Henryk Szeryng (violin)
New Philharmonia Orchestra/alexander Gibson Decca 478 4271 (1966/69)
Henryk Szeryng was one of the great aristocrats of the violin, for whom purity of interpretative thought was paramount. his outstanding qualities – musical eloquence, precision, elegant phrasing, virtuoso ease and a tantalising combination of technical sophistication and expressive simplicity – were tailor-made for Mozart’s lucid soundworlds. Time and again throughout his transcendent Mozart concerto series from the 1960s, with a devoted New Philharmonia Orchestra under Alexander Gibson, Szeryng turns phrases with such naturalness and understanding that it is as if Mozart were thinking out loud.
So how exactly does Szeryng achieve his miracles? The short answer is by a series of exquisite, microcosmic inflections, so subtle one is barely aware they are happening. These are achieved in part by tiny adjustments of bow angle, pressure and velocity interacting with one another, seamlessly attuned to the violin’s natural resonances. These are further intensified by his supreme left-hand precision of vibrato (often shaded down to nothing) and intonation so incandescently pure as to set the ears ringing. Szeryng viewed tempo as a living, breathing organism, and here he matches changes in the character of the music with infinitesimal relaxations and injections of pulse, barely detectable yet instinctively felt. Like Mozart’s music itself, his playing feels continually alive and responsive while retaining its supreme aristocratic poise.
Yet for all his attention to detail, it is his deep fondness for this glorious music that is most urgently conveyed. This is felt particularly in Mozart’s unusually varied finales, which range from No. 1’s exuberant, quick-fire semiquavers to
No. 4’s drone-accompanied rustic episode and No. 5’s outburst of ‘alla turca’ highjinks, with the cellos and basses instructed to play col legno (with the wood of the
Like Mozart’s music itself, Szeryng’s playing always feels alive and responsive
bow). Szeryng’s choice of cadenzas is (for its period) also impeccable, including those by Sam Franko, Joseph Joachim and George Enescu.
Widely available on streaming platforms and as part of the Philips (now Decca) Mozart Edition, Szeryng’s exemplary Mozart series – which includes the ‘dubious’ concerto K271a, three shorter pieces and the Concertone – has also been reunited on CD with an outstanding account of the K364 Sinfonia concertante with violist Bruno Giuranna in a box set (Decca 483 4194) of Szeryng’s complete recordings for Philips, DG and Mercury.