Janos Starker

When he was a boy, Kodaly taught himselfwith virtually no professional guidance-to play the piano, the violin and the cello, partly in order to take part in domestic music-making (his father, a station master employed by the Hungarian state railways, was an amateur violinist, his mother sang and played the piano), and his chamber music for strings all dates from relatively early in his working life, between 1905 and 1918. It includes three major works that feature the cello in a virtuoso capacity: the Sonata for cello and piano, Op. 4(1909-10), the Duo for violin and cello, Op. 7 (1914) and the Sonata for solo cello, Op. 8 (1915).

Cellist János Starker with the complete concertante recordings he made under the baton of Walter Susskind, a conductor praised for his abilities as an accompanist and with whom Starker shared close aesthetics conceptions. Their refined, chamber rendition of masterpieces of the repertoire by Dvořák, Dohnányi or Prokofiev is a superb token of Starker’s deep inwardness.

Heard here in a composer-conducted disc-mate to the première recording of Hovhaness’s early Cello Concerto (1936), City of Light (1970) has some lovely ideas, like the surprisingly sweet and simple string melody in the middle of the ‘Angel of Light’ movement (beginning at 1'30"), and the third movement, Allegretto grazioso, which sounds like a minuet in oriental garb. The outer movements, however, outstay their welcome.

Le grand Janos Starker a enregistré les Suites de Bach à plusieurs reprises. Rien d'étonnant à cela puisqu'elles sont le bréviaire de tout violoncelliste. A chaque fois son engagement est total et sa réalisation à l'image de son art sobre, à la limite de l'ascétisme. Nul débordement romantique sous son archet, mais une lecture littérale avec beaucoup de respect voire de distance. Une option radicale qui peut étonner mais que nous trouvons tout à fait fascinante.

Hungarian Cellist János Starker trained at the Franz Liszt Academy of Budapest, here the practice of chamber music was heavily encouraged. He became a highly sought-after chamber partner, leading to these wonderful renditions of Brahms sonatas with pianist György Sebők.

Starker’s complete recordings with pianist Gerald Moore. This recording's first half has been released in the past as an LP in 1959, the second half had laid dormant in the Warner Classics archive for decades then finally had been digitized and revealed in 2014! Including virtuoso pieces for cello by Popper, Saint-Saëns or Cassadó and beautiful transcriptions of Bach, Chopin or Schumann.

The cellist János Starker and the pianist György Sebök, both born in Hungary in the early 1920s, made a musical team for some 60 years. These recordings were made in 1959 in Paris, where they both found themselves after the Soviet crackdown on Hungary. “Starker [is] at the peak of his form,” wrote Gramophone. “The cello's timbre is refined and subtly coloured … and the pianist is completely in harmony with his partner.”