Joseph Szigeti

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Joseph Szigeti (1950)

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

Life

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

He made his US debut in 1925 with Beethoven's Violin Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski at Carnegie Hall . In the following period concert tours took him regularly to the USA, where he fled in 1940 after the start of the Second World War because of his Jewish descent. With the pianist Andor Foldes , his Hungarian compatriot, he formed a duo that successfully traveled through the United States in concerts for three years. In 1944 he took part in the musical film Hollywood Canteen . In 1951 he became an American citizen. From 1960 he lived again in Switzerland, where he gave master classes.

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

Fonts

  • 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 an a Violinist's Themes . New York 1969

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