Henryk Szeryng 谢霖

Born: 22 September, 1918 Warsaw, Poland
Died: 1988
None other than Bronisalw Huberman told the young prodigy Henryk Szeryng to move to Berlin and study with Carl Flesch. By 1933 he was ready to make his concert debut and rapidly toured the capitals of Europe. However the invasion of his native Poland in 1939 roused him to patriotic action and because he was fluent in seven languages he became a valuable member of General Sikorski's government in exile.

During the war, he travelled to Mexico where he helped find new homes for refugees. In 1946, he began teaching at the Conservatory in Mexico City and it seemed his playing career had slipped away. It was a recital in Mexico City by his compatriot Artur Rubinstein in 1954 which changed his life again. Szerying went to Rubinstein's dressing room after the recital and Rubisntein asked him to play for him the following day. Deeply impressed, Rubinstein not only sent him to the legendary manager Sol Hurok, but Rubinstein himself played sonatas and chamber music and made recordings with Szerying for the rest of their careers.

This collaboration brought Szeryng back into the international spotlight on his own merits as well and he toured and recorded prolifically from then on. He left a rich legacy of recordings (especially the Mozart concertos) on Philips Classics.