Who is Georg Vásárhelyi and why has Classico released a three-disc set of his recordings? Georg Vásárhelyi was a Romanian-born pianist who, after lessons with Béla Bartók and Edwin Fischer, moved to Denmark, where he passed the rest of his very long life as a teacher, an accompanist, and, after much persuasion by his friends, a soloist. Classico has released a three-disc set of his performances because, in a word, Vásárhelyi was a fabulous accompanist and, however he might have felt about it, a brilliant soloist. These recordings range from a 1939 studio performance of Brahms' G major Violin Sonata with Emil Telmányi on 78s to a live 1998 performance of excerpts from Schumann's Davidsbündler Tänze from Beethoven Hall in Tokyo, and they are, without exception, superlative. As an accompanist, Vásárhelyi is a full, not a junior, partner. In a 1960 recording of Beethoven's Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen Variations with the cellist Erling Blöndal Bengtsson, Vásárhelyi's affectionately humorous playing is as crucial to the performance as Bengtsson's tenderly gruff playing. And in the 1983 recording of Tchaikovsky's Trio "In memory of a great artist," Vásárhelyi's passionately precise playing even comes close to dominating violinist Gunnar Tagmose and cellist Bertel Søcborg Ohlsen. For Vásárhelyi fans, the high points of this set will be the solo recordings. The ardent feelings and virtuoso technique of his 1956 recording of Chopin's B minor Sonata and his 1976 recording of Schubert's G major Sonata is astounding, but for the true Vásárhelyi aficionados, the real revelations will be his 1976 recording of Bartók's "For children" and 1978 recording of Bartók's Im Freien, performances filled with tremendous warmth and love for his former mentor. The sound is as good as can be expected considering the almost 60-year span of the recordings.
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