This album is included in the following sets:
This set contains the following albums:
- Producer's Note
- Full Track Listing
- Cover Art
Joseph Szigeti was born in Budapest in 1892. After showing promise on the violin at a very young age, he was accepted as a student by Jenő Hubay and made his Berlin debut at thirteen. Shortly thereafter, he settled in England for several years. It was during this period that he met Ferruccio Busoni, who was to become a major influence in moving the young prodigy from being merely a talented virtuoso toward becoming a more intellectual and analytical musician.
A stay in a Swiss sanatorium in 1913 to treat his tuberculosis introduced Szigeti to a fellow Hungarian who was to become another major influence on him as a musician and a lifelong friend, Béla Bartók. Szigeti remained in Switzerland for several years, teaching and expanding his facility in playing chamber works. In 1925, he played for a visiting Leopold Stokowski, and was quickly invited to make his American debut. He shortly became established internationally as a concert artist. He settled in the USA in 1940, and continued his concert career for another twenty years before retiring to write and teach. He died in 1973.
Szigeti’s earliest recordings were made in England for the Gramophone and Typewriter Company between 1908 and 1913. He made no further discs during the acoustic era, save for a handful recorded in Russia in either 1924 or 1926. In the latter year, he began an association with English Columbia that lasted for eleven years, with one session for their Japanese affiliate in 1931 that produced four sides. In 1938, he began recording for American Columbia, where he remained until 1956, with one set (the Bloch Concerto) done for French Columbia in 1939, a single disc made for the American New Music Quarterly label in 1942, and a return to English Columbia for four sides in 1946. His final recordings were made for Mercury in 1959-61.
This is the final volume in a series presenting all of the Columbia recordings he made in Britain, France and Japan, as well as the one New Music Quarterly disc, as a complement to Sony’s recent set comprising his American Columbia recordings. From the 1940s onward, Szigeti began to experience increasing technical problems. American Columbia passed on releasing his 1955-56 recordings of Bach Sonatas and Partitas as well as several contemporaneous LPs’ worth of Mozart Sonatas, which were only issued later by Vanguard. Szigeti himself ruefully referred to his final Mercury LPs as his “posthumous recordings”. The performances featured here and in the prior volumes are generally judged to be his finest on disc.
Szigeti championed contemporary works throughout his career, and so it is appropriate that the present program focuses mainly on Twentieth Century music. Some words are in order about a few of the works. Peter Warlock’s “Capriol” Suite was composed only ten years before Szigeti recorded his transcription of three of its movements; yet it almost seems to come from the time of the Renaissance dances which were its inspiration, save for its dissonant conclusion.
Bartók’s Portrait No. 1 had originally been written as the first movement of his first Violin Concerto; but the composer left it unpublished and repurposed this movement as the first of his two Portraits. The concerto in its original form was only first performed in 1958.
Szigeti gave the world première of the Bloch concerto in 1938 with Mitropoulos conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. Broadcast performances have been released of his performances the following year under Mengelberg and Beecham (the latter on Pristine PASC 410), the same year he made the first recording with Munch presented here.
Mark Obert-Thorn
SZIGETI The European Columbia Recordings, Volume 4
CD 1 (53:48)
WARLOCK (arr. Szigeti) “Capriol” Suite
1. Basse-Danse: Allegro moderato(1:31)
2. Pavane: Allegretto, ma un poco lento (2:48)
3. Mattachins: Allegro con brio (1:04)
Recorded 6 March 1936 in Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London ∙ Matrices: CA
15651-1 & 15652-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia LB 32
4. DEBUSSY (arr. Dushkin)
Menuet(No. 3 from Petite suite, L 65) (3:05)
Recorded 29 June 1927 in the Columbia Petty France Studio, London ∙ Matrix:
WAX 2912-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia L 2037
5. RAVEL (arr. Leduc) Piè
ce en forme de habanera (2:33)
Recorded 6 March 1936 in Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London ∙ Matrix: CAX
7749-1 [part] ∙ First issued on Columbia LX 575
6. MILHAUD Le printemps, Op. 18
(2:52)
Recorded 20 September 1926 in the Columbia Petty France Studio, London ∙
Matrix: WAX 1929-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia L 1963
7. MILHAUD (arr. Lévy)
Corcavado(No. 7 from Suadades do Brasil, Op. 67)(2:14)
Recorded 9 July 1926 in the Columbia Petty France Studio, London ∙ Matrix:
WA 3587 ∙ First issued on Columbia D 1527
8. MILHAUD (arr. Lévy)
Tijuca(No. 8 from Suadades do Brasil, Op. 67)(2:20)
Recorded 29 June 1927 in the Columbia Petty France Studio, London ∙ Matrix:
WA 5792 ∙ First issued on Columbia D 1633
9. LIE (arr. Szigeti)
Sne(Snow)(1:44)
Recorded 2 March 1937 in Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London ∙ Matrix: CA
16269-1 [part] ∙ First issued on Columbia LB 38
10.
