Reviews | RH-018 | GABRIELLA LENGYEL | Jenő Hubay’s last pupil
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2 April 2022 | Jean-Charles Hoffelé | ARTAMAG' | La belle oubliée « Gabriella Lengyel, this Hungarian-sounding name reminded me of something. It was under her bow that, as a child, I discovered Bartók's Duos on disc where she was talking with Anne-Marie Gründer, in a Ducretet-Thomson LP. What an emotion to find them perfectly reproduced in the imposing box that Emilio Pessina devotes to this forgotten violinist. [...]
That this bow so starved of repertoire – you will even find the 10th Sonata by Richard Flury, the Poème automnal by Respighi – is finally illustrated by such a careful publication, what a joy! »
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30 November 2021 | Stephen Greenbank | Music Web International | RECORDING OF THE YEAR 2021
Gabriella Lengyel (violin) Jenő Hubay's Last Pupil rec. 1951-1972 The violinist Gabriella Lengyel (1920-1993) made only three commercial LPs in Paris – two private releases for Voxigrave in 1951, and one for Ducretet-Thomson in 1953. This accounts for the fact that she is relatively unknown today. This 9 CD set from Rhine Classics of live and studio recordings will, hopefully, redress the balance. The collection has been approved by the violinist’s brother Attila (Atty) just a year before his death in 2018. The restorations are superb, as is the accompanying documentation, with the cache of photographs an added bonus. |
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May 2021 | schallplattenkritik.de | PREIS DER DEUTSCHEN SCHALLPLATTEN KRITIK | Gabriella Lengyel - Jenö Hubay’s last pupil | Works by Béla Bartók, Benjamin Britten, Johannes Brahms, Ernst von Dohnányi, Ferenc Farkas, Joseph Haydn etc. Various orchestras and conductors. 9 CDs, Rhine Classics RH-018 .
Gabriella Lengyel won the second prize in an international music competition in Vienna in 1937. In the review of the award winners’ concert, it said: »A petite, dark-haired girl, the violinist Gabriella Lengyel, appears and plays a virtuoso Valse Caprice with such gorgeous verve and dazzling technique that one was involuntarily reminded of Erika Morini when she was still an adolescent teenager celebrating her first triumphs.« That was no exaggeration. The recordings made available for this edition by the Swiss violinist, composer, and conductor Urs Joseph Flury demonstrate a system of values primarily oriented towards substance. For the jury: Wolfgang Wendel  |
4 Diapason | May 2021 | Jean-Michel Molkhou | DIAPASON No.700 | Gabriella Lengyel - Violon (1920-1993) « Des disciples de Jeno Hubay, Gabriella Lengyel est sans doute l'une des plus oubliées. [...] Ce généreux coffret à l'appareil éditorial exemplaire ne se contente pas d'exhumer sa très modeste discographie officielle, il la complète par des archives radio suisses inédits et souvent d'une excellente qualité sonore. Le répertoire, considérable, inclut des concertos de Hubay et Respighi (avec Jan Koetsier), Lalo (Max Sturzenegger), Brahms (Ernest Ansermet), Haydn (Urs Joseph Flury). A une vaste collection de sonates s'ajoutent une intégrale des oeuvres pour violon et piano de Schubert (avec son frère Atty au piano) ainsi que de nombreuses pages de XXe siècle, notamment hongroises. La violoniste, dotée d'une sonorité vibrante et d'un style typique de son école d'origine, révèle une personnalité attachante, un pathétisme à fleur de peau. A ce titre, son concerto de Brahms, capté live à Genève le 15 Octobre 1958, est d'une intensité rappelant Joahanna Martzy, autre élève de Hubay, sans atteindre néanmoins sa suprème maitrise technique. [...] L'Opus 78 de Brahms (en Studio à Paris en 1951, avec Max Geiger) est habité d'une touchante tendresse. [...] Pour les amateurs de raretés. »
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April 2021 | Rob Cowan | GRAMOPHONE (pg. 89) | BOX-SET Round-up « Rob Cowan revisits the recordings of a quartet of less prominent masters from the past -- [...] Another musically potent brother/sister celebration finds the great violinist/teacher Jenő Hubay's last pupil Gabriella Lengyel playing alongside her pianist brother Atty in repertoire that includes numerous rare but involving Hungarian pieces, as well as works by Schumann (the first two sonatas), Ravel (the Sonata, where the 'Blues' threatens as menacingly as the Left Hand Concerto's goose-stepping central episode does), Poulenc, Lennox Berkeley (Sonatina) and Britten (Suite, Op.6). Also included, an enrapturing account of Bartók's Second Sonata and a series of Bartók violin duos (with Anne-Marie Gründer) that vies with, if not tops, the best from elsewhere. Most significant perhaps is the Brahms Concerto under Ernest Ansermet, an inward-looking performance where you can check Lengyel's approach against her own detailed annotations based on Hubay's teachings. Lengyel's sound is mellow and veiled, her manner of phrasing linear, [...]. Both Lengyel and Ter-Merguerian were highly accomplished players whose artistry should be enjoyed by the widest public, so hats off to Rhine Classics for affording us the opportunity of hearing them. »
