Cult Violinist: Johanna Martzy

Johanna Martzy (1924-1979) was an acclaimed Hugarian violinist who was tutoured by the great Jenö Hubay (who predicted she would become one of the greats) before studying at the Budapest Academy of Music at the ripe old age of 10 years! She made her debut in Budapest when she was 13, and graduated from the Academy in 1942.In 1947 she won first prize in the Geneva competition, the Concours International d’Exécution Musicale, toured widely both in Europe and in the USA quickly building her reputation as a soloist and chamber ensemble player.

She passed away from cancer in 1979 at the age of only 54. She recorded relatively little by the standards of other great violinists such as the long-lived Heifetz, and the last decades of her life she made virtually no recordings. However, due to the efforts of certain tireless enthusiasts of her work, many of her broadcast recordings have been issued posthumously in modern LP pressings of audiphile quality and on CD.

She began her EMI Columbia recording career in 1954, but after the 8 recordings listed below she ceased recording for Columbia in 1956, legend (or gossip) having it that she spurned the advances of the producer Walter Legge and thus things at EMI became difficult, or at least embarrassing. Sadly these recording were deleted from the catalogue after only a few years and were never reissued by Columbia.