SZYMANOWSKI Le fontaine d’Arth
éuse(No. 1 from Mythes, Op. 30)(5:38)
Recorded 1 June 1933 in Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London ∙ Matrices: CAX
6851-1 & 6852-1 [part] ∙ First issued on Columbia LX 307
11.
SCRIABIN (arr. Szigeti) Etude in D flat major,
Op. 8, No. 10 (“Etude in Thirds”) (1:48)
Recorded 6 March 1936 in Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London ∙ Matrix: CAX
7749-1 [part] ∙ First issued on Columbia LX 575
12.
STRAVINSKY (arr. Stravinsky/Dushkin) Pastorale
(1:15)
Recorded 1 June 1933 in Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London ∙ Matrix: CAX
6852-1 [part] ∙ First issued on Columbia LX 307
13.
STRAVINSKY (arr. Dushkin) Danse Russe from Petrushka
(2:44)
Recorded 2 March 1937 in Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London ∙ Matrix: CA
16270-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia LB 38
14.
PROKOFIEV (arr. Grunes) Gavotte from the “Classical” Symphony,
Op. 25
(1:34)
Recorded 2 March 1937 in Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London ∙ Matrix: CA
16269-1 [part] ∙ First issued on Columbia LB 38
PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No. 1
in D major, Op. 19
15. 1st Mvt. – Andantino – Andante assai
(9:12)
16. 2nd Mvt. – Vivacissimo (3:57)
17. 3rd Mvt. – Andante – Allegro moderato
(7:21)
Recorded 23 August 1935 in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London ∙ Matrices: CAX
7583-2, 7584-3, 7585-2, 7586-2 & 7587-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia LX
433/5
Nikita Magaloff, piano (Tracks 1 – 3, 5, 9 – 14)
Kurt Ruhrseitz, piano (Tracks 4, 6 – 8)
Sir Thomas Beecham ∙ London Philharmonic Orchestra (Tracks 15 – 17)
CD 2 (71:10)
BARTÓK
(arr. Szigeti) Hungarian Folk Tunes(after For
Children)
1. 1st Mvt. – Parlando (1:02)
2. 2nd Mvt. – Andante non molto (1:10)
3. 3rd Mvt. – Allegro vivace (1:36)
4. 4th Mvt. – Andante sostenuto (1:31)
5. 5th Mvt. – Allegro (0:37)
6. 6th Mvt. – Andante (0:46)
7. 7th Mvt. – Poco vivace (0:52)
Recorded 7 January 1930 in the Columbia Petty France Studio, London ∙
Matrices: WAX 5322-3 & 5323-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia LX 31
BARTÓK
(arr. Székely) Romanian Folk Dances,Sz.56
(BB 68)
8. 1st Mvt. – Jocul cu bâtǎ (Stick
Dance) (1:09)
9. 2nd Mvt. – Brâul (Sash Dance) (0:24)
10. 3rd Mvt. – Pe loc (In One Spot) (0:52)
11. 4th Mvt. – Buciumeana (Song of Buchumi)
(1:29)
12. 5th Mvt. – Poarga Româneascǎ (Romanian
Dance) (0:31)
13. 6th Mvt. – Mǎrunţel (Fast Dance)
(1:00)
Recorded 7 January 1930 in the Columbia Petty France Studio, London ∙
Matrices: WA 9908-3 & 9909-4 ∙ First issued on Columbia LB 6
14. BARTÓK
Portrait No. 1 –Egy idealis (One Ideal), Op. 5, Sz.37 (9:05)
Recorded 22 June 1946 in in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London ∙ Matrices: CAX
9568-1 & 9569-2 ∙ First issued on Columbia LX 1531
IVES Violin Sonata No. 4,
“Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting”
15. 1st Mvt. – Allegro (1:54)
16. 2nd Mvt. – Largo – Allegro (5:12)
17. 3rd Mvt. – Allegro (1:37)
Recorded 14 February 1942 in New York City ∙ Matrices: ARS 2457A &
2458A ∙ First issued on New Music Quarterly Recordings 1612A/B
18. BLOCH Nigun
(Improvisation)(No. 2 from Baal Shem, B.47) (5:23)
Recorded 5 July 1926 in the Columbia Petty France Studio, London ∙
Matrices: WA 3537-1 & 3538-1 ∙ First issued on Columbia D 1557
BLOCH Violin Concerto
in A minor
19. 1st Mvt. – Allegro deciso (18:15)
20. 2nd Mvt. – Andante (6:14)
21. 3rd Mvt. – Deciso (10:22)
Recorded 22-23 March 1939 in Studio Albert, Paris ∙ Matrices: CLX 2134-1,
2135-1, 2143-1, 2144-1, 2145-2, 2146-1, 2147-1 & 2148-2 ∙ First issued
on Columbia LX 819/22
Constant Lambert · Philharmonia Orchestra (Track 14)
Andor Foldes, piano (Tracks 15 – 17)
Kurt Ruhrseitz, piano (Track 18)
Charles Munch · Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (Tracks 19 – 21)
Joseph Szigeti, violin
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn
Special thanks to Nathan Brown, Charles Niss and James H. North for providing source material
Total duration: 2hr 4:59
