Most teenage prodigies are soon forgotten, but the legend of Joseph Hassid persists, in part because of his extraordinary virtuoso abilities, in part because of his early, tragic death. Symposium’s booklet includes a brief biographical note tracing Hassid’s life, from a Polish shtetl, to his study with Carl Flesch (at age 14), his mental breakdown, institutional confinement, and death in 1950 after a brain operation. All that survives of his playing are testimonials by top fiddlers of his time, a 1939 test pressing for EMI, and eight short encore pieces recorded in 1940 with Gerald Moore at the piano. It would be wonderful to have more substantial examples of his art, but what we have tells us that his version of Sarasate’s Zapateado is as scintillating as the young Heifetz’s–and Playera, another of Sarasate’s Danzas Españolas, is given with a magnificent sense of rhythm and timing, along with a rich, velvety lower-register tone that’s irresistible. Hassid rivals Heifetz again in Achron’s Hebrew Melody–and there’s more, including schmaltzy Kreisler oozing with charm and gorgeous tone, singing melodies like Dvorák’s Humoresque and Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs, and the pyrotechnics of Elgar’s La Capricieuse.
Since those are all we have of Hassid’s playing, he’s always shared LP and CD reissues with another violinist. EMI paired him with early recordings of another Flesch pupil, Ida Haendel, as does Pearl, while a Testament CD couples him with another Flesch product who died young, Ginette Neveu. Here, it’s Philip Newman, a colorful character virtually unknown today, though his life could provide material for several films (for instance, his quixotic attempt to organize an orchestra in Elizabethville, Belgian Congo). Symposium gives us what appears to be an amateur recording made at a 1965 student recital of six short virtuoso pieces, most of limited substance, that demonstrate his vast technique and free spirit. They’re in listenable if close-up sound, though Newman’s own Impressiones de Espagna at times sounds like an explosion in a barn. Amid all the flashy virtuoso tricks is the oasis of his soulful arrangement of a Catalan folksong, featuring gorgeous legato playing. The filler is three tracks of Newman’s very diplomatic broadcast comments regarding his service on the jury of the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition. Ultimately, this amounts to a disc for specialists, but no one should pass up the opportunity to hear Hassid.
