Reviews | RH-027 | HENRYK SZERYNG | reDiscovered

Nov/Dec 2023 | Jerry Dubins | FANFARE Magazine - Issue 47:2 | Henryk Szeryng - ReDiscovered
« Henryk Szeryng (1918–1988) having long been one of my most revered violinists, I thought I had a pretty good handle on his discographic legacy. I guess I didn’t, for four of the five recordings in this two-disc set are appearing here on CD for the first time. The only item not flagged as a “first” is the Ansermet-led Szymanowski concerto with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, recorded “live” (in mono) in Geneva’s Victoria Hall on October 9, 1963. Oddly, the Bach A-Minor Concerto, taped at the same concert, did not previously make it to CD. None of this is to say that Szeryng didn’t record all five of these works at different times, in different venues, and with different conductors and orchestras, many of which were issued on CD and can still be had. [...]

The highly informative album note by Fanfare’s own Gary Lemco is a valuable addition to this set. He describes in great detail the aspects of Szeryng’s bowing techniques and tone that made him one of two heirs apparent to the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing in the 20th century, the other being his exact contemporary, Arthur Grumiaux (1921–1986). [...]»

March 2023 | Trésors d'archets | Jean-Charles Hoffelé | CLASSICA n°250 pag.83 | SZERYNG reDiscovered [CHOC - Exceptionnel]

6 December 2022 | Stephen Greenbank | MusicWeb International | Henryk Szeryng - reDiscovered «Despite a substantial Szeryng discography, here are some more live airings, set down between 1962 and 1967, which further bolster the listings. For me, anything by Henryk Szeryng (1918-1988) is of interest. He was one of the twentieth century’s greatest violinists, a musical aristocrat with superb polished technique and a phenomenal intellect. [...] The recordings have been excellently restored. The Benjamin Lees Concerto is especially of interest to me, as I didn’t know the work at all.»

5 October 2022 | Jonathan Woolf | MusicWeb International | Szeryng - reDiscovered Henryk Szeryng heard in (nearly) all previously unreleased broadcasts: bravura and eloquence. | « [...] this programme apparently contains four performances new to CD; the only one that has been issued before is the Szymanowski Concerto. I’m in no position to doubt this, as Szeryng’s surviving corpus of off-air recordings is so large and seems to be getting larger by the week. This twofer begins, however, with Bartók’s Concerto in B major, in a Dutch performance of 1962. The Radio Filharmonisch Orkest under Willem van Otterloo provides the orchestral support. Szeryng was to record the work with Haitink and the Concertgebouw in 1970 so it’s clearly of some interest to hear him at the start of the decade playing with such clarity, directness, and warmth. [...] This is apparently the first appearance of the première performance of Benjamin Lees’ concerto with Erich Leinsdorf directing the Boston Symphony in 1963. It’s the only work to be heard in stereo. [...] to hear the premiere is something of a privilege, not least because Szeryng is on record as having confessed it was the most difficult work that he played. There’s lyricism here but it’s guarded, with the first two movements, being essentially slow, leading the way for a taut, fast finale. Its rhetoric vaguely echoes Prokofiev but there are more granitic outbursts from Lees than Prokofiev would have sanctioned. Szeryng plays it with fearless bravura – punchy, pungent and refined when the occasion demands. One can almost feel him count the bars in the perilous finale. [...] And so to the Brahms, recorded at the United Nations in 1967 with Wolfgang Sawallich and the Vienna Symphony. Szeryng takes broadly similar tempi to those he was to take when he recorded the work with Haitink and his consistency remained deeply impressive. [...] but the very best playing comes in the finale. Here Szeryng whips up a storm, tapering his phrase ends with joyful freedom, playing with caprice and spontaneous-sounding bravura. Just how spontaneous it was is doubtful but it sounds spontaneous and represents some of Szeryng’s best and most communicative Brahms playing I have heard. Do you need another Szeryng-Brahms - that was my initial question. Well, possibly you do and if you get this, you will also therefore get previously unreleased performances of high stature and eloquent intelligence. Good sound, too.»