This programme completes Testament’s reissue of the recordings made for EMI by the fabled Hungarian violinist Johanna Martzy. At the same time it features two of the earliest recordings made by the great German musician Wolfgang Sawallisch, a master accompanist as both pianist and conductor, as well as a profound interpreter of the symphonic literature. The Mozart G major Concerto and this version of the Mendelssohn Concerto were not issued at the time. They are here receiving their first European and American releases.

After some recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Johanna Martzy came to the notice of EMI’s most influential producer, Walter Legge. Her first sessions for Columbia took place at Kingsway Hall, London, in February 1954, Paul Kletzki conducting for her in the Brahms Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Testament SBT 1037). Further sessions were scheduled for June: Bach’s C major solo Sonata at Abbey Road Studios and the Mozart G major and Mendelssohn E minor concertos with the Philharmonia and 30-year-old Wolfgang Sawallisch at Kingsway Hall. These concertos were not released at the time. Martzy continued her Bach solo sessions at Abbey Road in July with the D minor Partita; and the following March, April and May she completed her exceptional set of Bach’s unaccompanied masterpieces. Just before Christmas 1955 the Mendelssohn was re-recorded with the Philharmonia at Kingsway Hall, with Kletzki (also available on SBT 1037): one session was devoted to the cadenza and Beethoven’s two Romances were also taken down. In September and November 1956, at the Electrola studios in Berlin, she and Antonietti taped all Schubert’s works for violin and piano. And that was the end of Johanna Martzy’s recording career. The capricious, dictatorial and unpleasant Legge simply lost interest in her.

It is difficult to find artistic reasons as to why the Mozart and Mendelssohn recordings were not issued in Martzy’s lifetime. They are both excellent performances ... . Martzy plays both concertos very well and since their belated release on a Japanese CD, some critics have even suggested that the Mendelssohn interpretation is superior to the substitute version that Martzy made with Kletzki.

(extracts from the booklet note)