Joseph Szigeti - The Complete Columbia Album Collection

The Guardian 0

(Sony Classical)
Full of immediacy – and star turns – these remastered recordings make for a compelling time capsule

The instinct to support musicians alive today makes the pursuit of past superstars a more specialised activity. Yet historic recordings can have the vitality of old letters or diaries. When a collection arrives with composer-pianists Stravinsky and Bartók playing their own works, together with fabled performers such as the pianist Myra Hess, the cellist Pablo Casals and clarinettist Benny Goodman, it’s hard to resist.

The box in question is Sony Classical’s 17-CD set of recordings by the phenomenal Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti (1892-1973), made between 1940 and 1956 for American Columbia. Remastered from the original analogue discs and tapes, the sound is generally bright and clean.