JÁNOS STARKER & GYÖRGY SEBŐK

THE UNRELEASED BERLIN STUDIO RECORDINGS 1963
1st edition limited to 2000 copies

SIDE A
Prokofiev: Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 119

Andante grave

Moderato
Allegro, ma non troppo

SIDE B
Granados: Intermezzo in E-flat major from “Goyescas”

De Falla: Danza ritual delfuego from “El amor brujo”
Bach: Sonata for viola da gamba and keyboard No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1027
Adagio
Allegro ma non tanto

Andante

Allegro moderato

Twin Lights

János Starker, cellist, and György Sebők, pianist, were both born in Hungary early in the twentieth century. They were welcomed into the formidable Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and emigrated to the USA, where they both held the title of Distinguished Professor at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington. Both heavy smokers and sometimes reputed – unjustly – to be harsh, austere and insensitive to trends, they were drawn to music in all its varieties and fascinated by its many colours. They had one aim only, one noble objective: to showcase the works all composers, as evidenced by this recording made in the legendary Studio 3 of Berlin Radio on 24 October 1963.

Starker and Sebők were fully imbued with the aesthetics that Prokofiev proclaimed: “I cultivate melody and strive to introduce feeling and emotion into my works. No matter that some call me a cubist, adding that I systematically avoid any emotional or romantic elements in my quest to reach only objectivity.”

Next, and at the opposite end of the spectrum, is the Spanish passion of the two pieces by Granados and De Falla, pieces that nevertheless also convey melancholy. Starker and Sebők launch into the works with enthusiasm and intensity.

The last piece, Bach’s Sonata in G Major, BWV 1027 for Viola da Gamba and Keyboard, is one of three he composed, probably in Köthen. Because they may have originally been written for other instruments, they can easily be transcribed for the cello and piano. They reveal the rich influences that pervaded the German region during the first half of the eighteenth century. The two musicians give us a sublime interpretation of the beauty of the counterpoint in this Sonata.

These recordings attest to the importance that the two superb musicians attached to working in the service of the composers. We wonder if, in that enchanted studio in Berlin in 1963, they knew how much further they went to bewitch us and touch us so profoundly.