Johanna Martzy, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR & Hans Muler-Kray Mozart Violin Concertos Nos.3 & 4

180g Audiophile Virgin Vinyl Pressed at Pallas in Germany!
Cut at Emil Berliner Studio and Mastered from the Original Master Tapes of SWR Music!
Johanna Martzy was one of Hungary's most notable musicians after the second World War and among the world's leading violin virtuosos in the '50s and early '60s. Her fame soon faded on international concert stages and her name became an insider tip. Her greatest period covered more than 25 years from 1942, when she debuted in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with Willem Mengelberg in Budapest, until the mid-sixties when she began to perform less and less following the birth of her daughter. Although she had not appeared in her native land of Hungary since she fled from the Nazis in 1944, she nonetheless held a celebrated comeback concert in Budapest in 1969. Then she was found to have contracted hepatitis B which caused her strength to decline. She performed for the last time in 1976 and on August 13, 1979 - a good year after the death of her second husband - she died of cancer in Zurich.
Johanna Martzy (1924-1979) is considered one of the most underrated violinists of her time, as the great Glenn Gould also confirmed. Trained at the renowned Liszt Academy in Budapest, she won first prize at the Geneva Competition in 1947 and played under the direction of the young Leonard Bernstein in 1958. The extraordinary talent of the Hungarian, whose career began early and was marked by all kinds of low blows in addition to great ovations before she died almost unnoticed at the age of only 55, was evident in the few commercial recordings she made. All recordings were made in their heyday, and most of them achieved cult status after their short careers. The recording from the archives of the SWR – "Mozart – Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 4", with the conductor Hans Müller-Kray and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra of the SWR, is no exception. The well-known conductor and music critic Christoph Schlüren writes: "Johanna Martzy's Mozart impresses not only with its technical flawlessness, but also with a sound that arises quite naturally from the breath of lively phrasing, her perfect mastery of the bow in all nuances from legato to spiccato, a cultivated expressiveness that is always in the service of the musical line and knows no idiosyncratic extravagances, whereby an artistic unity arises from the inner fire and objectivity of the style of a composition."
What is interesting about these Stuttgart recordings of Mozart is not only how they compare with the commercial recordings, but also the fact that the D Major Concerto was produced as a studio production in the SDR Villa Berg studio in 1956, while the G Major Concerto was a live concert in the Liederhalle. The violinist seems to have placed less value than ever on post-production, nor did she need to. In Hans Muller-Kray, who was Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1948 until his death, she had a solid, skilled partner at her side whose accompaniment in the G Major Concert turned out quite a bit more empathic and reserved than in the well-known recording with Jochum. Johanna Martzy's Mozart impresses not only due to its technical flawlessness, but also thanks to a tone that naturally blossoms from the breath of vibrant phrasing, her consummate mastery of the bow in all nuances from legato to spiccato, cultivated passion of expression that is always at the service of the musical line and known no willful extravagances, creating an artistic oneness out of the inner fire and the objectivity of a composition's style. - from liner notes by Christoph Schluren.
The renowned South Korean label Analogphonic is now making this wonderful recording available as an LP release for the first time. Analogphonic commissioned Rainer Maillard and Emil Berliner Studios with the analogue processing of the master tapes. The audiophile remastering does justice to the outstanding musical quality of the recording in all respects and sets new standards in terms of sound! The vinyl release of "Johanna Martzy: Mozart – Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 4" was pressed on high-quality 180-gram vinyl (33 rpm) by Pallas Group GmbH in Germany.
"Violinist Johanna Martzy was hardly a prolific recording artist, which makes her few radio recordings desirable bonuses... A coupling of Mozart's Third and Fourth Violin Concertos, from 1962 and 1956 respectively, both featuring sturdy support from the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hans Muller-Kray, exhibits Mozart's forthright approach and invariable warmth, performance that anticipate the stylistic unfussiness of our own time rather than Romantic manners of Martzy's era." - The Gramophone Magazine

Features:

• 180g Audiophile Virgin Vinyl• Cut to lacquers at Emil Berliner Studio
• Mastered from the original master tapes of SWR archives
• Audiophile full analogue mastering by Rainer Maillard
• Analogphonic release
• Pressed at Pallas Gmbh in Germany
  

Musicians:

• Johanna Martzy, violin
• Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart of the SWR
• Hans Muler-Kray, conductor
  

Selections:

Side A
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Violin Concerto No.3 in G Major, KV 216
1. Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Rondeau. Allegro
Side B
Violin Concerto No.4 in D Major, KV 218
1. Allegro
2. Andante Cantabile
3. Rondeau. Andante Grazioso

Violin Concerto No.3 recorded on April 12, 1962 at Liederhalle Stuttgart, Germany
Violin Concerto No.4 recorded on October 4, 1956 at Villa Berg, Stuttgart, Germany