Tibor de Machula, praised by Margaret Campbell in The Strad magazine in 1983 for his intense and direct musical communication, began lessons aged seven with Adolf Schiffer (a contemporary of David Popper) in Budapest, and on the advice of Jenő Hubay spent a year at the Curtis Institute under Felix Salmond. After completing his studies in America Machula returned to Hungary and was asked by Nicholas Roth of the Budapest Trio to go on a major tour of the Far East, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies. With them he also toured extensively in Europe, Scandinavia and South Africa. Although he continued to undertake solo and chamber touring work, Machula’s professional life was dominated by two long-standing appointments: first with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (with whom he recorded many major concertos under Furtwängler) for eleven years, followed by thirty years at the Concertgebouw—one of the longest tenures in recent times.

Machula’s concerto recordings here support Campbell’s endorsement, although there is much that, on a technical level, limits his playing, especially from today’s perspective in which absolute accuracy is seen as essential. The Dvořák in particular has several lapses of control or tone in Machula’s live 1945 broadcast. The Schumann (1942) is a rather better prospect, with some very well-articulated and clean playing in the first movement, and a wonderfully soulful performance of the opening theme in the slow movement, whilst the finale is suitably stout. What is never in doubt is the intensity of Machula’s playing; without resorting to histrionic dramatisation (vibrato is always quite well contained, and use of portamento is equally discerning) his playing communicates very directly with the listener. These performances do suffer from poor recording quality, but the listener should focus instead upon some fascinating stylistic features: for example, the approach taken to rhythmic execution by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Celibidache’s direction.

In earlier repertoire, here represented by the Boccherini-Grützmacher Concerto in B flat (1938), Machula, like so many others of this time, sounds quaintly outmoded in the lushness of his Romantic reading, which references none of the historical performance consciousness of recent decades. It might be argued, however, that this grants him a greater expressive freedom and this is certainly a direct and arresting performance, with a particularly heartfelt G minor slow movement.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Milsom (A–Z of String Players, Naxos 8.558081-84)