What could be more alluring than the stark dynamism of Bartók’s
piano playing, the warm timbral shading of Benny Goodman’s
clarinet and the astringent aristocracy of Josef Szigeti’s
violin? Of course it means the composer’s
Contrasts in
this famed old 1940 recording, restored once more under the
Bartók
plays Bartók rubric of the Naxos Historical series.
If anything is self-evidently definitive in the context of the
composer’s own contribution then this is surely it, and
the fact that all three of the works here comprise Bartók’s
complete commercial American discography adds a further gloss
on the matter.
Contrasts was commissioned by Goodman. We can admire
his puckish curlicues at the end of the
Verbunkos recruiting
dance and reflect on the fact that he would have sounded rather
different had he studied earlier with Reginald Kell; not better,
necessarily, but different. Szigeti’s provocative abrasions
act as fruitful soil-drenched Hungarian astringencies. The nocturnal
fireflies of the central movement are faithfully captured. No
less so is the pungent chordal support supplied by the composer
in the
Sebes, that fast dance finale, in which Szigeti’s
intense flourishes elaborate on the opening Saint-Saëns-derived
Danse
Macabre figures. It ends a must-have collaboration.
The Rhapsody was written in 1928 and was a suitable vehicle for
Szigeti’s biting and wholly magnificent fiddling. He was
not yet afflicted with the tremulous bow arm and inevitable co-ordination
problems that were to appear later in the 1940s. Here his terse
tonal reserves are entirely appropriate. That said, his playing
is even more energised and committed in the live Library of Congress
recital that he gave with the composer and which has been preserved;
the studio recording sounds that much less uninhibited, so to
sample the really real deal you should consult transfers such
as those on Vanguard
OVC8008 or
Hungaroton HCD
12330.
The final item is a selection from
Mikrokosmos played
by the composer over four days in April and May 1940. He plays
32 pieces in all, and they were grouped by matrix into threes
- mainly. He recorded two sets of four, one of two and No.144,
the ‘Minor Seconds, Major Sevenths’ was housed on
a separate matrix of its own given that it lasts over four minutes.
These are wonderful artefacts, compressed gems of pianism and
touch. No.120 the ‘Fifth Chords’ is especially volatile
and vibrant; No.151, the ‘Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm’ comes
close to a 52
nd Street dive, and the most elusive
is that long 144.
The transfers are first class. For my own tastes in the Rhapsody,
I’m not wholly averse to Lewis C Wiener’s brighter,
more open sound on Biddulph LAB070-71. But this all-round conspectus
stands at a tangent because it’s predicated on the totality
of Bartók’s New York recordings.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review by Dominy Clements
Josef Szigeti (violin) 
