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News Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2. with Péter Szervánszky
“Péter Szervánszky gave us an interpretation of the masterpiece for violin, by Béla Bartók, such as we have not heard for many years. It was perfect and each note was a delight.” - Musical Opinion (London, England)
This album contains a historical recording of the live radio broadcast from the Hungarian premiere of Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2. performed by Péter Szervánszky with the Székesfővárosi (Metropolitan) Orchestra, conducted by János Ferencsik at the Vigadó concert hall in Budapest on January 5, 1944.
The recording owes its existence to the Babits-Makai collection of recordings, done by the pioneering Hungarian recording engineer, István Makai, of all the Bartók performances broadcast by Radio Budapest from 1936 onwards. Due to the war, Makai was unable to obtain recording tapes, so he resorted to obtaining X-ray plates from hospitals on which he could record. This recording of the Violin Concerto remained in the Babits Collection and is issued here for the first time on BMC Records. It is the only remaining evidence of Péter Szervánszky’s playing as in the end of the 1940s, like many other musicians, he looked for a new, more artistically fruitful life in South America and he settled down in Peru, and spent his active years there from 1950 until 1977. In 1977, he suffered a stroke and was then brought back to spend his last years with his brothers and sisters in Budapest. He died in 1985.
Listening to the profound and rhapsodic beauty of the opening of this concerto makes us realise that Szervánszky was an extraordinary artist. This recording is his memorial.