Zoltán Székely: Bartók, Glazunov

The Strad Issue: September 2024

Description: A revered Hungarian violinist celebrated as soloist and chamber musician

Musicians: Zoltán Székely (violin) Géza Frid (piano) Hungarian Quartet; Hague Residentie-Orkest/Willem van Otterloo

Works: Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances (arr. Székely): nos.1, 3, 4 and 6; String Quartets: no.5; no.6. Glazunov: Violin Concerto

Catalogue number: BIDDULPH 85048-2

These 1937–48 records document the great Hungarian violinist Zoltán Székely as soloist and in the role which became his life’s work, leading the Hungarian Quartet.

The beautiful performance of the Glazunov was his sole studio concerto recording (fortunately we also have the premiere of the Bartók Second). The sound, from wartime Decca 78rpm discs, is hissy but Otterloo and his fine band assist in an enterprise that is really worthwhile.

What a shame Székely and Géza Frid, his regular duo partner at the time, recorded only four of his transcriptions of Bartók’s six Romanian Folk Dances in 1937 (Szigeti and Bartók managed all six in 1930). He plays with debonair insouciance and both he and Frid give us lovely dynamic shading.

When the Hungarian Quartet recorded Bartók’s Fifth Quartet in 1946 the ensemble still included two of those members who had studied it with the composer. No other group has matched this interpretation (repeated in stereo for DG with an even more homogeneous line-up). What marks it out from others is its humour and geniality; for once the satirical tea-shop episode in the finale fits into the general picture of Bartók’s most droll quartet.

The Sixth, set down in 1948, is far more melancholic. Here, the technical and rhythmical address of these players cannot conceal the fact that any apparent joyousness is forced gaiety.

The sound in the two quartets, from HMV originals, is excellent. The transfers were done by Dave Hermann, news of whose death reached me just before I started writing this review.

TULLY POTTER