Fraternity-Testvériség, 1959 (37. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1959-07-01 / 7. szám

FRATERNITY

5

Ede Zathureczky was born in Hungary on August 24, 1903. From his early childhood he demonstrated extraordinary musical talent. He graduated from the famous Hubay school of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, an institution well known and highly respected in the world of music.

He was only eighteen when he started his concert tours of Europe, to be shortly followed by his first visit to the United States in 1925, where his tour met with immediate success.

In 1928 he succeeded his beloved professor, Jenő Hubay, as head of the Violin Master Class — a great honor at the age of 25.

In 1942, in spite of the strong opposition of ultra right-wing elements, he was selected, beacuse of his brilliant artistic talent and pedagogic ability, to fill the presidential chair of the Ferenc Liszt Academy, which position he held for the most troubled 14 years of his beloved

Magyar nation.

Late in 1956, he could no longer endure the atmosphere of the Communist system which he had tolerated only that he might serve his people through his music. He resigned from the presidency and chose voluntary exile in the United States.

Here, until his untimely death, he served as Professor of Violin at the University of Indiana.

Besides his tours in the New World, he also toured extensively in Europe and Asia. His long-standing association with Béla Bartók, one

of the most outstanding master musicians and a faithful friend of Zathureczky. has made him widely known as the foremost interpreter of

Bartok’s violin music. With the composer as accompanist, he presented for the first time Bartok’s second sonata and also his violin concerto in Rome, Florence, Prague, Vienna, Warsaw and Stockholm. Another of his world premiers was Khachaturjan’s violin concerto in Budapest.

As a concert soloist he played with all the major orchestras and under such eminent conductors as Bruno Walter, William Mengelberg, Ernő von Dohnányi, Antal Dorati, Edward van Beinum and Otto Klemperer. In his frequent sonata recitals his partners were such greats as Béla Bartók and Ernő von Dohnányi.

As a performing artist he possessed the rare ability to capture the enthusiasm of his always changing audiences and the unanimous recognition of the critics. In order to give a brief review on the fine impression he exercised on musical experts, we quote several of the typical critics he received at the most different points of the world.

Pesti Napló, of Budapest, Hungary: “We have known Zathureczky as one of the greatest Hungarian violinists, but after his concert yesterday, we must place him among the greatest of international artists.”

Giornale D’ltalia, of Rome, Italy: “The wonderful beauty of his tone, the well controlled dynamics, the dramatic accent in the broadest sense of the word; the quality of the musical dialogue in solo works, as well as in works with accompaniment, appeared in such a measure of completeness, that the artist must be placed on a level of unsurpassed heights.”

He was repeatedly asked to be on the jury on international music competitions, and in the summer of 1956, at the Violin Contest at Salzburg, Austria, he served as chairman on the panel of judges.