Ernö Dohnányi

1. Concertino for Harp and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 45 (1952) - I Andante

2. Concertino for Harp and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 45 (1952) - II Allegretto vivace

3. Concertino for Harp and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 45 (1952) - III Adagio non troppo

4. Sextet in C Major. Op. 37 (1935) - I Allegro appassionato

5. Sextet in C Major. Op. 37 (1935) - II Intermezzo

6. Sextet in C Major. Op. 37 (1935) - III Allegro con sentimento

7. Sextet in C Major. Op. 37 (1935) - IV Finale: Allegro vivage, giocoso

8. Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - I Impromptu

9. Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - II Scherzino

10. Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - III Canzonetta

11. Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - IV Cascades

12. Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - V Ländler

13. Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - VI Cloches

Product Description

Amazon.com
Dohnányi (1877-1960) straddled two centuries and two continents in his manifold career as composer, pianist, conductor, educator, and administrator. A major musical force in his native Hungary, he emigrated in 1944 and began a new life in America, becoming professor at the University of Miami. His work shows the influence of many musical trends, from the Brahmsian romanticism that nurtured him to the colorful, sensuous impressionism of Ravel and Debussy and the lush orchestration and harmonic surprises of Richard Strauss. There are even echoes of the other Strauss, Johann, in some of the mock waltz rhythms. The Harp Concertino (1952) encompasses all these styles. Cast in three continuous movements, its two slow sections flank a short, spicy Mendelssohnian Scherzo. The solo part is very virtuosic, exploiting all the technical and timbral resources of the instrument, such as long cascades and glissandi and resonant chords; delicate figurations accompany the solo winds in lovely songful melodies over sustained harmonies in the strings. The playing is superb: brilliant, idiomatic and expressive. The Sextet (1935) is full of strong contrasts between lyrical and dramatic, plaintive and assertive, calm and agitated. A set of very diverse Variations leads into a truly original pungent, arresting Finale that features irregular accents, cross-rhythms and syncopation and ends in a startling cadence. The playing, though a bit drab and cautious, brings out the work's atmosphere and expressiveness without becoming trite; the Finale is best. The Six Piano Pieces (1945) also contain a lot of variety, alternating luxuriously romantic and impressionist harmonies; pianistic textures range from feathery, cascading arpeggios to bell-like solemn chords over a pedal point. The performance is splendid, with just the right flexibility and freedom to bring out mood and character; only the stylized Ländler would be even more effective if its irony were left to speak for itself. --Edith Eisler

Product Description:
Ernö Dohnányi , composer, pianist, and conductor, was an important transitional figure between the music of the 19th and 20th centuries. A central figure in Hungarian musical life for many decades, Dohnányi resigned his post as director of the Academy of Music in Budapest as a protest against the anti-Jewish legislations of 1941. He ultimately migrated to the USA, where he became professor of music at Florida State University and continued to teach until his death. As a composer, Dohnányi remained unshakably committed to the musical universe of Brahms, whom he had met as a young man. Dohnányi enriched his essentially conservative stylistic predilection with wit, elegance, structural sophistication and a profound understanding of the soul of musical instruments. Dohnányi wrote his Harp Concertino in Tallahassee in 1952. Its lush post-Romantic idiom is tinged with more than a few touches of French music of the past. The Six Pieces for Piano were written just after Dohnányi left Hungary, never to return. Elegant virtuosity, spicy harmonies, and intimate lyricism remain hallmarks of these rarely heard works. The virtuosic Sextet in C Major, composed in Budapest, is Dohnányi's final chamber composition (not counting two short works for flute written shortly before his death). Throughout the work, a tritone ‘leitmotiv' clashes with themes of an overtly lyrical nature. Playful, and jazzy rhythms are frequently incorporated into this wildly dramatic and inspired composition.

Tracks:

Concerto In G For Piano And Orchestra K453: Allegro
Concerto In G For Piano And Orchestra K453: Andante
Concerto In G For Piano And Orchestra K453: Allegretto
Variations On A Nursery Theme (Op.25)
Die Fledermaus, Du und Du Waltz
Die Zigeunerbaron, Schatz-Waltz
Ruralia Hungarica: Suite. 2nd Movement, Gypsy andante

Customer Reviews:

Regrettably , This Is Not His Best.......2003-03-10

In his prime Dohnanyi was almost at the top of the world being hailed as the best Hungarian pianist since Liszt. He even compared favourably with Paderewski, the other world famous pianist then. Thereafter he was right at the top of the musical scene in Hungary being a composer/conductor and director of the national radio who at the same time also headed the Budapest Conservatoire all for a such long time that music and piano had virtually become his mother tongue.

Rachmaninoff had also been driving a three horse chariot (composer/conductor/painist), but Dohnanyi had done it for a much longer time. And Dohnanyi had undergone more sufferings and humiliation including the death of his own son. In comparion Rachmaninoff was just a nostalgic exile in essence.

