In collecting circles the name of Johanna Martzy is revered, and her records fetch enormous prices on the second-hand market. However, none of her performances has been available for over a quarter of a century and her last visit to a recording studio was in 1956, when she was only 32 years old. She was born in Romania and became one of Hubay's favourite pupils in Budapest. Tully Potter's informative notes suggest that her initially successful career faltered as a result of family commitments, and because marriage to a wealthy Swiss publisher gave her no financial incentive to continue playing in public. She died, a widow, at the early age of 54.
Martzy made some records for DG in the early 1950s and transferred to Columbia in 1954. Potter suggests that it was a whim of Walter Legge which led to her being dropped after only two years, but I wonder whether it was more the case that her records did not sell, in spite of favourable reviews, since they are all scarce.
Her performances here show that she had a free, very expressive style, with an attractive, silvery tone-quality. Her technique is not immaculate and there are occasional lapses of intonation, but these are not important defects in the context of two highly impressive interpretations. The Mendelssohn is notable for a rhapsodic, song-like first movement, a warm, gently affectionate Andante and an elegant, unforced finale. In the Brahms there is a slowish basic pulse in the first movement, although Martzy's approach is again lyrical rather than monumental. Her account of the Adagio is very eloquent and the finale fluent and strongly stated. Throughout both works Kletzki and the Philharmonia are reliable rather than inspired collaborators, and the recordings as good as one could expect from the mid-1950s, being full in body and tone.
I don't feel that Martzy was quite in the David Oistrakh or Heifetz class, but she was nevertheless a highly gifted, characterful artist.'