Great Performances From the Library of Congress 21; The Budapest String Quartet, Artur Balsam, John Barrows, Boris Kroyt

Paul Hindemith; Johannes Brahms; Dmitri Shostakovich (Composer), The Budapest String Quartet (Orchestra), Boris Kroyt (viola); Artur Balsam (piano); Jac Gorodetzky (violin); John Barrows (horn) (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Boris Kroyt (viola); Artur Balsam (piano); Jac Gorodetzky (violin); John Barrows (horn)
• Orchestra: The Budapest String Quartet
• Composer: Paul Hindemith; Johannes Brahms; Dmitri Shostakovich
• Audio CD (June 1, 2005)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bridge Records, Inc.
• ASIN: B0009W5JB4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,702 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #93 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Strings > Viola

Editorial Reviews

Bridge is pleased to continue its survey of the Budapest String Quartet's great concert legacy. The Budapest Quartet was the resident group at the Library of Congress from 1940 to 1962, playing more than 450 concerts in the Coolidge Auditorium, and Artur Balsam was among their most frequent guest artists. This superb pianist, born in Warsaw in 1906, became Nathan Milstein’s accompanist in 1938 and in 1940, and followed the violinist to America. Among the other string players with whom Balsam worked were Adolf Busch, Zino Francescatti, Yehudi Menuhin, Erica Morini, Zara Nelsova, Oscar Shumsky and Joseph Szigeti. He died in New York City in 1994. The Hindemith sonata features Balsam with the oldest member of the quartet, Boris Kroyt (1897-1969). Hindemith is a composer many people will not associate with ‘the Budapest’, but in 1943 the quartet commissioned Hindemith's Sixth String Quartet in E flat, premièring it at the Library. The famous Op. 11, No. 4 Sonata was more youthfully romantic than the sort of music Hindemith was producing by the time he himself premièred this sonata in 1919. Kroyt relishes this romanticism, lavishing lovely tone on Hindemith’s phrases. Brahms wrote his Horn Trio with the natural horn in mind, which accounts for its somewhat archaic melodic shape. Balsam anchors this fine performance, with pianism of true Brahmsian weight, and the horn part is taken by the distinguished American player John R. Barrows (1913-74). His artistry here, in a staple of the horn repertoire, is beyond praise. Taking the violin part is Jac Gorodetzky, the quartet's distinguished second violinist. Shostakovich wrote his Piano Quintet so that he could have something to play with his friends in the legendary Beethoven Quartet, and from its first performance in 1940 it was a huge success. In this reading, one could use the Budapest's beautiful performance of Shostakovich's fugue as an illustration of some of the quartet's best qualities, with the various entries giving a good idea of the individual players’ tonal profiles. These Budapest String Quartet recordings are also available on Bridge: Brahms: Piano Quintet; Schubert: Trout; with George Szell, piano BRIDGE 9062 Rachmaninoff Quartets, and Trio, Op. 9; with Artur Balsam, piano BRIDGE 9063 Beethoven: The Late Quartets, BRIDGE 9072A/C Beethoven: The Middle Quartets, BRIDGE 9099A/C All Mozart: with George Szell, piano; Gustave Langenus, clarinet, BRIDGE 9085A/B

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vocal nuance par excellence on the french horn, July 11, 2008

By 

Richard Zimdars - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Performances From the Library of Congress 21; The Budapest String Quartet, Artur Balsam, John Barrows, Boris Kroyt (Audio CD)

The prize of this CD is the Brahms horn trio with hornist John Barrows, whose picture should have also been placed on the cover with the other two distinguished artists. Barrows long lyric lines, colored with tonal variety, are not to be found in other recordings. This artist goes so far beyond the usual solid, orchestral-style horn playing one usually hears. Barrows has the musical personality and ear one usually associates with top violin, vocal, and piano soloists.

Fortunately, Bridge has given us this performance, which is better on all counts than the old Mercury LP of the Brahms with Barrows, Horszowski, and an unfortunately past-his-prime Szigeti. Buy this and hear the Brahms trio played with the flexibility and verve it requires.