At the age
of 67, Hungarian born pianist Etelka Freund came to live with relatives
in the United States. That was in 1946, although she had tried to
come to the US already before World War II broke out. When she arrived
her dear teacher and friend Béla Bartók had already
died.
Many excellent
European artists had fled Europe already before the war and populated
the music centers and all were trying to find work which understandably
was very difficult with such an abundance of migrated talent. No big
record company was interested in recording the art of Etelka Freund,
the legendary pupil of Brahms, Busoni, Bartók, and of her brother
- the great and neglected pianist and composer - Robert Freund. Only
insiders knew of Etelka's talent and European fame.
Etelka Freund
had stopped performing when she married in 1910 at the age of 30,
but had started performing again in Europe's major cities at the age
of 57, a few years before World War 2 broke out.
There were many musicians who were really remarkable and were not
offered any sort of contract by a leading record company in Europe.
So it is understandable that "The Encyclopedia of Recorded Music"
of 1948, which lists all the 78 RPM recordings available at that time,
has no entry of any performance by Etelka Freund, nor has the 1942
edition.
Though her fame as a concertizing performer, who had started a second
career, must have been known in the United States, she only was invited
by a radio station to perform for live broadcasts some of which have
been preserved and reissued on CD: Bach, Liszt, Brahms, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,
Kodaly and Bartok.
And there was, of course, Don Gabor who released 2 LPs with
recordings made with her around 1952 .
On R-199-109
Etelka Freund plays music of Johannes Brahms: Sonata in f minor Op.
5. and Intermezzi Op. 117 No. 2 and Op. 116 No 2.
John W. Freeman wrote the liner
notes for this release:
Few women
are named in the history of great pianists, but those few
have earned a right to the highest places in their art and
profession. Etelka Freund, one of the truly legendary musicians
of recent times, links the tradition of Clara Schumann with
that of today's few great women pianists. Born in Vienna,
where her talent was recognized at an early age, Madame Freund
actually knew Brahms and learned from him the interpretation
of his works. Later she studied in Switzerland with her brother
Robert, an outstanding pianist of his time, and in Germany
with Busoni, who always considered her the greatest of his
many pupils.
Etelka Freund made her first concert appearance in Berlin
when, with Busoni conducting the orchestra, she played three
major concertos on the same program - an astounding feat in
terms of physical endurance, especially for a young girl.
Newspaper critics of the time observed that she was "of
the same timber of which the greatest ones are carved,"
and for many years she played successful concerts, growing
all the while in musicianship and reputation. Her home in
Budapest, ruined during World War II, was a meeting place
for leading musicians and composers of the past half century,
since in addition to her skill as a pianist Madame Freund
was also highly esteemed for her musical taste, knowledge
and understanding. Among her souvenirs of an illustrious musical
life spanning one of music's fullest epochs, Etelka Freund
still has the original manuscript of Brahms' Second Concerto
and some letters.
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Warren De Motte
wrote about this disc in The
Long Playing Record Guide: "Etelka Freund actually knew Brahms
and although he probably did not coach her in this sonata, she plays
it with an understanding that indicates she must have profited from
the relationship."
Listening to
Etelka Freund playing Brahms one can hear how close Brahms could be
to Schumann's idiom especially in the Intermezzi which are played
here with such a lightness and naturalness that one easily forgets
about the choleric Brahms and the more 'heavy' interpretations by
other pianists. The sound recording is rather well done for a Remington.
She
also recorded Chopin's Waltzes which were released on Gabor's Plymouth
label with reference number P-12-125 as to not compete with
Edward Kilenyi's set of the Waltzes on R-199-82, Kilenyi being a major
Remington artist.
Although the Plymouth release is considered by some not as worthwhile
as her Brahms, it is quite interesting to hear Etelka Freund's unaffected
performance of Chopin.
Pearl
transferred the Remington recording of the Sonata in F minor Op. 5
and the Intermezzi Op. 116 No. 2 and Op. 117 No. 2 to the digital
format together with the Scherzo in E flat minor Op. 4, Variations
and Fugue on a theme of Handel Op. 35, Intermezzo in E flat minor
Op. 118 No. 6, and Capriccio in F sharp minor Op. 76 No. 1 which came
from other sources.
On a second CD other recordings can be found of works by Bach (from
The Well-Tempered Clavier), Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (Fantasia), Liszt
(Funérailles, Valse oubliée, St. Francis of Assisi's
Sermon to the Birds, Impromptu), Kodaly (from Nine Piano Pieces Op.
3) and Béla Bartók (Bagatelle, Sketch, from For Children,
from Folk Songs, Ten Easy Pieces, and Evening in Transylvania). Worth
investigating.
Note: The recording
of Schumann's 'Fantasie' coupled with Brahms's 'Schumann Variations'
on Gabor's Merit Records, reference number M200-28 has
been attributed by various collectors and record dealers to Etelka
Freund. The cover mentions the performer as being "v. frieda, pianist".
This
prompted a record dealer and many music lovers whose brains fantasized
ad lib to suggest that the artist was Etelka Freund. The container
of the tape apparently was labeled "v. frieda" by someone
in Austria before the tape was shipped and Gabor or an assistant must
have thought that the artist was "v. frieda" and had this
copied onto cover and label. It is the custom to write first the family
name (or the initial of the family name) followed by the Christian
name, especially when indexing performers. It also shows that the
staff of Remington Records did not always know about all the artist,
let alone that they did meet them in reality.
The pianist however is not Etelka Freund but the Austrian Frieda
Valenzi. Although some people still maintain that
these were played by Etelka Freund on this recording, Mrs. Frieda
Valenzi told that these are her recordings of the 'Fantasie' and the
'Schumann Variations'.
R.A.B. Page first
published February 2001
