Szymon Goldberg’s life (1909-1993) included incidents that give “exciting” a bad name. A child prodigy, he became leader of Furtwängler’s Berlin Philharmonic at 21 and a refugee from the Nazis at 24. Touring with Lily Kraus, with whom he made now-classic pre-war Mozart sonata recordings, he was interned by the Japanese in 1942 and spent the rest of the war at hard labor in an internment camp. Renewed success came in the post-war era as a chamber musician, conductor, and teacher (at the Curtis Institute), making well-received Mozart and Schubert LPs partnered by Radu Lupu. Artur Balsam escaped some of the extremes endured by Goldberg, finding refuge from the Nazis in the U.S., where he was much sought after as a chamber musician, touring and recording with many of the post-war era’s big name ensembles and instrumentalists.
This 1953 recording of the Brahms Violin Sonatas typifies their music-making–refined, lyric, and distinctly “Old World” in style. Throughout these works Goldberg’s handsome tone makes the gorgeous melodies glow with warmth. His style embodies the “speaking voice” (not often heard these days) in which seamless bowing binds notes and phrases. It’s like a man telling a story; a sad one, but suffused with poetry. This is Brahms in his autumnal mode, the playing fitting the nature of the music. Goldberg’s flowing tempos, sunlit tone, and relatively restrained “classical” approach prevent Brahms’ “autumn” from turning into winter. It’s reminiscent of Josef Suk’s more colorful playing in its lyricism, while deferring to the more searching and detailed versions by Christian Tetzlaff on Virgin or Gidon Kremer’s more idiosyncratic DG set. Balsam is a sensitive partner whose contributions are diminished by the original’s backward piano placement. That aside, the sonics on Testament’s transfer are vivid, with plenty of violin presence. There are plenty of other fine recordings of these works available, but Goldberg’s is among the best, and with playing of such stylistic integrity and moderate pretensions, it’s likely to outlast flashier rivals.
