Gifted violinist and survivor of the Budapest Ghettto, György Pauk

He survived the Holocaust and defected to the West after the Hungarian Uprising, but the violinist György Pauk always acknowledged his Hungarian roots as the source of his heritage and his musical gifts.

“The Hungarian violin school is distinguished by the quality, beauty and purity of the sound. The way to find this sound is to find the balance between the two hands, and to be absolutely free in the body, without any pressure – like the human voice”.

Pauk, who has died aged 88, left his homeland for the UK in 1958 where his musicianship and virtuosity found acclaim. In several significant concerts he premiered works by composers Michael Tippett, Krystof Penderecki and Witold Lutoslawski, but it was Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto which resonated with him as a former student of the composer’s close friend.

Pauk’s delicate and focused tone exemplified the Hungarian tradition. He stressed the importance of the balance between the left arm (fingering) and right arm (bowing)l: “Violin playing is difficult, but it should look easy to the audience – then you know you’re using your hands and fingers in the right way.”

In 1972 he formed a successful trio with fellow Hungarian Peter Frankl, and the cellist Ralph Kirshbaum. The BBC marked their 25th anniversary in 1997 by commissioning Fourteen Little Pieces by the Scottish composer James MacMillan.

György Pauk considered himself a Hungarian-born British violinist whose Jewish identity was vital. He was born in Budapest , the only child of Imre, a businessman, and Magda, a concert pianist. Magda was aware of his musical talents early, and at the age of three he noticed if she was playing a wrong note on the piano. Two years later began studying the violin. But that cosy, cultural family life in the Jewish quarter of Budapest, was about to change.

Imre was taken to a labour camp (Hatarszög) and died there in 1944. György clearly remembered the day in March 1944 when they had to move to the Jewish ghetto with his grandmother. They shared a flat with many other people and it was cold, food was scarce and often they had to find shelter in the cellar from German bombing.

In October the Hungarian Nyilas came to the apartment and took all the young women away, among them his mother, who he never saw again. She was deported to Auschwitz, but died on the journey.

The young György, now orphaned, lived in the ghetto with his aunt, his cousin and grandmother, who was one of the Jews saved by a letter from the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, which stated she was under the protection of his country.

Pauk told AJR Refugee Voices that he would never forget the incessant “hunger, cold and fear” of his childhood in the ghetto. In fact for years he would carry emergency food on him, even when visiting a restaurant or later, as a celebrity, staying in the best hotels in the world.

Liberated by the Russians, the family returned to their Budapest apartment where, encouraged by his teacher, Ede Zathureczky, his grandmother urged the now 13 year old to enter the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. His teachers included violinist Imre Waldbauer (a close friend of Béla Bartók) and Zoltán Kodály. The next year he made his debut as a soloist and began touring Eastern Europe.

During the Hungarian Uprising in 1956, he jointly won the Paganini Competition in Italy with Gérard Poulet, and the following year won the Munich Sonata competition with Peter Frankl. He created the Pauk Quartet which recorded Schumann’s Piano Quintet on a 10in Deutsche Grammophon LP with Frankl at the keyboard.

While celebrated for his musical gifts, Pauk was not immune to what was happening in the rest of his country, which he called the “darkest years of Communism”.

An opportunity to play for Yehudi Menuhin came via a former teacher in 1956 and with Menuhin as his guarantor, he made the difficult decision to seek political asylum in the west. But he agonised over abandoning his supportive grandmother and feared she would suffer the political consequences of his defection.

From Paris he moved to Holland where was appointed concert master in the Brabants Orchestra in s’Hertogenbosch. In 1959 he married Susanna (Susie) Mautner, a Hungarian-born chemical engineering student, and they had a son and a daughter.

With Menuhin’s support they came to London in 1961 and In December of that year he made his debut at the Royal Festival Hall and the following year at the Wigmore Hall, where his intepretation of works by Szymanowski, Bartók and Prokofiev was acclaimed. From there his international career took off with concert tours in Australia and the United States. He also championed new works by such composers as Lutosławski, Penderecki, Schnittke, Maxwell Davies, and Tippett. Once, after he performed with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra a young autograph seeker turned out to be the nine -year-old Simon Rattle .

In 1973, armed with his British passport, he returned to Hungary, with his wife and two children to visit his family. His first concert there proved a highly emotional event, as he played where he started as a young student.

In 1987 Pauk was appointed professor of violin at the Royal Academy of Music. His understanding of Bartok, particularly his Second Violin Concerto, made him a much sought after teacher”.

Study the score,” he urged his students. “There are so many wonderful thematic transformations. A theme may be demonic in the first movement, but dance-like in the third.”

Despite winning three competitions and serving on many competition juries, Pauk had reservations about their fairness. “They are good for motivating students to prepare repertoire,” he said. “But how can they ever be fair?”

He retired from performing after his 71st birthday, but continued teaching students from all over the wordl at the Royal Academy . His autobiography, A Life In Music, Memories of 80 Years with the Violin was published to warm reception in the musical world in 2021. In a tribute Michael Newman CEO, AJR, said:

“The AJR was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of distinguished Hungarian violinist, Gyorgy Pauk.

Gyorgy’s inspiring triumph over adversity, saw him survive the horrors of confinement of ghetto life, in Nazi-occupied Hungary until the liberation by the Soviet Russian Army, to later become a highly celebrated concert musician and teach students from all over the World at the Royal Academy. He was proud of his Jewish refugee identity and we are grateful to have had the opportunity to capture his testimony as part of AJR Refugee Voices Archive.”

He is survived by his wife Zsuszi, their children and grandchildren.

György Pauk: born October 26 1936. Died November 18 2024