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Born in Warsaw (Poland) in 1918,
deceased in Cassel 1988, Szeryng studied in Berlin with Carl Flesch
during the years 1929-32. He then went to study with Thibaud from 1932-1937,
in Paris, where he also studied composition with Nadia Boulanger during
six years. He made his début in Warsaw in 1933 playing the Brahms
concerto. When the war broke out, he became the official translator
for Sikorski´s Polish Government in exile in London. In 1941 he
went to South America to find homes for 4.000 Polish refugees. During
the 2nd world war he gave hundreds of concerts for the Allied Forces.
Only as late as 1965 did he make his début in Salzburg with a
recital.
These are the bare facts, which one can read in the dictionaries. But
there was much more to this remarkable musician, because of his poverty
during his youth that marked him for the rest of his life. Maybe this
was the reason why Flesch used him as a kind of guinea-pig: He made
him play all the Sevcik exercises. Those who know what this means will
gape in awe. But apparently it did Szeryng no harm, because he turned
out to become a first-class musician.
1918 was an unfortunate year for a future violinist to be born. The
turmoil after the first world war, to start with, and 21 years later,
at that crucial age, the outbreak of the 2nd world war. Of all the great
violinists of the first half of the 20th century, only Ruggiero Ricci
was born in these times, all the others were one generation older.
If it had not been Flesch, who recognized his gifts, and later on Arthur
Rubinstein, the pianist, who launched him on his international career,
maybe he would have passed unnoticed. The forties were indeed hard times
to get going in the concert world. To give the reader an idea of Szeryng's
caliber, just one remark by David Oistrakh, who in his renowned modesty
stated that Szeryng played the Tchaikovsky concert better than he himself.
Those fortunate enough to have heard him play this concerto will agree.
Szeryng's recordings of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas are still a reference
taken seriously today, even if styles have changed in the meantime.
From a technical standpoint they are impeccable, the phrasing is devoid
of exaggerated romantic reading (so fashionable at the time), but of
course short baroque strokes were unthinkable until much later on.
Szeryng never teamed up with a permanent piano partner. On his recital
tours through South-America, he preferred to rehearse at each city with
the local pianist chosen by the concert management, which meant more
work but also gives you an idea of his social attitude and modesty.
In the seventies he was asked - most probably again on the initiative
of of Arthur Rubinstein -to record with him and Pierre Fournier all
the Brahms trios. The site chosen for comfort of Fournier (rather ill)
was latter's hometown, Geneva, where the Victoria Hall had the adequate
acoustics.
In the days of Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifetz, Joseph Szigeti and David
Oistrakh at their best, it was certainly not easy to reach world prominence.
Szeryng succeeded in his modest and unpresuming way.
Before ending, one more detail which gives you an idea about this outstanding
violinist: His flat in Paris, where he established headquarters when
touring in Europe, was only accessible to his closest friends for good
reason: Due to his frugality the site was appallingly ugly. The view
one had looking out of the windows was the freight-railway terminal
in Paris, with dirt and soot and noise. It would never have occurred
to him to chose a 'chic' neighborhood, for reasons of public relations.
He was only generous with his violin, otherwise you could not help calling
him anything else but a miser. The memories of his childhood are to
blame.
