Joseph Szigeti- Hubay: The Zephyr

Jenő Hubay, the master of Szigeti composed the zephyr.
Recorded on 1 january 1913; London

Joseph Szigeti (Hungarian: Szigeti József) (September 5, 1892 February 19, 1973) was a Hungarian virtuoso violinist. Born into a musical family, he spent his early childhood in a small town in Transylvania. He quickly proved himself to be a child prodigy on the violin, and moved to Budapest with his father to study with renowned pedagogue Jenő Hubay. After completing his studies with Hubay in his early teens, Szigeti began his international concert career. His concertizing at that time was primarily limited to salon-style recitals and the more overtly virtuosic repertoire; however, after making the acquaintance of pianist Ferruccio Busoni, he began to develop a much more thoughtful and intellectual approach to music that eventually earned him the nickname "The Scholarly Virtuoso".

Following a bout of tuberculosis which necessitated a stay in a sanatorium in Switzerland, Szigeti settled in Geneva where he became Professor of Violin at the local conservatory in 1917. It was in Geneva that he met his wife, Wanda Ostrowska, and at roughly the same time he became friends with the great composer Béla Bartók. Both relationships were to be lifelong.

From the 1920s until 1960, Szigeti performed regularly around the world and recorded extensively. He also distinguished himself as a strong advocate of new music, and was the dedicatee of many new works by contemporary composers. Among the more notable pieces written for him are Ernest Bloch's Violin Concerto, Bartók's Rhapsody No. 1, and Eugène Ysaÿe's Solo Sonata No. 1. He retired from the concert stage in 1960 and occupied himself with teaching and writing until his death in 1973, at the age of 80.

About Jenő Hubay (September 15, 1858, Pest - March 12, 1937) was an Hungarian violinist, composer and music teacher.Hubay was born into a German family of musicians, with the name Eugen Huber. During his twenties, while living in the French-speaking world, he chose to adopt a Hungarian style for his name.

Hubay was trained in violin and music by his father Karl, concertmaster of the Hungarian National Opera House and a teacher at the Budapest College of Music. Hubay gave his début public performance playing a concerto at the age of 11.

At the age of 13 Hubay studied abroad in Berlin for five years, receiving tuition from Joseph Joachim. In 1878, following the advice of Franz Liszt, he made his début in Paris, which was a great success. Sitting in the audience was Henri Vieuxtemps with whom Hubay formed an intimate friendship and from whom he received tuition. In 1882 Hubay was employed at the Brussels music institute as the head of the department of violin studies. Returning to Hungary in 1886 he took up employment as his father's successor as head of the Budapest College of Music. The same year, he established the Budapest Quartet with fellow teacher at the College cellist David Popper. Hubay's main pupils, aside from József Szigeti and Andre Gertler, included Eugene Ormandy (who later turned to conducting). He also taught many female violinists such as Stefi Geyer, Bártok's first love, to whom he dedicated his first violin concerto, and Jelly d'Arányi, Joachim's niece who was successful in England and France and who collaborated on Maurice Ravel's Tzigane, and Ilona Feher. He was taught by Joseph Joachim. As a soloist Hubay gained the praise of Vieuxtemps, Johannes Brahms and many others.

As a chamber musician he formed two string quartets, one while he was in Brussels and one with David Popper during his Budapest (Budapest Quartet) years. With Popper he performed chamber music on more than one occasions with Brahms, including the premiere of Brahms's Piano Trio Op. 101.[1]

His favourite instrument was a Stradivarius. Hubay composed four concertos and a very large number of encore pieces. His concertos have themes from Hungarian Gypsy music, and his "gentle breeze" pieces are composed as if to continue the tradition of the German romantics such as Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, sharing features with the compositional style of his chamber music partner, the cellist David Popper.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• josef
• szigeti
• hubay
• bela
• bartok
• london
• hungarian
• violonist
• violin

[paulostroff99]

Superb! Went right to my favourites. Bravo! TY.

[82224561]

Joseph Szigeti,a splendid violinist!!!

I have the same piece with Tibor Varga!!

Thanks for this record!

poicpi

[kristinadundjerski]

beatufil!!thanks:)

[sevcik2]

Superb performance!

Joseph Szigeti´s playing comes from another realm. The way he interprets Hubay is indescribable to me...

Thank you for uploading this gem!

[cdavistwo]

@yamelchenko 1913

[ipmoic]

What a sheer delight! Obviously Szigeti was some virtuoso and here, at age 21, we can hear him polishing off his teacher's ball of fluff with flair and pizazz. Many, many thanks.

[yamelchenko]

the equipment used here was not too good i've noticed, but, overall good piece

[callasdimitrova]

amazing recording!

very touching

thanks!