Johanna Martzy: Her Columbia Graphophone Recordings | Warner 9029648857

Johanna Martzy: Her Columbia Graphophone Recordings

£34.15

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Label: Warner

Cat No: 9029648857

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 9

Release Date: 4th March 2022

Contents

About

Johanna Martzy (1924-1979) became a cult figure on the basis of a handful of recordings – but only after her premature death, an event that passed almost unnoticed. The meteoric career of this distinguished ambassadress of the Hungarian violin school in no way foretold her posthumous idolisation. And yet her historic recordings of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas and stunning readings of Schubert’s complete works for violin and piano, together with a few first-class concerto discs, make up a legacy whose scarcity has driven prices sky high. At last, collectors can stop trying to outbid one another: remastered in high definition from the original tapes, this priceless treasure trove is now available to all.

Johanna Martzy was a Hungarian violinist who was born in Timișoara (Romania) in 1924 and died – in relative obscurity – of cancer in 1979 in Zurich. In her early years, she studied with Jenö Hubay before entering the Budapest Academy of Music at 10 years old. She made her debut in Budapest at the age of 13 and graduated from the Academy at 18. In 1947, she won second place at the Geneva competition, just one year before she would leave Hungary permanently to settle in Glarus, Switzerland. Thereafter, her Hungarian audience would only hear of her international success from afar. Her much-applauded debut in Great Britain in 1953 led to a series of tours over the next decade, followed by her first appearances in America in 1957 which generated another flood of invitations. She was subsequently signed by Walter Legge for Columbia (EMI), for whom she made several wonderful recordings: Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, some concertos with Kletzki, and Schubert’s chamber music with pianist Jean Antonietti. Unfortunately, when her initial deal came to its end – and after Walter Legge had procured the signatures of David Oistrakh and Leonid Kogan – her contract was not renewed.

The soul of her art was her coloristic expressiveness, delivered with such precision and discretion that each phrase became a tiny, and rich, world of its own. Johanna Martzy’s solo J.S. Bach has in fact acquired iconic status. Deploying the sturdy rhythm and glowing tone that are features of all her recordings, she gives balanced, middle-of-the-road interpretations, unhurried and free of self-indulgence. The three original LPs were well received on both sides of the Atlantic. In America the New York Herald Tribune chose the set as one of its recordings of 1956. In England Edward Greenfield of The Manchester Guardian preferred her set of the Sonatas and Partitas to that of Jascha Heifetz. The question of her vibrato was also brought up by Schonberg after her New York début: ‘Her Bach was anything but purist and “classic” in conception. She approached the music with decisive rhythm and a good deal of vibrato.’ Her interpretations are directly in the tradition of Hungarian fiddlers such as Szigeti, Telmányi and Varga: her native flair and unshowy virtuosity make up for any ‘romantic’ habits in her playing.

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