Added: 5 years ago
From: SamLee0519
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  • out of all the GREAT romantic violin concertos, this is the only violin concerto that I dislike. It's too...thick.

  • How lucky we are that the video quality was fairly poor then, but not the audio!

  • @Flauterfiddle Great performance and you are correct the audio is great!

  • Remember that time when Composers are more known than the Singers? I don't.

  • lol nice recording

  • wow awesome!

  • Anyone knows which orchestra is??

    I love him! Thanks for the post!

  • @juzinhanham...I think this was the 1959 recording with London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Pierre Monteux. Giocare liberamente!

  • Absolute favorite part of the movement at 5:20. Just makes you want to sprout some wings and fly away.

  • love it

    

  • Which orchestra?

  • Great piece of music by a great performer. Period.

  • Oistrakh is the best)

  • This is an incredible performance. Absolutely amazing!

  • meraviglioso, non ci sono altre parole per definirlo !!!

  • This is so ideal!

  • We need emotive virtuosos. Frazzled hair, adorned in pajamas, stooping. I am sick of pretension and "image" in classical music. Music is about music. Period!

  • @fiandrhi What pretension and image are you talking about? The pretension these days is the pretension of emoting, and the pretension of passion and the pretension of coffeehouse devil may care youthful genius, or the pretension of every female musician needing to look hot on the cd cover. That is pretense. pretending. If the music is about music, let's close our eyes and hear it. Maybe the stoically dressed musician knows that it is about music and not about their fashionable hair or pajamas.

  • @Twisterjoe I agree with you so much. Perhaps the music should be allowed speak for itself without the "pop star" nonsense.

  • @Twisterjoe  Well said, sir.

  • so beautiful and so perfect.....

    there is no better, only different

  • People turn into total douches when they listen to classical music. Seriously, guys.

  • Szeryng in the three great "B"-s Bach, Beethoven and Brahms is unsurpassable.

  • not only is it a hard piece, but it's long too! Lots of endurance is needed! 0_0

  • Such a wide range of emotion expressed so vividly..................... Brought me to tears.

  • Glorious performance. I have, somewhere,the old Mercury Living Presence recording from, I think, about 1961 or so. Szeryng was exquisite in his legato lines, and the final two minutes is so etheral as to be almost god-like. I was blessed to have heard Szeryng live in Dallas in 1970, with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He played the Saint-Saens Havanaize and , I believe, the Poeme by Lalo. It was glorious, and my only disappointment was that he did not play the Brahms. His Brahms is legend.

  • At 22:22 the guy is laughing at his friend who just pissed himself after this first movement :)

  • Is this with Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra?

  • @Garpinator no

  • Extraordinary combination of perfect player, perfect bow and perfect violin. It makes my heart almost explode!

  • Szeryng's technique is so effortless. That level of bow control and cleanliness of sound is just magical. His solo Bach is equally amazing.

  • great picture quality...

  • To the 9 who didn't like this - were you searching for lady gag me's drummer gone solo? Here we have a master of the violin, whose technique is flawless, his instrument sings beyond an angel's voice. The orchestra is a disciplined group in perfect synchrony, and well conducted. In short, this is as good as it gets. Could this be re-recorded with modern techniques, oh, what marvel that would be!

  • Man I sure envy the people that were at that concert... This is so perfect and yet it looks so easy its just scary to watch!! One word comes to me after this performance, WOW. Just freaking awesome!

  • I'm not really a big Brahms fan, but this piece is incredible. For some reason the woodwinds at 9:50 just make you want to cry. I love classical music that can affect you this much emotionally. Thanks for uploading!

  • Comment removed

  • Textbook-like............? That, my friend, is we spent our young lives (days/night/weekends/vacations­,etc) doing arpeggios and etudes..

  • It's you.....................:)

  • Is it just me, or does the violin look big on Szeryng?

  • best of the best

  • this is like the "textbook" version of Brahms. a computer probably can't make a more mechanically perfect performance. lol at that.

  • how does he get his chords so clean!!!! They are all like one note!

