The Surviving Violin

It is said that fewer people learn to play the violin today than a few years ago; interest in this stringed instrument seems to have waned. Musical taste has changed; the musical-acoustical world around us is changing, amplification and of course visual effects are now in great demand. Who notices the tiny choreographic finger-movements of a musician in tails on the small instrument he holds under his chin? Who can make out the sound of the violin amidst the general noise? Nevertheless, the Hungarian stage today is taken by young violinists comparable only to the generation of Kocsis, Ránki and Schiff, pianists of outstanding talent who have already earned international fame - and Antal Szalai is one of them. The place and date of the appearance of talent defies explanation. True, the Hungarian violinist tradition that dates back over a hundred years unquestionably proves that the school brings forth musicians of great promise again and again, but one must often wait decades for the miracle to happen, for the concurrence of inherited abilities, a mature musical culture, an effective method of training and last but not least the genius loci. This last is still epitomized by the Budapest Academy of Music, one of the musical citadels of Central Europe; though founded by a pianist, Ferenc Liszt, its history was marked from the second decade of its existence by the great violinist, Jeno Hubay, who established the rank of the violin department for half a century. He was lured back from the Brussels College of Music (where he succeeded Vieuxtemps and preceded Ysaye as professor of music) in 1886, the year of Liszt's death, and his activity marks the beginning of organised violinist training in Hungary. Of course, the European public had applauded great Hungarian violin players before Hubay. The first such celebrity was Ede Reményi, General Artúr Görgey's army fiddler during the revolution and war of independence of 1848, who had to flee Hungary after the Világos Surrender in Autumn 1849. While in exile, he trained to become a virtuoso of the first rank and often gave concerts with Ferenc Liszt among others. After his return to Hungary, his concerts were a frenetic success due to his person as well as his art. In the minds of Romantic Hungarians, the violin became associated with the sweet-melancholy sound of the instrument of the leader of the Gypsy band; the urban interpreter of the Hungarian song, it expressed the national feelings of a country in political subordination. At that time, the violin was more of a stage instrument than the piano: the most talented chose the violin. It is perhaps not widely known abroad that the international careers of Lipót Auer, Károly Flesch, and József Joachim began in Hungary. These violinist forefathers left their mark on the Budapest Academy of Music, their influence at times asserting itself indirectly, as in the case of pianist Erno Dohnányi, who considered József Joachim his example. The generations of Hubay pupils included such legendary names as Ferenc Vecsey, József Szigeti, Stefi Geyer, the Arányi sisters: Jelly and Adina, Ede Zathureczky, Sándor Végh, Loránd Fenyves, György Pauk, Dénes Kovács. Several among them handed down their knowledge as professors of music. Péter Komlós, the teacher of the young performer of this CD, was the student of Ede Zathureczky. It seems that the art of violin-playing will survive its crisis thanks to the cohesive and constructive power of tradition; this symbol of European culture, an oeuvre d'art in its physical form as well, will find its modern Orpheuses. And, hopefully, it will always have a wide audience, receptive to the miracle of four strings sounded by expert hands.


Four strings and no more

The solo violin wields a mysterious spell, has a special appeal due perhaps to the way it is held, as if it were an integral part of the human body. Because it is so close to the performer's head, one sometimes feels that the violinist is speaking or singing directly through his instrument. It is no accident that the violin first became popular in Italy, following the emergence of a new vocal musical style, the Baroque. Singing from the heart and to the heart, which at the same time opened the way to presenting stories set to music (operas), determined Italian music for a hundred years. Interestingly, Baroque musicians held the violin not under their chin, but pressed to their heart. The violins created by the masters, the Stradivari and the Guarneri families, turned into resonators of the soul in the hands of a Corelli, a Vivaldi, a Geminiani, a Locatelli. Practically every composer of consequence, every court or town musician from Lully to Bach played the violin well, if only because it was easier to conduct a larger ensemble with a violin in hand than from sitting behind a keyboard instrument.

It is a historical fact that J.S. Bach was so disturbed by dissonance that he preferred to tune the strings of his orchestra himself before a performance of cantatas. Bach's six sonatas and partitas for solo violin are among the great secrets of the great oeuvre, not only because the immeasurable knowledge, style and character encapsulated in the cycle sums up a hundred years of Baroque musical theory, but also because we do not know Bach's motive and practical intention in writing it. For whom did he compose this violin encyclopaedia? What is known for certain is that the works in question were written while Bach resided in Köthen (1717-1723), during the period when he had no church services to perform, and the court demanded instrumental compositions. However, instead of multiplying the number of occasional pieces, Bach used the opportunity to realize a much more general, self-devised programme. This composer's programme included series for keyboard instruments (e.g. Das wohltemperierte Klavier), for orchestra (e.g. The Brandenburg Concertos), for solo violin and cello (partitas, sonatas, suites), perpetuating everything that could be composed for these acoustic media around the 1720s. Several decades before the great French Encyclopaedia, Bach, the devout Lutheran, created a musical encyclopaedia, several bulky volumes (most of which were beautiful fair copies of manuscripts written in his own hand), outshining the prominent rationalists of the century. And although the series in question were created according to the standards of musical science at Bach's time, because they were composed by a scientist, an omniscient musician, each piece in itself and in every detail is delightful, soul- stirring, virtuoso and moving - that is, they are poetic, the results of inspiration, not speculation. The piece in D-minor recorded on the CD is taken from the partitas, that is, the suites: the four basic dances used in Baroque suites (allemanda, corrente, sarabanda and giga, to use the Italian terms) are followed by the ciaccona, one of Bach's themes discovered and admired already in the second half of the 19th century, and also the only piece in variation form of the six pieces for violin. The ciaccona (or chaconne in French) also to be classed as a dance in view of its character, is built on a simple theme that was commonplace in Bach's time, but it is followed by an almost endless series of variations in minor, major and minor again, welding into a fascinating structure. Small wonder that virtuoso pianists envied this theme so much that a transcript was made, and the piece played in commemoration of the non plus ultra of the European musical mind.