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 16 March2021 | Stephen Greenbank | Music Web International | Gabriella Lengyel - Jenő Hubay’s last pupil rec. 1951-1972 « Gabriella Lengyel was born in Budapest in 1920 and began learning the violin at the city’s Franz Liszt Academy at the age of only five. By fifteen she’d completed all the courses with distinction, obtaining a diploma in violin. She then went to Jenő Hubay and Edouard Zathureczky, who applied the finishing touches. [...] In 1946 she clinched 2nd Prize in the International Long-Thibaud Competition, and two years later the Grand Prix at the Carl Flesch Competition in London. That same year she fled the Hungarian communist regime and settled in Paris, where she took up a teaching post at the Conservatoire. In 1950 she formed the Trio Lengyel with her two musician brothers Atty and André. She died in Paris in 1993. Throughout her career she worked with some of the most renowned conductors of the day, including Ansermet, Fricsay, van Beinum, Jochum, Solti, Enescu, Casals and Mengelberg. As far as recordings go, she recorded only three commercial LPs in Paris – two private releases for Voxigrave in 1951, and one for Ducretet-Thomson in 1953. Some of these are included in this collection. [...] In early 1953, the Duo Legyel set down in the studio of Schweizer Radio in Basel the complete works for violin and piano by Franz Schubert. They are to be found across CDs 4 and 5. These are some of the loveliest works in the repertoire and the Duo offer elegant, stylistic and idiomatic performances. In the three Sonatinas, touched by the influence of Mozart, they emphasize the youthful nature of the music. In the more mature Duo Sonata of 1817 the composer finds his own voice, with the work free of stylistic influences. The finale is particularly fine, here bristling with energy and joy. The Fantasie, Schubert’s masterpiece from 1827, is probably the most frequently performed and recorded of his violin and piano works. The central variation section, on the theme Sei mir gegrüsst, is characterful. In short, it’s a fully integrated performance and stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the very best recorded versions. [...] Those seeking off the beaten track repertoire need look no further, as there’s an ample selection here. Lengyel did much to champion her contemporary fellow Hungarian composers, and several are represented in the set. [...] This wonderful collection, approved by the violinist’s brother Attila (Atty) just a year before his death in 2018, preserves the legacy of this significant artist. The 24bit 96 kHz restorations by Emilio Pessina are first-class and bring new life to these valuable aural documents. The documentation is superb, and the cache of photographs is an added bonus. This is a collection I wouldn’t like to be without. »
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24 February 2021 | Jonathan Woolf | Music Web International | Gabriella Lengyel - Jenő Hubay’s Last Pupil « Gabriella Lengyel (1920-1993) was indeed, as the box announces, Jenő Hubay’s last pupil. Born in Budapest she began at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in the city, winning distinctions and completing all her courses at the age of fifteen, before continuing with Hubay and, after his death in 1937, Ede Zathureczky. She won second prize at the Sixth International Violin Competition in Vienna 1937, but the outbreak of war curtailed a burgeoning career. In 1946 she won another second place, this time at the prestigious International Long-Thibaud competition in Paris, but in 1948 fled Hungary and lived in Paris where she established a long-standing duo with her brother Attila (or Atty). In 1950 they formed a trio with their brother Endre. She performed in Casals’ Prades orchestra (a photograph in the booklet shows her fiddling away) and she made a very few LPs. She taught for many years whilst maintaining a European-based career, making visits to Switzerland, in particular, where she broadcast often for Radio Basel. [...] Disc 1 brings her teacher Hubay’s Concerto No 3 and Respighi’s Poema autunnale, both with the Bamberg Symphony and Jan Koetsier in 1954. She is much faster than a modern exponent like Hagai Shaham and catches the music’s fluid fantasia quality with great rhythmic precision and sense of colour. Her bowing is crisp in the Scherzo, there is noble ardour and moving intensity in the Adagio, and there is zest in the finale where she negotiates the cadenza with bravura. Vilmos Szabadi and Aaron Rosand made good recordings of this but Lengyel characterises even deeper. Respighi’s work was dedicated to Mario Corti and contemporaries such as Lydia Mordkovitch play it quite deliberately. Even Ricci did so. Nishizaki on Marco Polo however approaches Lengyel in taut sweetness, even more so than Julia Fischer in her 2010 recording on Decca. Lengyel negotiates its changes in mood, tempo and texture at a decisive tempo and her evocative playing is alluring throughout. [...] I mentioned the booklet earlier and it’s been splendidly compiled with some very beautifully reproduced photographs of the violinist, concert posters and a reproduction of a colour drawing of her by Willy Hug, which was donated to Richard Flury. There is a brief chronology of her life and very full track details and dates. In every way the documentation and transfers are worthy of this eminent but too-little known violinist. » |
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5☆☆☆☆☆ | February 2021 | Jean-Charles Hoffelé | CLASSICA No.229 (p. 109) Archets en majesté - Cordes et Âmes | « le lyrisme envoûtant de Gabriella Lengyel »
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COURAGEOUS ENTERPRISES « Also worth mentioning is the daring venture of Italian sound engineer and "Violin-expert" Emilio Pessina, who publishes anthologies under the Rhine Classics label in Taiwan. There are quite new and complete treasures played by Gabriella Lengyel, Hubay's last pupil, mostly with her brother, the excellent pianist Atty Lengyel, in wonderful Schubert and Mendelssohn, and especially Hungarian masters like Harsanyi, Veress or Arma [...] » |
