Eloquence Classics

“Vintage Szigeti and authentic Brahms. Here is the Concerto with boldness and nobility. Following the performance with the score will reveal countless musical points overlooked by most interpreters … his playing strikes a perfect balance between mind and heart.” High Fidelity, March 1960 (Brahms Concerto)

“I must say that I am bowled over by it! The playing has a security and ease which I have not heard from Szigeti in years … It is an interpretation of subtle shadings and instinctive phrasing which actually sheds a new light on this beloved masterpiece.” Stereo Review, June 1960 (Brahms Concerto)

 “Szigeti is the star of the show, although there is no slighting of either of his colleagues. There is tenderness and depth in the interpretations with splendid ensemble and stylistic rapport among the players. The horn tone is vibrant and the recording luminous.” Stereo Review, September 1960 (Brahms, Horn Trio, Second Sonata)

“A dedication and a matured concept that really comes to grips with the essential aesthetic of the music … represents the accumulated experience of a lifetime of distinguished devotion to the violin literature.” Stereo Review, November 1960 (Brahms Concerto)

“Although Szigeti’s edition is less technically polished than some others, I prefer it for its musical vitality.” High Fidelity, December 1961 (Brahms Concerto)

“No violinist of the present day is more worthy of special honor … The sonata uses the total coloristic spectrum of which the violin is capable … and no one plays [it] so hair-raisingly as Szigeti.” High Fidelity, May 1963 (Prokofiev, First Sonata)

 “A performance, based upon a lifetime of study, that sustains the noblest mood of spiritual elevation … a record that many a younger violinist is certain to view with unconcealed envy.” High Fidelity, September 1964 (Beethoven Concerto)

 “There is much to be gotten from this essentially introspective reading, particularly from those details of violin phrasing that are a Szigeti speciality, and one cannot help admiring the soloist’s interpretation and the beautifully played orchestral accompaniment.” Stereo Review, April 1965 (Beethoven Concerto)

“It is a pleasure to report that time has not even begun to dim that marvellous identification between performer and composer that has been Mr Szigeti’s mark in so much contemporary music. Everything sounds as though Prokofiev destined the concerto to be played Mr Szigeti’s way and no other. The work is a natural organism under Mr Szigeti’s fingers and bow.” New York Times, 1965 (Prokofiev, Concerto No 1)

 “Szigeti’s identification with both these scores is almost as old as the music itself … The things that were cherishable about the early performances – the supreme feeling for the tension within a phrase, the dazzling imagination with which rhythmic features were detailed, the humor – are all present again in these new ones.” High Fidelity, September 1965 (Prokofiev/Stravinsky)

“This is a remarkable disc, which not only brings together three or four early twentieth-century pieces (depending on whether you count the Honegger) of real importance but also documents anew the interest that one of the century’s great violinists has long taken in latter-day writing for his instrument.” High Fidelity, July 1966 (Webern/Ives/Honegger etc)