Parnassus release, The Young János Starker is an April 2023 Gramophone Editor’s Choice for Re-issue/Archive!
An unmissable insight into cellist János Starker’s early work, featuring a performance of Kodály’s Solo Cello Sonata that’s ‘truly sensational’
“I heard János Starker play [Kodály’s Cello Sonata] on the radio. I loved it, though hearing his Columbia LP version (the third of many he was to record over the years), the sound seemed rather distant. Best, as I was soon to discover, was his 1950 Period recording (engineered by Peter Bartók), eventually issued in the UK by Saga, then, for the CD era, by Philips. The Grand Prix du Disque-winning version reissued here, Starker’s first shot at the piece on disc (though cut to fit the original 78s), was recorded a couple of years earlier for the short-lived Pacific label. It’s truly sensational: impassioned, almost confessional-sounding in the slower music, with a top-speed, dazzlingly brilliant finale that conjures whirling dervishes. The couplings include Starker’s only commercial recording of Hindemith’s lovely Sonata Op 11 No 3 and music by Falla and Torroba with pianist Georges Solchany. Leslie Gerber’s production is wholly excellent. I see that Parnassus has also released a DVD of Starker playing the Kodály in a 1988 Tokyo recital (PDVD1202). I’ll need to try and track that down, too.”
—Rob Cowan, Gramophone
