Sándor Végh

Sándor Végh (17 May 1912 – 7 January 1997) was a Hungarian, later French, violinist and conductor. He was best known as one of the great chamber music violinists of the twentieth century.

Education

Sándor Végh was born in 1912 in Kolozsvár, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary (since 1920 Cluj-Napoca, Romania). He began studying the piano at the age of six. He entered the Budapest Conservatory in 1924, taking violin studies with Jenő Hubay and composition with Zoltán Kodály. He began a career as a solo violinist and in 1927 played a Richard Strauss composition under the composer’s baton. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1930, having won the Hubay Prize and the Reményi Prize from the institution in 1927.

Career

As his solo career was developing, he joined the Hungarian Trio with Ilonka Krauss and László Vencze. In 1934 he became one of the founding members of the Hungarian String Quartet. He was initially the first violin, but gave that position to Zoltán Székely and took second chair. He participated with the Hungarian String Quartet in the first Hungarian performance of Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 5.