Toscha Seidel was – along with Jascha Heifetz – one of the star pupils in Leopold Auer’s legendary class in St Petersburg. Dubbed ‘the angel’ (Heifetz) and ‘the devil’ (Seidel) by Auer himself, these two superstar fiddle talents were frequently showcased together in the Bach ‘Double’ Concerto. After emigrating to New York following the Russian Revolution, Toscha Seidel made his American début at Carnegie Hall in 1918. Immediately following this triumphant success, the teenage Seidel was offered an exclusive recording contract by the Columbia Record Company to rival Heifetz on the Victor label.

Described by The New York Times as ‘transcendental’ and The New York Tribune as ‘unforgettable’, Seidel never managed to establish the fame of his fellow Auer students. Most notably, the distinguished violinist and pedagogue Carl Flesch wrote in his Memoirs that ‘the quality of [Seidel’s] tone is one of the most beautiful I have heard in my career. Technically, too, he is excellently equipped, whence I regard it as an injustice of fate that he is not considered the third in a triumvirate with Heifetz and Elman.’

This CD features Toscha Seidel’s first recordings for the American Columbia label, and include such well-known favourites as Brahms’s First Hungarian Dance, Dvořák’s Humoresque and Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen. Although complete concertos were not recorded at the time Seidel made his first records, this CD features him playing the heartfelt Canzonetta from Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and the Romance from Wieniawski’s beloved Second Concerto.