Search - Joseph Szigeti - Beethoven Violin Concerto, Beethoven Violin Concerto, Tartini Concerto in E, Prokofiev Violin Sonata No. 2 on DVD

He is Visually Enthralling too

BLee | HK | 11/07/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rightly or wrongly, people call him as the scholar of the violinists partly perhaps because of his association with Bartok and Schnabel. Well, the fact remains, people particularly the violinists like Milstein, but they love Szigeti.

Why? Just take for instance how considerate he was, when on one occasion Martha Argerich was to accompany him the world famous violinist when she was hardly known in the musical world at all...

Alternatively, you just have to watch this video and you can readily tell Szigeti is the musician of the topmost rank: the strong emotive import of the music has almost turned the form and structure of music to the boiling point and his devotion to music and involvement in the performance is absolute so that labelling him "scholastic" is hardly satisfacory.

Another selling point would be the intriguing repertoire. It's difficult to find a better Tartini, and almost impossible to get a better Hubay Czardas even from the CDs and one doesn't come across such beautiful music very often. His Beethoven is blended with sensibility and nobility and beauty all at the same time. And one is apt to find himself shattered by the second and third movements of his Prokofiev. And it's also a delight to be able to see Arther Balsam in action after listening so many of his CDs...

Furthermore, the Canadian radio Orchestra here is doing a great job for the recorded sound as a whole is so much better Chicago Symphony Orchestra which accompanied Milstein at about the same time and the intriguing tone of the soloist violin is distinctly (head and shoulder) better, so warm and tender. It's such a joy even after one turns back to it a second in a breath."