Martzy is, quite rightly,
something of a cult figure. Her early
death followed a truncated recording
career (squeezed out by Walter Legge
it seems) and a consequent reputation
that has rested in a degree of limbo.
The cult has been strongest in Japan
where all her Columbia recordings were
issued on TOCE CDs but Testament have
begun to reissue her discs and Tahra,
amongst others, has had access to live
broadcast performances.
The most important
document here is the Brahms Op.108,
which she never recorded commercially.
Jean Antonietti was a regular sonata
partner of hers of their broadcast was
given in October 1953. It takes Martzy
just a while to settle down and to control
her vibrato – there are some obtrusive
swellings in the opening movement and
a certain one dimensionality in her
vibrato usage – but when she relaxes
we hear some real buoyancy and rhythmic
incision in her playing. The slow movement
is warm without undue effusion and both
she and Antonietti combat the slightly
chilly studio acoustic well enough to
convey affection and drama in fairly
equal measure.
Martzy was no certainly
automaton when she gave her concerto
performances as the Mendelssohn and
the Brahms (a torso – the first movement
is missing) amply demonstrate. Testament
have brought out her Columbia recordings
of both these works with the Philharmonia
and Paul Kletzki (Brahms 1954, Mendelssohn,
1955) and the differences between these
almost contemporaneous live performances
and the commercial discs are unusually
significant for a top-flight artist.
Her Mendelssohn is considerably broader
in the NWDR performance in the first
two movements whereas the finale really
takes off with Jochum. With Kletzki
there’s a much more clearly stable sense
of tempo relationships but the extra
expression in the studio broadcast attests
to her spontaneity and willingness to
accommodate a conductor’s view. She
certainly takes an elastic view of the
first movement and is only slightly
heavy rhythmically (but enough to notice)
but it’s the finale that bears the most
weight of adrenalin. There’s still a
touch of over emphasis here but it’s
certainly exciting – though a contemporary
such as Leonid Kogan would never have
taken it at this tempo.
Her 1951 Brahms Concerto
reinforces these traits in her live
performances. She’s dramatically quicker
in the slow movement than she was to
be a few years later with Kletzki and
a shade quicker in the finale. Since
the first movement has been lost we
can’t tell if it stretched to the full
twenty-three minutes that it did with
Kletzki though I’d be surprised if it
did. She employs rather a rapid vibrato
throughout and a couple of very quick,
but not slick, portamenti. Whilst there’s
some rather blowsy bass spread in the
studio the performance was clearly an
engrossing one, notwithstanding a few
intonational slips in the finale.
The notes consist of
a brief biography of Martzy but adherents
will go directly to the music making;
enough has been written about her in
specialist magazines and journals –
and doubtless more will emerge in the
long promised biography. Live Martzy
is valuable and we find her here in
her youthful prime. What’s more Tahra
promises more live performances.
Jonathan Woolf
NWDR Symphony Orchestra/Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt,
recorded live, January 1954 
