Hegyi, in his role as conductor/violinist, performed many world premieres, such as: Hegyi performed works by an extensive number of American composers, including John Alden Carpenter, Henry Hadley, Leo Sowerby, Daniel Gregory Mason, Quincy Porter, Scott Lindroth, George W. Chadwick, Ezra Laderman, Horatio Parker, Lester Trimble, Margaret Fairlie-Kennedy, Michael Schelle, Tobias Picker, Irwin Bazelon, Francis Thorne, Charles Wuorinen, Jacob Druckman, Aaron Copland, George Crumb, Robert Parris, Sydney Hodkinson, Leonardo Balada, Carson Kievman, Frederic Goossen, Walter Piston, Leonard Bernstein, Edward MacDowell, Morton Gould, Samuel Barber, William Schuman, Robert Ward, Wallingford Riegger.
In subsequent performances with Julius and the ASO, I learned that this was not a fluke, but a testimony to the gifts and accomplishments of one of the greatest musicians it has been my honor to work with.
You were one of the rarities unafraid to give lesser known soloists a hearing, seriously devoted to your art; considerate and open with his orchestra members and interested in keeping the highest standards with whom you worked.
John Rockwell wrote in the New York Times "...it can be flatly said that the best performance (and the most unusually interesting piece, too) was Mr. Hegyi's account of Barber's one-movement symphony, which had its premiere in 1936, was revised in 1944 and championed by Artur Rodzinski and Bruno Walter.
Mr. Hegyi, who has a good deal of experience with 20th-century American music, given the Albany Symphony's venturesome commitment to that cause, played it with a sure technical command that never got in the way of expressivity.