Béla BARTÓK (1881-1945)
Contrasts for violin, clarinet and piano, Sz111 (1938) [16:57]
Rhapsody No.1 for violin and piano Sz.86 (1928) [9:13]
Mikrokosmos Sz.107 (1926-39) - excerpts [45:24]
Josef Szigeti (violin)
Benny Goodman (clarinet)
Béla Bartók (piano)
rec. May 1940, NYC
NAXOS HISTORICAL 8.111343 [71:35]
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 52nd 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