Endre Szervánszky

Endre Szervánszky (b. 1911) is one of the outstanding figures on the Hungarian musical scene since Bartók and Kodály. He had his first notable success with his first string quartet. When this was performed by the Végh Quartet in Budapest in 1943, the distinguished music critic Dénes Bartha wrote: “The quartet must be considered by far the best, most original, forceful and mature creation of contemporary Hungarian chamber music”. Completed five years earlier, in 1938, it was Szervanszky's first work of significance, and although he modestly described it in the printed programme as an “essay on Bartók”, it already gives clear evidence of his creative individuality. For various reasons however, including of course the war, he did not go on to any comparable achievement until after 1945, although he did write a number of minor works for piano (Sonatina, Little Suite), as well as a Sonata for violin and piano (1945), of somewhat atonal character.