Beethoven - Violin Sonata 9 [Szeryng/ Haebler]
Wow what a disc!, i won this recently on Ebay for a fortune, something like £27!, but to my surprise the disc is even better than anticipated, it's not as old as i thought, recorded in 1979, only just before the digital era, and the sound is superb.
Henryk Szeryng was Polish, and Ingrid Haebler is Austrian, Szeryng died in 1988, and Haebler is still alive, i am not an expert on Szeryng, so it's a nice revelation to hear how good he really is, if there's one thing you notice about him right away, it's the fact he has such a lovely sweetness about his playing.
I enjoyed the variation middle movement, some lovely playing by Haebler at the end of variation 4, especially in the left hand, very precise, and yet 'background' and supporting Szeryng nicely [track 10, 2:35-3:04], in the coda, she can be so wistful [track 11, 0:29+], and her phrasing gets extra wistful [0:43+ & 0:56+], deep down the star of the show might indeed be Ingrid Haebler, but they are great partners, very suited to each other, very enjoyable playing indeed.
The booklet is lovely, a nice photo of daisies by Bonnie Rauch, i love these 'Silver Line Classics' by Philips, there are some lovely gems among the releases, if you can find them on Ebay.
Here's Joshua Beel and Yuja Wang playing this middle movement on YouTube.
