Mozart Sonatas with Shumsky and Mittman

The American violinist Oscar Shumsky (1917-2000) was a celebrated instrumentalist, but most of the acclaim came relatively late in his career - post 1977, when he returned to recordings and then concerts.

Much of his earlier activity had been confined to being the concertmaster of the NBC Symphony, chamber music with the Primrose Quartet, teaching, radio appearances (often with Earl Wild), and latterly some conducting.

Oscar Shumsky

His first recordings (other than with the NBC orchestra), were as first violinist of the Primrose ensemble, a starry group that also boasted Josef Gingold, William Primrose and Harvey Shapiro. Victor engaged them for Haydn, Schumann and Smetana 78 sets in 1940-41. In 1947 he accompanied tenor James Melton in four Rachmaninoff songs; then in 1950 he backed soprano Erna Berger in two Mozart arias, both for RCA.

This present disc was a one-off effort for the small Allegro label in 1951, comprising splendid readings of Mozart's Violin Sonatas K. 454 and K. 526 with pianist Leopold Mittman. The two work beautifully together. Mittman was a well-known accompanist who also recorded with Mischa Elman and Nathan Milstein. Shumsky would go on to record the complete Mozart violin sonatas with Artur Balsam in 1977.

For those who enjoy such things, you can hear a car horn at 3:09 of the Andante of K. 526. Either that or Harpo Marx attended the session. Otherwise the sound is reasonably good from what was probably a bare-bones recording session.

I also have 1950s LPs containing Shumsky's Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 with Thomas Scherman and the Ravel Sonata for Violin and Cello with Bernard Greenhouse, and will post them over time.