Gramophone Magazine
December 2021
Reissue/Archive Issue of the Month

Henryk Szeryng (violin)
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Louis Lane

Chausson: Poème for Violin & Orchestra, Op. 25
Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 3 in E major
Hahn, R: Violin Concerto in D major

Henryk Szeryng (Warsaw, 22 September 1918 Kassel, 3 March 1988) live in the USA includes the world premiere recording of the Reynaldo Hahn Violin Concerto.

"[] my own beguilement with Szeryng came with his performance in 1987 Atlanta with Louis Lane, of the North American premiere of the 1927 Concerto by Reynaldo Hahn, the French master of the Belle Epoch. "Ah, yes", asserts Szeryng, "Reynaldo Hahn, the most Parisian of all Parisians, even though he was born in Caracas of German parents. There is even a street in Caracas named for him. I remember meeting him; and even though he was trained as a pianist, he had a natural sense of the violin. Some favor his Violin Sonata. The Concerto is published, but for some reason nobody plays it. The first movement for me is the best and most compact and makes a natural display piece. The second movement is based on a song from Tunis absolutely genuine and the finale sings in a typical operetta style. It starts like an extension of the second movement and has tremendous wit and charm. And, to be sure, it is a challenge." (Gary Lemco)

"Szeryng was a class act...his tone pure yet full-bodied, his phrasing the product of a rounded and cultivated mind." - Gramophone Magazine, December 2021.