Henryk Szeryng

HenrYk szerYng
greaT violinisTs Part 2
Henryk Szeryng
A highly cultured musician, Henryk Szeryng combined technical brilliance with
a profound sensitivity to the sound of every note he played, says JuliAn HAylock
One of music’s great aristocrats, Henryk Szeryng
was a perfectionist in all things violinistic. A man
of phenomenal intellect, he combined exemplary
musical taste with a super-refined technique and
ravishing purity of intonation.
Teachers and sTudies
Szeryng started piano and harmony lessons with his mother
when he was three. At seven he began studying the violin
with Maurice Frenkel, one of Leopold Auer’s most valued
assistants, who emphasised the importance of intonational
purity. However, the single greatest influence on Szeryng’s
playing style was Carl Flesch (teacher of Ida Haendel, Ginette
Neveu, Max Rostal and Szymon Goldberg). Szeryng studied
with Flesch in Berlin from 1930 to 1933, and later confessed:
‘Everything I know, violinistically speaking, I learnt from
him. He was a disciplinarian, a technician, but he had one
overriding tenet – not to impress his personality on pupils
who had a personality of their own.’ Szeryng’s formal
education was rounded out via lessons with Jacques Thibaud
(briefly) and Gabriel Bouillon in Paris, where he graduated
from the Conservatoire in 1937 with the first prize.
Technique and inTerpreTaTive sTyle
Szeryng was a man of extraordinary intellect and culture – he
spoke at least seven languages fluently – and this was reflected
in his playing style. Purity in everything was his watchword.
His intonation was ear-ringingly precise, often pushed towards
the bright side during sustained notes for added brilliance and
transparency of sound. His sensitivity to tuning was so acute
that he would often subtly bend notes fractionally, thereby
using intonation as a potent expressive force.
Flesch made Szeryng study every one of Ševčík’s innumerable
studies, something that might have stifled
a lesser talent, but Szeryng thrived on it.
As a result, more than with any other
violinist, one can sense him violinistically
thinking out loud. Even in a single bow
stroke, he often went through a variety
of colours by gently rotating the stick
and subtly altering the rate of vibrato,
pressure and velocity. David Oistrakh
once enthused that Szeryng played the
Tchaikovsky Concerto technically even
better than him.
Szeryng held his bowing arm
unusually high and his left arm well
under the violin, with a generous elbow
reCoMMended reCordingS
Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin
DEuTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 453 004-2
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
DECCA 475 8040 (5 CDS)
Brahms: Violin Concerto
EMI CLASSIC ARCHIvE 4 90440 9 (DvD)
Mozart: Violin Concertos nos.1–5
PHILIPS 464 810-2
Paganini: Violin Concertos nos.1 and 4
PENTATONE PTC 518 6178
Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto no.3
PHILIPS 442 608-2
rotation that ensured the fingers were always well supported.
He played with an unusually loose bow, designed to enhance
the natural resonances of his violin. His bow hold moved from
the relatively firm hold he had after his lessons with Flesch to
a more lithe, French style (complete with flexible index finger)
following his contact with Thibaud. This change gave Szeryng
a more malleable sound.
Despite the aristocratic precision of his technique, Szeryng
made everything look effortless. Camera close-ups reveal
that during those vital seconds before a difficult entry in a
concerto he invariably appeared nonchalant and unconcerned.
The fingers of his left hand were extremely strong so that
although he used only medium weight and pressure
(he couldn’t abide banging the fingers down on the
fingerboard), his playing possessed unusual clarity. He gave
each and every note its own special weight, which created the
strange impression on occasion that he was playing slower
than he actually was, almost as though he was stretching
time (the complete opposite, for example, of Heifetz).
