Word: szigeti
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...sing in the best romantic tradition. This historic album, made at a Library of Congress recital in 1940, is one of the few recordings that survive to attest to Bartok's virtuosity as a performer, long eclipsed by his fame as a composer. With Master Violinist Joseph Szigeti, Bartok gives a bold and dramatic rendition of Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata and plays the Debussy Sonata for Violin and Piano lightly and brightly. The most striking performance, however, is the two Hungarians' demonic, clangorous attack on Bartok's own fierce and fantastic Second Sonata...
...Szigeti's reason for choosing the violin as his vessel is "the irrational pleasure that communication gives: communication that transcends the barriers of language, of nationality, of race." And he feels that other performers are attracted to the arduous profession for the same reason. Szigeti was made conscious of the rigors of communication because he had to translate everything from the relatively useless Hungarian of his youth. For him, the translation from written notes to sounds is entirely analogous. And it allows him to communicate with whomever he encounters en chemin...
...What discourages him most about American audiences is that "they allow themselves to be led, and then listen with only half an ear." While a significant minority has advanced beyond listening to music passively, the majority, has not. To this minority, and away from the "dicta" of concert management, Szigeti has turned. Although he wants to slow the pace of his adventures, he performs gladly for colleges, museums, and music groups. He will soon play the Beethoven concerto in Athens, and then serve as a judge at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow...
...Szigeti measures an artist in large part by his catholicity. The artist is valuable who is "constantly reaching out for challenges ever farther from his original field or medium." The artist who is szigeti he dislikes...
...Szigeti met Bartok in the 1920's when he and the composer covered Europe in a concert tour...