  • @yuripole0000: "What year is this?"

    Szeryng won the Grand Prix du Disque for this piece in 1959. He also appears fairly young in the video (and the video recording quality is so-so), so my guess would be that it was about then.

  • what year is this?

  • @yuripole0000 @yuripole0000 Filmed at the ORTF, Paris, December 1962. Conductor Paul Paray. Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatorie.

  • this is the best interprenation i have ever heard! this song requires much skill to play.

    and the tone is so good! thanks for posting

  • Who wrote that cadenza?

  • @MrDarkeyed Joseph Joachim

  • Sublime.

  • Cadenza is amazing

  • Szeryng's interpretation of the dolce expressivo melody is the most beautiful I've ever heard

  • Thank you, Sam, for posting this. This is the only one posted where it doesn't take three postings just for the first movement. And so, I am most grateful for this, and I think that the audio is as good, possibly better than the ones recorded in the last ten or twenty years. Again, thanks...

  • I grew up on Mr. Szerying's Brahm's Concerto, Pollini's EMI Warsaw e minor concerto. Mimi, my grandmother got both for me.

    My record player had wheels or I put it in my wagon. I tore around Towson Maryland.

    I am real happy to find this.

  • Mr. Szeryng is by far my all time favorite virtuoso violinist. To me he was a most expressive and passionate violinist who interpreted the music brilliantly - not to mention his masterful technical skills. I have no doubt that Brahms would have been brought to tears by his performances.

  • @chumn54 I Do not know why I always get an error message when i try to reply to your post. I have a lot of interesting things to comment about

  • @chumn54 I agree. got to see him live in Sacramento just before he died.  Had the most amazing fluid bow arm.

  • hilary hahn's exquisite interpretation of brahms's violin concerto rises emotionally higher. of course, subjectively perceived by myself.

  • whos the conductor/orchestra?

  • ...s c h e r y n g..ya!

  • I am not really familiar with Szeryng but wonderful job> R.I.P. Mr. Szeryng

  • Thanks for sharing. How did you upload 22 minutes? I have many concerts to share too...

  • @elgatosucio You apply for it.

  • This comes close to the Heifetz, but I don't think it surpasses it.

  • @Milky111wtf really? because i feel that the way szeryng plays it is far more elegant. maybe it's just our preferences in how a piece should be played.

  • @Milky111wtf I think it does surpass Heifetz! But it doesn´t matter!! they are both violinplayers we will nott see again for maybe 1000 years....Meaning "Divine".

  • Gosh, his initial statement is incredible. This is the way it's supposed to be. No one has ever been able to get it (to what I think is) right until now. Thanks for posting!

  • Amazing piece! And i think that the black and white of the video only contributes to the amazing quality of this production

  • We need a revival of the stoic virtuoso. Combed hair, adorned in tuxedo, upright. I see only mush these days.

  • @zensorrow1

    like JBell?

  • @wangman19 BINGO. I saw him live several years ago. He wore an untucked gray/black shirt, and his hair was combed straight down, bangs and all. I was a maturing violnist, and a few years later I came to adore Milstein/Szeryng and other versions of Bach's Chaconne. One day my dad says, "Do you remember Joshua Bell playing it?" I didn't. It left no impression at all, just like his clothes.

  • @zensorrow1: I fear Lisa Batiashvili would look rather weird in a tuxedo (smiley), she looked very stylish and appropriate in a long dress whe I was sooooo lucky to hear her in concert (Sibelius - one word breathtakingly and I don't mean the outfit). Nowadays the majority of violinists are women although I do agree elegance and style are a definite MUSTHAVE in a concert hall (and that means you too in the audience!!!)

    oh, and her hair was combed too

  • @zensorrow1 YES!!!

  • @zensorrow1 YES!!! you are RIGHT!!!!!

  • HALLELUJAH !

    The kids today have never known horror, let alone deep sorrow. They know antics, silly body movements and grandstanding, but none of them are great artists. They PERFORM, but they do NOT INTERPRET.

