Beethoven - Violin Sonata 9 [Szeryng/ Haebler] Roughly this time last year, this same disc / work appeared in my Blog [9th March 2010], so it works out a years rotation for this disc to come round again, and i echo my sentiments there, i indeed purchased this disc on Ebay for a small fortune, it seems everyone wanted to get their hands on it, so i had to bid a large amount [£27!], but i so much enjoyed listening to this disc today, it exceeded my expectations, and it's working out to be worth every single penny of the price i paid.
Henryk Szeryng was a Polish Violinist, born in 1918, and died in 1988 in the middle of a tour, playing professionally right to the end of his life, this recording was made in 1979, a surprise to me as the two Artists on this recording i always viewed as 'old', and therefore had old mono recordings, so it was a lovely shock to find this disc so well recorded, it just misses out on the digital era, these 'Silver Line Classics' by Philips are a treasure, and this is one of the best, showing pink and white daisies [photo by Bonnie Rauch].
First off i must say a few words about the Pianist on this recording Ingrid Haebler [still alive i believe], she is absolutely terrific, she plays her heart out, very intense playing that keeps Szeryng on his toes, after all this is not a 'Violin Sonata', but rather a 'Sonata for Violin and Piano', and Haebler is so strong that she is in danger of stealing the limelight here, Szeryng is 'sweet and lyrical', Haebler is 'strong and intense', put them together and they make a great partnership.
The movement i so much enjoyed was again the middle variation movement, here Szeryng and Haebler play an intense game of tag, egging each other on to greater lyrical heights of power, and variety of colour and nuance,
Here's Pinchas Zukerman playing the middle slow movement on YouTube.
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