This landmark performance, recorded on 13^th April 1940 at The Library of Congress, marked Bartók’s first appearance for twelve years as a pianist in America. It was the start of his second American tour and prefaced the famous recording of Contrasts with Szigeti and Goodman, which was to take place the following month. Bartók and Szigeti were old colleagues by then. The latter had arranged some of For Children for violin in 1926 and they gave their first joint recital the following year.

Though Szigeti was reluctant to release this Washington recital for commercial publication it has long stood as a testament to Bartók’s pianism and is notable too for Szigeti’s occasional deference to his partner as well as moments of extraordinarily creative concordance between them. I’ve reviewed the Vanguard CD on this site fairly recently – it was licensed to them – so I would refer readers there for the specifics of the performance and matters of interpretation; http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/July02/szigeti_bartok.htm

Hungaroton have also released this recital in their Great Hungarian Musicians series. Since Seymour Solomon’s death Vanguard has been in – one hopes temporary – abeyance and I’m not sure that one can easily locate their original copy so in its unavoidable absence where does this leave the Hungaroton? The original recording – ad hoc on the initiative of the prescient librarian – was always somewhat problematic and there are distinct differences in principles of remastering. Vanguard’s lets us hear the electrical turntable rumble, occasional swish and pops and crackles and the other by-products of such a recording. Hungaroton has attempted to eliminate much of this and as a result there’s something of an enveloping gauze over proceedings – Szigeti’s tone doesn’t emerge in all its steely glory and Bartók’s imperious attacks are slightly softened as a result. My own preference is for the unvarnished Vanguard but I can imagine that there are those who respond better to the cleaned up middle frequency boosts of the Hungaroton.

Jonathan Woolf

 

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