Szeryng generally employed a medium-paced, basic vibrato,
yet by varying the finger weight, pulse and width, he obtained an
unusually varied tonal palette. He preferred to enhance intensity
not by increasing vibrato speed but by opening up the full width
of the bow hair at high pressure, going daringly close to the
bridge. In the upper reaches of the E string this had an effect akin
to blinding light in its shimmering purity. To watch Szeryng was
to experience a live masterclass in the art of playing the violin.
sound
The Szeryng sound was completely individual and had
extraordinary penetration. Like most violinists of his
generation, Szeryng concentrated on the middle and upper
end of the dynamic range, yet with an openness and honesty
free of the slightest hint of gloss or self-
conscious allure. Despite its meticulous
regulation, Szeryng’s sound possessed
a tantalising combination of warmth
and plangency that at its most poignant
– as in the slow movement of the
Saint-Saëns B minor Concerto – carried
extraordinary emotional power.
sTrengThs
Szeryng’s aristocratic interpretative
demeanour and technical mastery
imparted a profound sense of musical
worth to everything he played. It didn’t
matter whether it was Brahms or
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Paganini, Beethoven or Khachaturian, Mozart or Kreisler,
he made every work sound like a bona fide masterpiece.
Weaknesses
very occasionally, when accenting with a fast bow towards the
end of his career, Szeryng would play through a note before it
had focused properly, resulting in a glazed ‘whistle’. Some critics
detect an occasional hint of emotional reserve in his playing.
insTrumenTs and boWs
Szeryng’s principal instrument throughout his career was the
1745 ‘Leduc’ Guarneri ‘del Gesù’, which he considered a violin
without parallel. He generously gave away the dozen-or-so
other instruments he owned at various times, including the
‘Hercules’ Stradivari (a former Ysaÿe favourite), which he
donated to the state of Israel in 1972, his ‘Messiah’ Stradivari
copy by vuillaume, which he later presented to Prince
Rainier III of Monaco, and the ‘Sancta Theresia’ Andrea
Guarneri, which went to Mexico City.
reperToire
Szeryng was one of the most widely recorded of modern
violinists. Out of a regular playing repertoire of some 250 pieces
www.thestrad.com
Despite the aristocratic
precision of his technique,
Szeryng made everything
look effortless
he took more than 150 into the recording
studio, although currently the majority
of these are awaiting reissue or in some
cases transfer to CD. The essential
purity of Szeryng’s playing style and
interpretative vision can be savoured
especially in music of the Baroque and
Classical eras. His exemplary recording of
Bach’s accompanied sonatas with Helmut
Walcha is available as a Japanese import,
and although his peerless first stereo
recording of the Bach concertos (with
Peter Rybar in the ‘Double’ Concerto)
is difficult to find, the remake with
Maurice Hasson is also extremely fine.
Most celebrated of his Bach recordings is
the stereo set of the Sonatas and Partitas.
Szeryng was also a distinguished
Mozartian, as witness supremely
stylish accounts of the concertos with
Alexander Gibson (inexplicably the
Sinfonia concertante with Bruno
Giuranna has never appeared on CD)
and sonatas with Ingrid Haebler.
He gave the modern premiere of
Paganini’s Third Concerto, having tracked down the score
with the help of the composer’s two octogenarian greatgranddaughters.
He was a superb advocate of the central
20th-century repertoire, and several composers dedicated
works to him, including Carlos Chávez, Benjamin Lees,
Jean Martinon and Manuel Ponce.
EssEntial Facts
1918 Born in Warsaw, Poland
1930 Begins four years of study with Carl Flesch
1933 Makes debut in Warsaw with the Brahms Concerto
1933 Begins composition studies with nadia Boulanger
1939 gives some 300 concerts for the Allies during World War II
1946 Becomes a naturalised Mexican citizen
1954 resumes playing career at suggestion of Artur rubinstein
1970 Appointed Mexico’s special adviser to UnesCO
1983 Fiftieth anniversary tour of the Us and europe
1988 Dies in kassel, germany, aged 69
nexT monTh ISaac Stern
HenrYk szerYng
JULY 2009 The sTrad 29