Joseph Szigeti

Joseph Szigeti ( born September 5, 1892 in Budapest, † February 19, 1973 in Lucerne ) was an American violinist and teacher of Hungarian origin.

Life

Szigeti was as a child in Budapest Jenő Hubay pupil of. After his debut in Berlin at the age of thirteen, he traveled through Europe as a child prodigy. In 1907 he undertook a concert tour with Ferruccio Busoni by England; In 1913 he settled in Switzerland, where he taught as a violin professor at the Conservatory of Geneva from 1917 to 1925.

His U.S. debut he had in 1925 with Beethoven's Violin Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski in Carnegie Hall. In the following years he has toured regularly in the USA, where in 1940 he took refuge after the beginning of World War II because of his Jewish ancestry. With the pianist Andor Foldes, his Hungarian compatriot, he formed a duo that successfully concertante traveled for three years by the States. In 1951 he became an American citizen. Since 1960 he again lived in Switzerland, where he gave master classes.

Szigeti devoted himself as a violinist in particularly the contemporary repertoire. So composed his friend Béla Bartók 's Contrasts for piano, violin and clarinet for yourself, Szigeti and Benny Goodman, and Alfredo Casella composed for him the Concerto in la minore per violino ed orchestra, which premiered in Moscow in 1928 Szigeti. In 1938 he gave the first performance of Ernest Bloch's Violin Concerto in Cleveland. Alan Rawsthorne dedicated to him a violin sonata, Frank Martin, a violin concerto. The works of Maurice Ravel, Albert Roussel, Darius Milhaud, Igor Stravinsky and Alban Berg were among his repertoire.

Writings

  • With Strings Attached. New York 1947
  • Between the strings, six decades as a violinist in a changing world. 1962
  • A Violinist 's Notebook, London, 1965
  • Szigeti on the Violin: Improvisations on a violinist 's themes. New York 1969
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