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110973 bk Szigeti3 EC 28|04|2003 3:14 PM Page 5 Producer’s Note ADD GREAT VIOLINISTS Great Violinists • Szigeti The Prokofiev and Bloch concertos were transferred from American Columbia pressings, (“Full-Range” label 8.110973 discs in the first case, “Microphone” label copies in the second). The Bartók came from an English Columbia pressing. Because the Bloch was recorded in a cramped, dry studio, I have added a small amount of digital Joseph Szigeti reverberation in order for the listener to be better able to focus on the performance rather than on the sonic deficiencies of the original recording. PROKOFIEV: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19 20:23 PROKOFIEV Mark Obert-Thorn 1 Andantino - Andante assai 9:10 2 Vivacissimo 3:52 3 Andante - Allegro moderato 7:12 Violin Concerto No. 1 Recorded 23rd August 1935 in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London Matrix nos: CAX 7583-2, 7584-3, 7585-2, 7586-2 and 7587-2 First issued on Columbia LX 433 through 435 BLOCH London Philharmonic Orchestra • Thomas Beecham Violin Concerto 4 BARTÓK: Portrait, Op. 5, No. 1 8:50 Recorded 22nd June 1946 in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London Matrix nos: CAX 9568-1 and 9569-2 First issued on Columbia LX 1531 Mark Obert-Thorn Philharmonia Orchestra • Constant Lambert Mark Obert-Thorn is one of the world’s most respected transfer artist/engineers. He has worked for a number of specialist labels, including Pearl, Biddulph, Romophone and Music & Arts. Three of his transfers have been BLOCH: Violin Concerto in A minor (1938) 34:44 nominated for Gramophone Awards. A pianist by training, his passions are music, history and working on projects. He has found a way to combine all three in the transfer of historical recordings. Obert-Thorn describes 5 Allegro deciso 18:09 Joseph Szigeti himself as a ‘moderate interventionist’ rather than a ‘purist’ or ‘re-processor,’ unlike those who apply significant 6 Andante 6:08 additions and make major changes to the acoustical qualities of old recordings. His philosophy is that a good 7 Deciso 10:18 London Philharmonic Orchestra transfer should not call attention to itself, but rather allow the performances to be heard with the greatest clarity. Recorded 22nd and 23rd March 1939 in Paris There is no over-reverberant ‘cathedral sound’ in an Obert-Thorn restoration, nor is there the tinny bass and Matrix nos: CLX 2134-1, 2135-1, 2143-1, 2144-1, 2145-2, 2146-1, 2147-1 and 2148-2 Thomas Beecham piercing mid-range of many ‘authorised’ commercial issues. He works with the cleanest available 78s, and First issued on Columbia LX 819 through 822 consistently achieves better results than restoration engineers working with the metal parts from the archives of Paris Conservatoire Orchestra • Charles Munch Paris Conservatoire Orchestra the modern corporate owners of the original recordings. His transfers preserve the original tone of the old recordings, maximising the details in critical upper mid-range and lower frequencies to achieve a musical integrity Charles Munch that is absent from many other commercially released restorations. (Recorded in 1935 and 1939) 5 8.110973 8.110973 6 110973 bk Szigeti3 EC 28|04|2003 3:14 PM Page 2 Great Violinists • Joseph Szigeti From 1917 to 1924 Szigeti taught in Geneva. In on 20th February 1973, having devoted his last years to Szigeti and he introduced it on 17th December 1938 of Geyer; then, as an opposing companion piece, he Prokofiev • Bartók • Bloch 1922 he played with the Berlin Philharmonic under competition jury work, writing and teaching. with the Cleveland Orchestra under Dimitri orchestrated a piano Bagatelle which used the same Fritz Reiner and from 1924 he was a regular visitor to Tall, courtly and courteous, Szigeti was ‘the Mitropoulos. He also played it in Bloch’s home town of motifs, calling it ‘Une grotesque’. Both pieces, showing Almost alone among the leading violinists of his era, another uncle was a double-bass-player, and Uncle the Soviet Union and England, but it was his thinking man’s virtuoso’. He was adept at flattening his Geneva and we have live recordings of the British what he thought of the woman who had spurned him, Joseph Szigeti cultivated the friendship of Bernat gave Jóska, as he was known to family, friends Philadelphia début in 1925, with the Beethoven intonation for a more pathetic effect in relaxed or première, with Beecham and the London Philharmonic were published as the Portrait, Op.5, in 1911, but contemporary composers and championed their music. and his early audiences, his first lessons. From the age Concerto conducted by Leopold Stokowski, that sealed soulful passages, then tightening it for up-tempo or Orchestra from 9th March 1939, as well as the Dutch Bartók let his close colleague Imre Waldbauer He was among the first to perform the Debussy and of