    THIS is the single secret to a great performance. One has to make the concerto their own. Brahms would have wanted it as romantic as possible. Brahms effuses here, gushing with open feelings. And NOBODY ever plays with FURY. Fury is a sign of bad temper, but Brahms DID have a temper....

  • @zensorrow1

    Why?

  • @zensorrow1 you're right, too many janine jansens these days. Heifetz and Szeryng were really the last true musicians in the world.

  • @punkypenguin321 There are still many amazing musicians today that are just waiting to be "discovered," though I mostly agree with your comment.

  • @zensorrow1 i agree, the most valuable thing to take away from this video is that henryk szeryng combed his hair, wore a tuxedo, and stood upright when he performed.

  • I love this interpretation! Szeryng doesn't make this look easy, you can really see him working hard on those phrases!

  • FANTASTIC recording!!!

    just wondering where is szeryng playing and what orchestra is playing with??

  • @XallyX941 Mr. Szeryng is not with us anymore.

  • truly, a delight to the ear

  • I immediately bought the recording of Szeryng playing this concerto after seeing this. Just incredible. Thanks for the upload.

  • Phenomenal. thank you so much for posting

  • i love your videos so much

    thnks!!

  • in Szeryng's hands the violin is like fine chocolate, melts in the ears.

  • chocolate melts in the ears ? eeww ! bwaha

  • @gnatural I love melted chocolate in my ears

    

  • @gnatural what a poetic saying! love it! :)

  • @gnatural I hear yah! I don't know how it happens!! Damn chocolate always finds its way in there, huh?!

  • 12.43 great

  • SZERYING has been one of my top favorite violinists! you should all listen to his Brahms Sonatas with Artur Rubinstein...i still haven't found a version to compare with the beauty, power, finesse and musicality and spontaneity of their partnership. SO beautiful and to this day i still can not forget it since i was a child listening to them.

  • His Beethoven Sonatas are beautiful too!

  • I have never heard his performances of those. but I am sure you are right about those. I always liked particularly the way Szerying produced a very large, full-bodied tone across the entire ranger of the instrument...where most violinists tend to "thin out" at the highest notes..he sounds as if they are played with two strings on the same pitch. really intense and full. i loved that in his playing. in his Bach solos he maintains the full length of double and triple stops so well.

  • Dios mio, es tanta la belleza de esta ejecución que se resiste a todo adjetivo.Gracias Brahms! Viva Szeryng!

  • wow, holy awesome...

  • COOL!!!!

    :D

  • it really good, though i'll vote for kavakos version!!!

  • This and Anne Sophie Mutter's recording with Masur are now my favorites. They both feel the music not just play it.

  • every violinist who has a specific professional decency, should listen to this video recording and take notice of every small details Szeryng is presenting in his playing......One of the great violinists!!!!

  • I heard him many times when I was a young student - surely the most elegant violinist ever.

  • Excellent.

  • The orchestra is French...don't know which one. The conductor is also French. I love Szeryng"s playing, especially the Bach Sonatas. Here in the Brahms he renders a very thoughtful and elegant interpretation with gorgeous tone throughout. No over playing as some do...FYI, he plays a Del Gesu...always has.

  • No, he plays an Andrea Guarneri called

    "Santa Teresa"..a fantasti instrument. Really, but Guarneri del Gesù it's another sound..i've played both violin.

    Szering is fantastic in this recording!

  • szeryng owned dozens of violins and used most of them. he gave many priceless violins and bows away as gifts to people he liked. Its close to impossible to know which instruments he played when. however, these were his most used violins

    -?Strad., A.

    -1752Guadagnini King David1734Strad., A. Leduc1743Guarn. d. G. Sanctae Theresiae1685Guarneri

  • @dkurgano Here he play King David Strad

  • who is conducting and what 's the orchestra?

  • Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire

    Paul Paray

    Recorded 1962

  • i think i like this better than stern's...

    but they're both excellent!

