Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A virtuoso violinist who made his Berlin debut in 1905 and later toured with Melba and McCormack.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19
The one work that has passed into the repertoire... the Prokofiev First Concerto.
The other one that has recently had several recordings, among them one by Yehudi Menuhin is the Ernest Bloch Concerto.
Joseph Szigeti, Béla Bartók, Benny Goodman
I suggested that he write something for piano, violin and clarinet, having in mind Benny Goodman... We gave its first performance at Carnegie Hall.
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2
The second sonata which I often played with him
Works by Albert Roussel, Darius Milhaud, and others
many other things by Albert Roussel, by Milhaud, and so on.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:32I believe the violin wasn't the first instrument you learned?
No, I just uh dabbled in the chimbalom when I first started fiddling around without a fiddle and then I started uh regular lessons with my uncle.
Presenter asks
3:47When did you first record?
Oh, that was very early. That was in Caruso's days and it was in the days of the papier-mâché horn into which you had to play… I first made my records for HMV down at City Road.
Presenter asks
4:32Tell me about the instruments you play, Mr Szigeti. How many violins do you usually travel with?
Two. One of them, the one I had in the twenties and played in the twenties, was the so-called Henri Petri Guarneri… and the one I play on now is the so-called Count Baldeschi Guarneri, dated seventeen hundred and one.
Presenter asks
6:37Are you superstitious, as many artists are?
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
No.
Presenter asks
6:51Which are the works that you're proudest to have given the first performance of?
Well, I would say the one work that has passed into the repertoire is the Prokofiev First Concerto. And the other one that has recently had several recordings, among them one by Yehudi Menuhin is the Ernest Bloch Concerto… And naturally there were many other things by Albert Roussel, by Milhaud, and so on.
Presenter asks
8:35At one time you had a considerable interest in jazz. Do you still have that interest?
I think it has abated somewhat. You know, in those days, in the twenties, and this is linked up, of course, with this particular Bartók work, Contrasts. And I suggested that he write something for piano, violin and clarinet, having in mind Benny Goodman… The first portion of this three-movement work involves something that was usual perhaps in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, but quite unknown now, namely a violin tuned, not E A D G, but F E D G sharp. I had to change over very quickly in public performance because you can't tune in the middle while the thing is rushing on.
“I supplemented the very slim education that I got during my violin study years. You see, I only went to elementary school. And I started concertizing when I was thirteen.”
“I was on one of Melba's last tours with John McCormack. Well Ada Crossley… Those great Edwardian singers.”
“I had to slow down. I didn't stop entirely. That was in nineteen thirteen. But my practice time was limited by my doctor to twenty-five, thirty minutes a day… those years of sort of convalescence… gave me time to read, to think, not to plunge headlong into the competitive prodigy or virtuoso life.”
“I was on the plane up to its crash in which Carole Lombard perished in nineteen forty-two. I was on a tour and she was on a bond selling tour… when some test pilots at one of the intermediary stops had to be given seats, I was told to give up mine. And that saved my life. It crashed about half an hour later.”
“I realized that Bartók didn't know anything about Goodman's notoriety and celebrity. So I had Benny send him a batch of his records so that he could familiarize himself with Benny's playing style. He delivered this extraordinarily successful work… the assignment of writing for this very unusual combination is a real challenge.”