eleven to thirteen Szigeti was under Hubay’s tutelage his fame. Now known as Joseph to English-speaking marcato sections; he never tuned sharp to cut through première, with Willem Mengelberg and the introduce the concerto movement under that title in Ravel Sonatas, and pieces by Honegger, Roussel, and he left the Ferenc Liszt Academy in 1905 to make audiences, he was a far more cultured artist than the the orchestra. He made a lovely sound but the musical Concertgebouw Orkest, from 9th November 1939. The Budapest on 12th February 1911. The complete diptych Milhaud and Stravinsky were in his repertoire. He his Berlin and Budapest débuts. As ‘Szulagi’ he played Jóska who had left Hubay’s class with a tiny repertoire line and rhythmic pulse came first with him; his tone studio version here was made after the Paris première, was performed on 20th April 1916, with István Strasser promoted sonatas by Bloch and Cowell and the in a Frankfurt circus, then auditioned for Joachim, of virtuoso works. Based in Paris with his Russian wife was rarely noticeable for its own sake. His style of which featured the same orchestra and conductor. As a conducting the Budapest Opera Orchestra and Emil concertos by Busoni, Casella, Berg and Martin. This instinctively deciding not to study with the old man, Wanda and their daughter Irène, he was one of the playing was old-fashioned, in that he used downward recording, it is one of the best of Szigeti himself, even Baré playing the solo in ‘Une idéale’. Szigeti included disc reflects three of those creative friendships, and in although he always had the low bow arm of that school busiest violinists of the interwar years, playing slides which often sat oddly on the contemporary music though the orchestra is a little recessed, and Charles the first part at his farewell concert in Budapest in 1939, addition the Prokofiev Concerto No. 1 is conducted by – Joachim had been Hubay’s first major teacher. concertos, especially those of Beethoven and Brahms, he played. Yet this portamento helped to give his Munch, a former violinist, is a formidable accompanist. with the composer present, and recorded it after the war Sir Thomas Beecham, with whom Szigeti had a Szigeti made his London début at the Bechstein or appearing in recital with his most frequent piano playing a singing, breathing, easeful quality. He owned Bloch, who had not played the violin for years – he had with the great conductor Constant Lambert. (The particularly long collaboration in the concert hall. Each (now Wigmore) Hall as a thirteen-year-old (the public partner Nikita Magaloff, who married Irène in 1939. two Guarnerius violins, his main concert instrument studied with Ysaÿe – took up the instrument again while recording was intended for a Béla Bartók Society of these works was closely associated with Szigeti, and was told he was twelve). From 1907 he was based in In the mid-1920s Szigeti became friendly with Béla being the Pietro Guarneri of Mantua formerly played by writing the Concerto so as to ensure the violin part was project which Walter Legge of Columbia was trying to in each case his recording was the first ever made. It England and his concerto début was made with the Bach Bartók and appeared with him in concert, introducing Henri Petri. idiomatic. He was most concerned that the soloist set up, on the lines of the pre-war Society issues.) The was through such 78rpm discs that millions of people Concerto in E major and Tchaikovsky’s Violin the Second Sonata to New York in December 1927. Prokofiev’s First Concerto, written in 1917, had to should not pull the music about too much, and in Szigeti situation was further complicated when the complete across the world, who never had the chance to see the Concerto with the New Symphony Orchestra under Szigeti also transcribed seven pieces from Bartók’s For wait rather long for its première, which took place at the he found his perfect player. concerto was released after Geyer’s death. It was first great violinist in the flesh, made contact with his Beecham. While in Britain, until 1913, he toured with Children, which they played in recital and recorded as Paris Opéra on 18th October 1923, with Marcel Bartók’s Portrait has a strange history. In 1907-8 given in Basel on 30th May 1958 by Hans-Heinz persuasive musicianship. Generations were introduced Nellie Melba and John McCormack, met Myra Hess Hungarian Folk Tunes. In 1931 the violinist toured the Darrieux as soloist and Serge Koussevitsky conducting. he wrote a two-movement concerto for the violinist Schneeberger, with Paul Sacher conducting the Basel to such works as the Bloch and Prokofiev Concertos and Ferruccio Busoni, gave the first performance of Far East, causing a sensation in Japan, and in 1933 he It received a condescending response from the French, Stefi Geyer, with whom he was madly in love.

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