  • stern's recording on youtube is not the best...he is little out of the prime age

  • I watched a master class given by Szeryng at the Eastman School of Music in 1972. At one point he picked up a student's violin and started playing the Prokofiev Concerto #1 to demonstrate something. It was totally flawless--absolutely amazing technique. Unfortunately all of his recordings are now out of print along with all of the other violinists of that era (except for Heifitz).

  • I want to cry when I hear this recording...too touching...

  • This is great! For me, Szeryng was the greatest viloinist/musician of them all, and his Brahms was the best I've heard. IMO, his greatest recording of this piece was with Pierre Monteux conducting the London Symphony; oh, how I wish someone would restore this very hard to find recording to YouTube!

  • Hmm...I play with no shoulder rest and the violin near the end pin sits on my collar-bone and part of the back rest on my shoulder because when I lift my left hand my shoulder raises ever so slightly. Yet Henryk and Menuhin and Ferras don't do that...Unless I'm looking at it wrong.

    Can anyone help me with this? I don't get to see my private teacher for a while and I have recently adopted this way of holding the violin (I like the sound quality A LOT more) and I don't want to hurt myself.

  • Hi, I am a violinist too and I hold the violin in the exact same way you decribed. I've been doing this for a couple of years and I did not hurt my shoulder at all. The worst that could happen (it happened to me) is leaving a small mark on your collar bone, like the one violinist usually get on their neck.

  • I actually have both XD ok, I feel safe now. I just didn't want to hurt myself in anyway XD

    Thanks and happy Yule

  • The sound quality is going to be pretty much the same to someone 10 feet away from you. It's different for you because your ear is closer to the violin. If anything, not using a shoulder rest will dampen the sound because you are covering a larger portion of the violin's back than a shoulder rest would.

    Either way is probably fine, just make sure you don't develop unnecessary tension by raising your shoulder. It can lead to serious back issues.

  • I really like the way he plays this piece! His style with the double stops is amazing! And the cadenza is beautiful!

  • Here he's not drunk....

  • what makes you think he is ever drunk? and what difference does it make...so long as he plays the music beautifully. A little drink sometimes relaxes you.

  • maybe you're right.... but in my opinion it's better after the recital :D

  • what a wonderful instrument!!do anyone knows that??

  • Gvarneri del Gesu

  • The opening sounds like Brahms had Tchaikovsky on his mind.

  • oh! :D and i wa wondering why i liked it very much :D

  • 12.43!!!

  • @michaelrabinthebest

    so what ?

    its strange that there is no finish to that phrase written in score, Szeryng here does the right thing playing D note because he feels that phrase must be finished.

  • b-e-a-utiful!

  • But about 3rd movment I like Mr. Menuhin

  • I like Oistrahk. He play more interesting than all VIOLINIST's

  • I prefer Heifetz and then Kremer. Heifetz has a better cadenza ;)

  • No doubt about Szeryng, but the conductor and the orchestra... Who are they? Great Videos. Thanks for uploading.

  • has anybody heard Nigel Kennedy's recording of this concerto with the London Phil? If so, what did you think of his cadenza?

  • Didn't like it as much as the cadenza Oistrakh plays (not sure who the composer is, think it's Joachim). But of course a great cadenza still.

  • I think that Nigel Kennedy more like himself,than musik by Brahms/

  • The best and most personal live versions I've ever seen. Even today a standard on the highest level, which can be hardly achieved.

  • great violinist

  • he was absolutely the best for this concerto.. It is simply fantastic and uncredibile!!!Such feeling for the form and atmosphere!

  • fantastic.

  • Nobody will ever be as good at drawing out and manipulating the tempo and rhythm as Szeryng was. It's exactly why he was the authority on Bach. So good.

  • especially his lalo

    have you heard hahns brahms recording?

  • BRAVO BRAVO!

  • it's the best interpretation

  • yes, together with Milstein, Oistrach, Heifetz, Perlman, Kreisler, Joachim(?)etc.

  • Awesome entry for the violin in the first movement after the grand orchestral build-up. Szerying takes command.

