Vegh

Sandor Vegh was a Hungarian violinist and conductor born on May 17, 1912 (Heifetz was 11 years old.) He made his reputation as one of the great chamber music players of the twentieth century. He began studying the piano at the age of six and by age 12 entered the Budapest Conservatory where he studied violin with Jeno Hubay and composition with Zoltan Kodaly. Although he graduated in 1930, he had started his solo career in 1927. Not much later, he joined the Hungarian Trio and by 1934, had founded the Hungarian String Quartet. In 1940, he left the quartet to found his own – the Vegh String Quartet, which was active until the early 1970s. Vegh had been a professor at the Franz Lizst Academy since 1940 but left when his quartet left Hungary in 1946 to work in other European cities. Vegh also taught at the Basle Conservatory (and other music schools, including the Mozarteum) from 1953 to 1997. From 1962, he worked closely with Pablo Casals and his popular festivals. I imagine he made quite a number of recordings, though I’ve never heard any. Vegh died in January, 1997.