Mozart: Mature Sonatas for Violin and Piano (4CD)
Mozart:
Violin Sonata in B flat major, K378
Violin Sonata in G major, K301
Violin Sonata in A major, K305
Violin Sonata in F major, K376
Violin Sonata in G major, K379
Violin Sonata in C major, K296
Violin Sonata in E flat major, K302
Violin Sonata in C major, K303
Violin Sonata in E minor, K304
12 Variations in G, K359
Violin Sonata in D major, K306
Violin Sonata in F major, K377
Violin Sonata in E flat major, K380
Violin Sonata in B flat major, K454
Violin Sonata in E flat major K481
Violin Sonata in A major, K526
Violin Sonata in F major, K547 'For Beginners'
Six Variations in G minor on 'Helas, j'ai perdu mon amant', K360
Henryk Szeryng, violin
Ingrid Haebler, piano
These recordings dating from 1969 to 1973, were acclaimed by the critics at the time, and are still considered benchmark interpretations even in this age of period practice.
Henryk Szeryng was born in 1918 in Warsaw, the son of a pianist mother and a wealthy industrialist father. By the age of 9 he had sufficient skill on the violin to play the Mendelssohn concerto for Huberman - a close friend of the family. Huberman recommended that the boy study with Flesch, which he did until he was 13. Flesch encouraged his pupils to establish their own musical personality upon their performances. In 1933, his big break came, performing the Beethoven concerto with Bruno Walter in Warsaw.
Further study in Paris cemented his admiration for the French Violin School. ‘They don’t attack the violin, they don’t rape it, they treat it like a human being,’ he once remarked. He became friends with Enescu and Thibaud, and studied with Nadia Boulanger. His war years were spent in Mexico working for General Sikorski, and he succeeded in placing 4000 Polish refugees in the country.
Among his great recordings are the complete solo sonatas and partitas of Bach, the great concertos from Bach to Bartok and these recordings of the Mozart Sonatas with Ingrid Haebler. His playing is noble in style, almost aristocratic, and he adhered to the text - everything is scrupulously prepared and executed.
‘Its first movement has a tone of tenderness and elegance with a stylistic sophistication… when combined with a degree of technical brilliance, as they are. The movement is most expertly played here…Szeryng and Miss Haebler shape it exquisitely’ K378 Gramophone, MAY 1971.
