Reger & Bartók - Violin Sonatas - Hyman bress

Max Reger (1873-1916)

Sonata in A minor for Unaccompanied Violin,
Op. 91, No. 1

Sonata in B flat major Unaccompanied Violin,
Op. 91, No. 3

Sonata in A minor Unaccompanied Violin,
Op. 91, No. 7

Hyman Bress, Violin

(Dover, 1966)

Béla Bartók (1881-1945)

Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano (1921)
Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano (1922)

Hyman Bress, Violin
Charles Reiner, Piano

(RCA Victor, 1965)

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Hyman Bress (1931-1995)


Here are two LP's I've had since the early 1970's. They amount to the finest recordings of the featured works from Bartók and Reger that I know of ... two composers who were not coincidentally, during their lifetimes, recipients of more than their fair shares of irrational invective, violent hostility, and blind hatred ... for creating beautiful music whose main failing was going in the face of what a ruling majority accepted as "beauty".

Whether by a despotic minority or a tyrannical majority suffering from terminal amnesia, great art is never wanted and quite justifiably feared for the sole reason that such art is never based on propaganda lies, hatred and indifference. Only the methods of repressing art differ from one form of unfreedom to the other.

A Wikipedia article concerning violinist Hyman Bress does not exist (not that I needed one). However, in a violin / violinist's discussion thread from 2005 ("Little Known Violinists..."), Hyman Bress is referred to in at least four comments:

(1) "Hyman Bress (Tchaikovsky Concerto - again with Boult)"

(2) "Don't know much about Bress. I had his Bach solo sonatas and partitas and I know he recorded the Ysaye solo sonatas, too."

(3) "Hyman Bress is (was?) also a Canadian violinist who made quite a few recordings in the 1950s and 1960s. He played a lot of 20th-century music (Bloch, Bartok) and was very intense and virtuosic, but had the reputation for being a bit wild."

(4) "Hyman Bress I believe was a South African who made among other things a complete recording of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas. IT sounds as if it was recorded in the shower without the water running but with all of the echo intact."

http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?id=6862

... but a violin-specialist blog is somewhat more informative. "Hyman Bress died on October 30, 1995, in Montreal, largely forgotten, at age 64", we learn in the last line of this essay. (The author also links to a YouTube fragment of the "Tchaikovsky Concerto - again with Boult".)

http://pronetoviolins.blogspot.de/2011/04/bress.html

And ... once again, one can find a "respectable" biography at The Canadian Encyclopedia because, once again (as with John Newmark), we're dealing with an immigrant to Canada who settled (1951) in Montreal:

https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/4/7/m15-439-e.html

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What this listener especially values (for some time now) about Hyman Bress is that he almost totally subordinated his formidable technical and interpretive abilities to the promotion of neglected music of the first rank - as well as very seldom performed music. Further, this listener has always believed that if artists don't do what Bress did, there can be no hope for art. Period.

While indeed pursuing a "career" in no uncertain terms, without a doubt Bress did give art some hope - but, of course, this sort of gift is the last thing you'll ever be remembered for in this world. In fact, in this world (a world in which who you know, how you sell yourself and giving people what they want are the only things which count), you'll be immediately forgotten as thanks for your sacrifice - which is more or less the continuing state of affairs with Hyman Bress.

(Oh, incidentally ... Bress owned, played and recorded with "one of the finest violins in the world today", a Guarnerius del Gesu from 1737 ... and, among numerous other awards, won the Jascha Heifetz Prize and the Leventritt Award).

Note: the included PDF file contains the short essay from Hyman Bress, "The Role of Electronic Music in Relationship to the Violin" (from Musical Events, April, 1962). It's actually worth reading.

(More LP's from Hyman Bress will appear in due time.)

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LP transfers of above material.
Includes cover, labels and extensive notes
for the Reger works.