Description
Adolf Busch is primarily remembered today as the leader of his eponymous string quartet, perhaps the greatest cham-ber music ensemble in the first half of the 20th century. Although the Busch Quartet recorded twelve of Beethoven's 16 string quartets, they only recorded the one Mozart quartet featured on this CD release. Mozart String Quartet No.16 in E-flat is one of Mo-zart '10 celebrated quartets', six of which were dedicated to the com-poser's older friend and colleague Joseph Haydn. After receiving the dedication, Haydn wrote to Mozart's father: 'Before God, I declare that your son is the greatest composer known by me in person or by reputation.' For most of his career, Busch primarily recorded chamber music, including duo sonatas with the pianist Rudolf Serkin (who later be-came the violinist's son-in-law). Nevertheless, Busch had a brilliant violin technique, and after he emigrated to the United States from Nazi Germany, the American Columbia label asked Busch to record several solo violin concertos in the early 1940s. Besides concertos by Bach and Beethoven, Busch made the recording of Mozart's Violin Concerto No.5 in A - his only recording of a concerto by the Salz-burg master - in 1945. Also included on this CD are all the solo works Busch made with the pianist Artur Balsam in 1942. Recorded at New York's Columbia Studios, these include two Baroque violin sonatas by Bach and Han-del, a Siciliana by Geminiani and two Hungarian Dances by Brahms.
