Bartók - Violin Concerto No. 2, Sz. 112, BB 117 - Henryk Szeryng, RCO, Bernard Haitink. Rec. 1969

00:00 - I. Allegro non troppo 16:25 - II. Andante tranquillo 25:28 - III. Allegro molto Henryk Szeryng (violin) Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Bernard Haitink (conductor) Recorded: 1969-11-22 Recording Venue: Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, Amsterdam Audio Source: Philips PHCP-9722 | 464 151-2 | Japan | Limited Release https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/PHCP-9722 https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/prod... "My favourite performance here is undoubtedly the Second Violin Concerto with Henryk Szeryng and Bernard Haitink, recorded back in 1969 but still sounding wonderfully luminous and full-bodied. Szeryng plays with unabashed expressive intensity, his tone characteristically silken and well focused, his phrasing affectionate but unaffected. True, there are one or two places where ensemble sounds a mite approximate (as in the second movement's scherzo-style variations), but Haitink is in total command of the work's symmetrical design and the recording doesn't miss a trick. There are other fine versions of the concerto available, but none I think that is better than this." (Bartók Orchestral Works / Magazine Review Date: 2/1994) https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/bart%C... https://www.classicstoday.com/review/revie... THE 20TH CENTURY VIOLIN CONCERTO – VOL.2 ClassicsToday "This recent volume in the Philips Duo 20th Century Classics series focuses on the violin concertos of the 1900s, specifically works by Shostakovich, Bartok, Elgar, and Szymanowski. In the second concertos of Bartok and Szymanowski Philips has resurrected two of the finest readings of either work, played by Henryk Szeryng, an artist whose uncannily stoical sense of individuality usually paid handsome dividends. For example, from a man who liked to play Busoni’s timpani-accompanied cadenza in the Beethoven concerto rather than Kreisler’s more or less mandatory one, here’s a stupendously beautiful reading of the second Szymanowski concerto, in which Szeryng is joined by the Bamberg Symphony under Jan Krenz. This 1972 account–one of the few completely satisfactory recorded versions–has been far too long out of circulation. The rapture and vulcanism of Szeryng’s playing seem effortless, even in some of the more labyrinthine passages of this highly elusive and difficult work. Szeryng is heard again in a 1969 Concertgebouw performance of Bartok’s Cconcerto No. 2. Again, it’s superb in all respects, as much for its astonishing technical finesse as for its wealth of imaginative touches, not least Szeryng’s fluid and natural use of rubato in the second movement (Passacaglia)." Henryk Szeryng • Violin Concertos    • Henryk Szeryng • Violin Concertos