  • This is from a December 1962 French television broadcast. Paul Paray conducts the Paris Conservatory Orchestra (Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire), the forerunner of the current Orcheste de Paris.

    Mr. Paray was also well known as an organist and composer, and he was best remembered for his conducting of music by French composers, particularly Camille Saint-Saëns.

  • I fail to see what you mean by that. If you're referring to the organization names in the post you replied to, you're even more clueless...all nouns have an almost exact translation in english...

  • Nardy is a liar. If they have the same phonetic translation then how do you explain "in." That pronunciation is the same as the "an" in ban, without the "n" sound. The "ine" figure is like the "an" in ban, with the "n." It is completely different. The extra "e" would make the vowel say itself in English, but in French it indicates that you enunciate the "n" sound. Completely different than english.

  • Yes, but how does it not have any phonetic significance? In your example, "ine" is usually phonetically different from "in" for a very good reason. Nouns have gender, a characteristic which English lacks (or rather doesn't need).

    Pronunciation takes all its sense and importance then, even if the spelling and meaning are almost the same as in English.

    In any case, any debate about "this language is illogical/too complex/etc" is trivial. Languages evolve to their current state for a good reason.

  • the brahms concerto with szeryng is outstanding, absolutely the best interpretation!

  • They are all wondeful composers, of course, but you missed out Boccherini...

  • I agree the jews rock when it comes to playing the violin. However,lets not forget the Italian violinist rocked first. In-addition to being violinist, they were great composers too.Tartini,Corelli,Vivaldi,Ge­miniani,Locatelli,Bazzini,Viot­ti,Veracini,Nardini,Pugnani and Paganini leading the pack.

  • who is the conductor ?

    thnx

  • Who is the Conductor ?

    Thnx

  • I'm playing this right now and I'm going to audition to juilliard with this piece. In addition to that, I'm playing the Bach Fuga in G Minor. I'm only fourteen...and so Szeryng serves as a good role model for me :]

  • Whatcha want a cookie?!

    Jes kiddin', good for you.

  • jews rock!: perlman, stern, szigeti, szeryng, milstein, kogan, haendel, heifetz, elman, menuhin, kreisler, oistrakh, mintz, shaham, gitlis, wieniawsi, zuckerman, bell, joachim, auer, vengerov, rabin,...

  • I agree

  • Can anyone teach me how to be jewish?

  • Ha! Nicely said :)

  • Paganini is Catholic as well as Christian Ferras and so many Belgian German and French violinists who are Christians. But you are right many Russian-Jewish are excellent. Among them the towering figures are David Oistrakh and Leonid Kogan. I would say only Kogan can be comparable to Paganini in technique and spirit. Leonid Kogan was the greatest among the 20th century violinist in my opinion.

  • i take it you knew paganini? ???

  • I take it that you knew too all these violinists when you said that "jews rock!: perlman, stern, szigeti, szeryng, milstein, kogan, haendel, heifetz, elman, menuhin, kreisler, oistrakh, mintz, shaham, gitlis, wieniawsi, zuckerman, bell, joachim, auer, vengerov, rabin,... "

  • i wasn't commenting on their technique or comparing anyone to the way they played, i was just stating facts that they were/are jews and were/are violin virtuosos. you can't compare anyones playing techniques to paganin's since nobody really knows how he played. so you're statement that kogan played like paganini doesn't make the least amount of sense.

  • I'd tke it you are not a violinist and don't make a lot of researches. I did so I know what I am saying.

  • wath orchestra is playing??, and who is the conductor??

  • Nice!!

  • THis is a HELL of a performance. The tone, the interpretation, the technique, the sincerity, it's all there. This concerto has to be one of the most often butchered by modern violinists. The only performance I'd put over this one is Heifetz/Reiner. The intellectuality of Heifetz's interpretation is both awe inspiring and emotionally touching. Trust me, Szeryng is the king of mortals, but Heifetz wasn't mortal.

  • Oh, I'd definitely agree. Not to put this recording down... but the Heifetz/Reiner recording is just phenomenal.