Rarities this week that haven’t, as far as I’ve researched, been issued commercially.
From the Swiss Radio Archives, the legendary Henryk Szeryng in concert with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under the direction of Ernest Ansermet in a performance of the Bach Violin Concerto BWV 1041, recorded on 10 September 1963 and either broadcast live or delayed.
Henryk Szeryng made his solo debut on 6 January 1933 playing the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Romanian conductor George Georgescu. From 1933 to 1939 he studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger.
When World War II broke out, Władysław Sikorski, the premier of the Polish government in exile, asked Szeryng, who was fluent in seven languages, to serve as his liaison officer and interpreter. Szeryng took these positions and discontinued his studies, although he continued to perform on the violin, giving over 300 concerts for Allied troops all over the world. When he accompanied Sikorski on a mission to Mexico in 1941 seeking a home for 4,000 Polish refugees, the positive reception moved Szeryng so deeply that he decided to become a Mexican naturalized citizen, and did so in 1946. In 1945 he accepted the request (made in 1943) that he head the string department of National University of Mexico.
In 1960, Szeryng was named Mexican Cultural Ambassador. In 1966, by which time he had moved to Paris, he was designated Honorary Director of the Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, and a Henryk Szeryng Music Festival was held in his honor in Mexico City. He returned to Mexico twice a year and traveled on a diplomatic passport as Mexico’s official cultural ambassador, but lived in Paris for two decades, then spent his last five years in Monaco. In 1970, Szeryng recorded Mozart’s complete works for violin and orchestra for Philips Records, which was used as Volume 8 of The Complete Mozart Edition in 1991.
Enjoy the concert.
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