two Prokofiev items that came with Ravel and Hindemtih. And, if we are talking about a coherent Szigeti-Bussotti program, why not Cowell's ultra-rare Violin and Piano Sonata (ML 4841 with Shapero's Sonata for piano four-hands), which was composed for the violinist, Schubert's Rondo Brilliant (ML 4642 - see hereunder) and Haendel's Sonatas in G and in D (ML 4891 with Bach and Tartini Concertos)? As for the Beethoven with Horszowski, wouldn't it have been nice to have ALL the Beethoven Szigeti recorded with the pianist (he made a famous complete recording with Arrau, but that was in the scratching early 1940s, Beethoven: 10 Sonatas for Piano and Violin, Complete or Beethoven The Ten Sonatas for Piano & Violin)? To the best of my knowledge, besides the 5th, they also did #1 (ML 4133 with Schubert's Sonata in D with Foldes), 7 (10-inch ML 2097) and 10 (ML 44642 with the above-mentioned Schubert's Rondo Brilliant with Bussotti). And wouldn't a "Szigeti 20th Century" also be a nice concept, gathering all his studio recordings of 20th-Century Violin and Piano Sonatas? Other than Ravel and Hindemith and Cowell, you'd get Busoni's 2nd Sonata with Horszowski to which you may add Bloch's Baal Shem with Farkas/Foldes and Stravinksy's Duo Concertant with the composer: and this is limiting myself to the recordings made for Columbia. Szigeti's famous recording of Debussy's Sonata and Bartok's 2nd Sonata and 1st Rhapsody with Bartok at the piano was made live at the library of congress in 1940 (see my review of Beethoven, Debussy: Sonatas; Bartok: Rhapsody / Szigeti, Bartok), and the violinist's premiere recording of Ives' 4th Sonata with Foldès from 1942 was originally published on Cowell's New Music label; there are also later recordings of Ives, Debussy, Honegger, Stravinsky with Roy Bogas made for Mercury, some of them recently reissued by Philips Japan. Biddulph has issued a nice, 2-CD set collating Szigeti's recordings made with Bartok and Foldès, but it is now hard to find at reasonable prices (Joseph Szigeti: The Recordings With Bartók & Foldes).



Am I being a curmudgeon? Well - I guess so, of the avid record-collecting-and-completist type. As it is, gaps and all, this CD is welcome. I am especially happy to have the Ravel and Hindemith -important historical documents, from in era in which this was still seldom recorded contemporary music. Szigeti is commendably free of the tonal deterioration that was to mar is later recordings from the late 1950s on, but truth is, his tone isn't as pure and easy as anyone's from the present generation of prominent violinists. So this is to be recommended mainly to the aficionados of historical violin playing rather than those looking for good, modern versions of these works.





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