In the first of his six solo sonatas published in 1924 and dedicated to his excellent Hungarian colleague, József Szigeti, Belgian violinist Eugene Ysaÿe (1858-1931) quotes from one of the Bach partitas. With these sonatas, Ysaÿe pays homage not only to Bach, but also to his esteemed contemporaries (beside Szigeti, Thibaut, Enescu, Kreisler, Crickboom and Quiroga appear on the list). The sonatas differ in form, nature and atmosphere. The third solo sonata, subtitled Ballad, is dedicated to the most prominent personality of 20th century Romanian violin art, Georges Enescu. The strong current of the work demands a bold, open-tone violin-playing technique. It is a ballad in the sense that the epic flow of expression is discernible behind its expressive tunes and gestures full of pathos, and the principal theme, recurring at irregular intervals but still in a refrain-like manner, is indicative of the poetic form as well. Technically speaking, two manners of playing, the double stopping, or more precisely the chordal technique, and a monophonic material convoluted in Baroque style are opposed to each other. Ysaÿe's musical language by far surpasses the level of the average virtuoso of his time, and although he does not venture into the field of avant-garde music in the sense that Bartók, Stravinsky or Alban Berg did, his compositions are nevertheless unquestionably 20th century music, especially his original, late Romantic harmonies that call to mind the turn of the century. At all events, there's a world of difference between his compositions and those of his legendary masters, Wieniawski and Vieuxtemps, it is rather his contact with the Paris composers, the influence of Fauré, d'Indy, Chausson and occasionally of Debussy that can be felt. Ysaye ranks among the great virtuosos; at the concerts he played with the famous piano virtuosos of the turn of the century (Ziloti, Pugno, Busoni), he gave preference to classical and Romantic sonatas, worshipped Beethoven, and as first violinist of the string quartet founded in 1886 and bearing his name, contributed to the advancement of French music.

J.S. Bach is the master of Emil Petrovics (1930-) in the Rhapsody written for solo violin, although the relevant Hungarian musical historical tradition (the compositions for stringed instruments written by Kodály and Bartók) and the occasion for which it was written (as a compulsory piece for an international competition of violin-players) also plays a role here. A Hungarian composition identified by its composer as "rhapsody" makes one think of pieces in the same genre by Liszt and Bartók - compositions characterised by folk melodies, a pair of slow/fast themes and a virtuoso instrumental technique. Emil Petrovics' rhapsody is of a different nature. The logic of the freely unfolding oeuvre is determined by the strict unity of its motives. The violin rhapsody starts out from a two-note parent cell and, like vegetation, it multiplies, grows, branches off in an order and harmony that is complex and subtle. This, however, is but part of the "story" that unfolds in the piece. More important is the hidden polyphony thanks to which the solo instrument becomes the scene of the drama of sound. (Vocal music plays a significant role in the oeuvre of Emil Petrovics, especially in the case of his operas and cantatas. This penchant for vocal music marks his instrumental works as well.) This is the phenomenon that makes Bach's heritage as regards the use of the violin and its polyphony so important. A dramatic dialogue takes place between the opposing materials and registers: the impression of the listener is determined by the dynamic, rhythmic, and melodic contrasts, allowing the soloist to demonstrate not only his virtuosity and instrumental aptitude, but his personality and imagination as well.

Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), at seven the youngest student ever to have entered the Vienna College of Music, where he was taught musical theory by Anton Bruckner himself, gave his first solo concert at the age of nine, was admitted to the Paris College of Music at ten years of age and practically finished his violin studies at the age of twelve. Until 1941, when his vision and hearing were greatly impaired in a tragic accident, his life was like a roller-coaster ride: he toured the world in triumph, fascinating the public with his unique violin sound and manner of presentation, and as a composer succeeded in misleading even the most skilled critics by affixing the names of old masters to his own pieces. The composer Kreisler uses the violin like a stage artist: he plays, improvises, in other words displays a confusing, colourful motley of impressions culled from various styles, composers, compositions. This is probably where the sense of unpredictability projected by his pieces originates from: his themes often dissolve in virtuoso passages or Baroque figures, as in the pair of slow/fast, Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice movements recorded on the CD. Of course, both the form and the tone are elegant; musical ideas appear with a diabolic quickness that would put a conjurer to shame. One has the feeling that this great violinist cheated the world with the magic of his personality and music, all his iridescent, sparkling soap-bubbles float away and burst, one after the other - but we will always remember them with pleasure.

András Batta 
translated by Fruzsina Balkay, Eszter Molnár

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Antal Szalai (1981), the promising Hungarian violinist, studied for seven years at the Budapest Academy of Music where he was the student of Péter Komlós, the primarius of the Bartók String Quartet. He has been playing the violin since the age of five; in musical school and college he was a pupil of László Dénes. He took part in the master courses of Loránd Fenyves, Tibor Varga and György Pauk, and his talent was praised by Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern. He has won several musical competitions and gives concerts regularly both in Hungary and abroad. He has performed at the Grand Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Unesco Hall in Paris, the Victoria Hall in Geneva, and at Kensington Palace in London where he played in the presence of Prince Charles. As of 2001, he is a scholarship holder at the Manhattan School of Music, New York, where he is the student of Pinchas Zukerman, the world famous violinist.