Benno Rabinof, Toscha Seidel - Benno Rabinof & Toscha Seidel (Remastered 2026) (2026) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Violin Sonata No.3 in C minor, op.45
02. Allegretto alla Romanza
03. Allegro animato
04. Allegretto moderato
05. Allegro
06. Recitativo–Fantasia
07. Allegretto poco mosso
08. Hungarian Dance No.20
09. Slavonic Dance
10. Gypsy Airs
11. Introduction and Tarantella
12. Tango
13. Spanish Dance in E minor
14. Jota
15. La Gitana
16. Gypsy Caprice

Leopold Auer is considered the greatest violin teacher of the 20th century and taught three of the most renowned violinists of the 20th century: Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein and Mischa Elman. Benno Rabinof and Toscha Seidel, the two Auer students featured on this album, did not have the illustrious careers of his three most famous pupils, but are considered outstanding students of Auer and are deeply revered by string players. Benno Rabinof was born on the Lower East Side of New York City and became a student of Leopold Auer after the legendary teacher left St. Petersburg in 1918 and emigrated to New York. Auer declared Rabinof to be 'the most gifted of all the pupils he taught in America' and promoted Rabinof's debut at Carnegie Hall, where he performed the concertos of Edward Elgar and Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Rabinof was fortunate to play on two remarkable instruments: the 'Lord Amherst' Stradivarius from 1734, previously owned by Fritz Kreisler, and a Guarneri del Gesù from 1742. Toscha Seidel was born in 1899 in Odessa, the talent factory for violinists in the Ukraine. Seidel made his debut at Carnegie Hall in 1918 and made his first solo recordings for the American label Columbia. He was immortalized in the popular song Mischa, Jascha, Toscha, Sascha by George Gershwin, published in 1921. Seidel eventually settled in Los Angeles and established his career in Hollywood, where David O. Selznick hired him as the Ghost Violinist for the solos in his popular 1939 romance film Intermezzo. Seidel's only LP recording on the Impresario label was made in the mid-1950s and features pieces he played on the legendary 1714 Stradivarius 'Da Vinci', which he used throughout his career.