I must confess that I have long awaited this release of Brahms recorded by Hungarian virtuoso Joseph Szigeti (1892-1973) in 1951-1952, although I trust this disc is merely the first installment from a treasure chest of such materials. Szigeti and Horszowski (1892-1993) recorded all three of the Brahms sonatas, the first and last having been issued through CBS (ML 5266) and the A Major on Mercury (and coupled on disc with the Horn Trio). The G Major Sonata (20 April 1951) generates intimacy and suave spontaneity; and despite Szigeti’s often wiry, nervous tone, a fine blend of Hungarian and Viennese elements. The dotted rhythm will suddenly evolve into a melancholy waltz, a resigned sigh. The delicacy of Szigeti’s diminuendo before the coda of the first movement, the swift undercurrent of passion from Horszowski, remain for me quite compelling. The Adagio is one of those rainy-day meditations, with a touch of martial anguish, like the composer’s later Intermezzo in B-flat Major, Op. 117, No. 2. What would collectors give for late, solo Brahms with Horszowski? Saturated with innigkeit (inwardness), the Adagio quite haunts one. The rippling piano part against dotted rhythm in the Allegro molto moderato bestows the rainy epithet on the piece, a lyrical meditation in G Minor. Szigeti urges the tender melodic line without forcing it, but the cumulative effect is poignant and thoroughly stylistic. Quiet, fine sonics make this restoration a natural classic.
The C Minor Piano Quartet performance from June 1952 derives from CBS inscriptions of the Casals Festival in Prades. The superstar ensemble has perennial favorite Myra Hess (1890-1965) at the keyboard, in one of her more febrile, passionate moods. How did Brahms characterize this 1875 piece–as a suicidal impulse directly from Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther. Its emotional ties to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony reveal themselves early, and we have to wait for the E Major Andante to savor the joys of Paul Tortelier’s (1914-1990) soulful cello. Milton Katims has his viola moments in the Scherzo. Szigeti and Hess each contribute many musical sparks to a demonized, urgent performance of one of the darkest of chamber works from the pen of Johannes Brahms, whose original ideas spawned in the mid 1850s, following the abortive suicide attempt of Robert Schumann. Sterling transfers by David Hermann make me salivate to think the rest of the Szigeti Brahms sonatas may be imminent, along with the precious Prades and Perpignan Festival material from CBS.
