The Hungarian Student, 1958 (2. évfolyam, 1-7. szám)
1958 / 5. szám
The Hungarian Student 9 Ede Zathureczky at the final rehearsal before his latest New York recital. more heated, and soon the Italians were having a brawl in the auditorium. Zathureczky dropped his arm, a dizzy feeling came over him, and he turned with painful anxiety toward Bartók. To his great astonishment, Bartók was cheerfully smiling at the battling audience. The two artists, the composer and the interpreter, embraced each other, sensing something that only great men are able to feel. Bartók said to his friend, “Look, they are fighting for us in the hall! Isn’t this beautiful? These people have attained greatness because they are willing to fight for their culture, for their convictions.” And with great inspiration they started playing again, to a crowd, which, at this point, was cheering. This is, no doubt, why Italy has always been close to Zathureczky’s heart. He had one more adventure there, probably the most moving of his memories. This incident happened before the war, after Zathureczky’s solo concert in the Teatro Penice, in Venice. As he stepped out of the building an enthusiastically applauding, cheering crowd blocked his way. A small Italian man stepped up to him and, while eagerly pumping his hand, grabbed his violin case and started to walk away with it, through the cheering crowd. Zathureczky tried to go after him, but the crowd held him. The justifiably concerned artist was told that nothing was going to happen to his violin but all his protests were in vain. He was taken to St. Mark’s square and pushed up on a marble pedestal of the famous Campanille. There they put his violin and bow into his hands, and the real solo concert began in that square under the full moon. The square, incidentally, has excellent acoustics and in summer, open sky performances are conducted there. Very soon hundreds of people gathered around as the master gave his most unique concert on that magnificent night in Italy. Teacher and Artist In 1937 he became the head of the Violin Master Class and String Department at the Budapest Liszt Ferenc Academy. He became president of the school in 1942 and, as president, supervised the highest musical education of the country until the 1956 revolution. After 1947 travel abroad became more difficult and in 1940 he was completely cut off from the West. He made concert tours in Russia, China, and the East European countries. As an educator and as a guiding artist through his philosophical convictions, Zathureczky raised the art of music above time, influences, and external circumstances. His standards are high, both with his students and with himself. He is a stern critic of himself and strives for perfection. The result of his ideals meant living in dangerous times, self sacrifices, and aiding his persecuted fellow artists. He suffered many attacks and much criticism but his more objective, higher aesthetic considerations carried him through this difficult period. As the head of the string school he succeeded, to an almost unparallelled extent, in the building of new generations. His students won musical competitions all over the world. In 1936, at the Vienna International Music Contests, where the best artists gathered from all corners of the world, R. Virovai, G. Lengyel, and F. Bruckbauer won the first three positions in the violin contest. All three were students of Zathureczky. But this was not an isolated phenomenon. This has also been the case in recant times. In vain did governmental differences separate Hungary from the West. In 1955, at the London Carl Flesch Competition, D. Kovács and A. Vadas attained the first two places, both Zathureczky’s students. The 1956 Paganini Contests in Genoa indicated the results of his work when his student, G. Pauk, won first place. Many people from foreign countries came to him to learn. In September, 1956, Yehudi Menuhin sent a boy from South America to Zathureczky, with the advise that there was only one master from whom he could still learn, and that master was Zathureczky. The student could only take a few lessons, however because Zathureczky went to Vienna in November. Today, many concert violinists proclaim the spirit of Zathureczky. In Switzerland, Sándor Vegh, Eliz Cserfalvi, Sándor Zoldy, and Arpad Gerecz are first rank artists, in spite of the stiff European competition. In Canada, Ferenc Albert and Marta Hidy, in the United States Gabor Banat, Eva Liivak, Ferenc Ákos, István Erdélyi, and Miklós Harsanyi are favorite performers. Zathureczky is the holder of several foreign decorations. Many countries have asked him to serve as a judge at competitions. In the summer of 1956, at the Violin Contest of Salzburg, he was chairman on the panel of judges. He twice received the highest Hungarian honor, the Kossuth Prize. A sensitive listener is greatly impressed when Zathureczky plays. He not only interprets, but relives the states of mind which held the creator in statu nascendi. He puts himself in the world of the creator and thus, he not only interprets but also creates. This quality represents Zathureczky’s artistic character. His aesthetic feeling and technical knowledge, coupled with his faith in art, raises his art to the highest peak. The Man After the celebration of March 15 we went to the Budapest Restaurant with him. The little company gathered around a table in the corner and we were toasting the master with Tokay wine. It was hard to decide what to order—there were so many familiar flavors. Zathureczky proposed ordering a variety of things and separate plates for all, thus everyone could sample a little of everything. It seemed to me that it was only a short while ago that we were trying to hide from him in the hallways of the old Academy, or in his lodge during the orchestral rehearsals. We were warming up once with another student for the sonatas, and, as we were without supervision, we were smoking despite a prohibition against it. As the door unexpectedly opened and the highly respected Zathureczky entered, my friend became so startled that he burned his lips. He tried to swallow his cigarette! The stuffed cabbage was served and it brought us back to the present. Zathureczky was sitting beside me and, because of his warmth and friendliness we felt he was very close to us. Until now we have known and respected him as one of the outstanding artists of our time, but we came to know him in America as a warm and great person as well. We are sure that Zathureczky will continue to enrich the musical world both here and abroad.
