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5 October 2021 | Jonathan Woolf | Music Web International | Henryk Szeryng - CHAUSSON, PAGANINI, HAHN live in USA «Whilst live performances by Szeryng are not uncommon it’s always exciting when hearing him perform works he never recorded commercially and that’s the case with Chausson’s Poème and Reynaldo Hahn’s Concerto. [...] The Chausson receives a vivid, masculine reading which vests the music with a real sense of drama far removed from some rather more evanescent performances. Though oriented toward the Franco-Belgian school, Szeryng here marries tonal purity with expressive breadth and a real sense of theatrical flair. The orchestra, invariably tagged as the most Gallic of American ensembles, plays its role too as does Tilson Thomas whose accompaniment matches Szeryng’s in boldness, drawing out the music’s full complement of romantic fervour. There’s no question that Szeryng’s rich vibrancy is gloriously on show here. [...] The music’s fearsome demands are surmounted with evangelical bravura by Szeryng, and he and Tilson Thomas relish Paganini’s explicitly Rossinian élan. Rhythmically the results are biting and exciting, and Szeryng is just as fine in the graceful cantabile of the slow movement, as the violin spins its succulent line over accompanying orchestral pizzicati figures, as in the magnificently bowed Polacca finale, with a full array of soloistic colour. [...] The Hahn is an exceptional rarity on disc. Szeryng is especially effective in the intermezzo-like lyric beauty of the slow movement, where Hahn’s orchestration is both apt and precise, as he is in the vif et gai pirouetting of the acrobatic finale. Though he is on less Olympian form than in the Paganini and Chausson works, this is a fortunate survival as Szeryng was to die just over three months later.
Some applause and tuning (both cut short) have been included, the recorded sound in both concerts is very fine indeed, and the notes are good. Presenting two works new to Szeryng’s discography should prove to be a particular draw, not least in such handsomely accomplished readings.»
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22 April 2023 | Jean-Charles Hoffelé | ARTAMAG' - Focus - Le disque du jour | LE CONCERTO RETROUVÉ « Un jour que je discutais à bâtons rompus avec Henryk Szeryng de ses divers enregistrements du Concerto de Brahms, il me coupa. « Vous connaissez le Concerto de Hahn ? Je vais le créer l’année prochaine aux Etats-Unis. [...] Miracle !, la création américaine de l’œuvre à Atlanta le 20 novembre 1987, la voici, de plus dans un son remarquable, Henryk Szeryng faisant assaut de traits enthousiastes dans le Décidé initial (que le public applaudit), ardant le Chant d’amour, amours probablement interdites. Le Final contraste un Lent élégiaque avec un presto (Vif et léger) qui raille, petite merveille d’esprit très parisien. L’archet est toujours magnifique, la justesse encore certaine, mais Henryk Szeryng se doute-t-il qu’il est à quelques mois de la mort qui le prendra sans prévenir le 3 mars de l’année suivante ? »