It was Dohnanyi who championed Bartok. And his pupils included Sir George Solti, Geza Anda, Cziffra, Annie Fischer, Kilenyi... and his grandson is now a famous conductor too. Even as a composer, he is underrated even though his works regularly appear in modern reportoire. Perhaps it's time to put aside the politics...

No less impressing would be Dohnanyi at the piano recorded in the US universities after all those upheavals and turmoils when he finally settled as a teacher. Sauer once remarked of Liszt: he struck a cord so sad like nobody else, that it ran right through your heart... Much the same could be said of Dohnanyi's playing, be it Mozart or otherwise.

He was literally a piano wizard with music right inside his pocket: he could dismantle a piece into tiny little parts and then breathe life into it so that it's a whole again right in front of your eyes with such grace and elegance that left you stunned. To him each note, each line, each rubato or each pause all had a life and meaning to it and yet he was never showy nor erudite. His playing is well behind the notes/scores but never far away. He had captivated the art as well as the mysteries of everything about music. Obviously Glenn Gould hadn't heard him when he said structurally Mozart is impossible.

Tracks:

Concertino for Harp and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 45 (1952) - I Andante
Concertino for Harp and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 45 (1952) - II Allegretto vivace
Concertino for Harp and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 45 (1952) - III Adagio non troppo
Sextet in C Major. Op. 37 (1935) - I Allegro appassionato
Sextet in C Major. Op. 37 (1935) - II Intermezzo
Sextet in C Major. Op. 37 (1935) - III Allegro con sentimento
Sextet in C Major. Op. 37 (1935) - IV Finale: Allegro vivage, giocoso
Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - I Impromptu
Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - II Scherzino
Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - III Canzonetta
Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - IV Cascades
Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - V Ller
Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 41 (1945) - VI Cloches

Amazon.com

Dohnányi (1877-1960) straddled two centuries and two continents in his manifold career as composer, pianist, conductor, educator, and administrator. A major musical force in his native Hungary, he emigrated in 1944 and began a new life in America, becoming professor at the University of Miami. His work shows the influence of many musical trends, from the Brahmsian romanticism that nurtured him to the colorful, sensuous impressionism of Ravel and Debussy and the lush orchestration and harmonic surprises of Richard Strauss. There are even echoes of the other Strauss, Johann, in some of the mock waltz rhythms. The Harp Concertino (1952) encompasses all these styles. Cast in three continuous movements, its two slow sections flank a short, spicy Mendelssohnian Scherzo. The solo part is very virtuosic, exploiting all the technical and timbral resources of the instrument, such as long cascades and glissandi and resonant chords; delicate figurations accompany the solo winds in lovely songful melodies over sustained harmonies in the strings. The playing is superb: brilliant, idiomatic and expressive. The Sextet (1935) is full of strong contrasts between lyrical and dramatic, plaintive and assertive, calm and agitated. A set of very diverse Variations leads into a truly original pungent, arresting Finale that features irregular accents, cross-rhythms and syncopation and ends in a startling cadence. The playing, though a bit drab and cautious, brings out the work's atmosphere and expressiveness without becoming trite; the Finale is best. The Six Piano Pieces (1945) also contain a lot of variety, alternating luxuriously romantic and impressionist harmonies; pianistic textures range from feathery, cascading arpeggios to bell-like solemn chords over a pedal point. The performance is splendid, with just the right flexibility and freedom to bring out mood and character; only the stylized Ländler would be even more effective if its irony were left to speak for itself. --Edith Eisler

Album Description

Ernö Dohnányi , composer, pianist, and conductor, was an important transitional figure between the music of the 19th and 20th centuries. A central figure in Hungarian musical life for many decades, Dohnányi resigned his post as director of the Academy of Music in Budapest as a protest against the anti-Jewish legislations of 1941. He ultimately migrated to the USA, where he became professor of music at Florida State University and continued to teach until his death. As a composer, Dohnányi remained unshakably committed to the musical universe of Brahms, whom he had met as a young man. Dohnányi enriched his essentially conservative stylistic predilection with wit, elegance, structural sophistication and a profound understanding of the soul of musical instruments. Dohnányi wrote his Harp Concertino in Tallahassee in 1952. Its lush post-Romantic idiom is tinged with more than a few touches of French music of the past. The Six Pieces for Piano were written just after Dohnányi left Hungary, never to return. Elegant virtuosity, spicy harmonies, and intimate lyricism remain hallmarks of these rarely heard works. The virtuosic Sextet in C Major, composed in Budapest, is Dohnányi's final chamber composition (not counting two short works for flute written shortly before his death). Throughout the work, a tritone `leitmotiv' clashes with themes of an overtly lyrical nature. Playful, and jazzy rhythms are frequently incorporated into this wildly dramatic and inspired composition.

Ernö von Dohnanyi (piano) - Historical Recordings - Mozart: Piano concerto No. 17, K 453 / Haydn: Variations in F minor / Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17 "The Tempest"

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Ernö von Dohnanyi (piano) - Historical Recordings - Mozart: Piano concerto No. 17, K 453 / Haydn: Variations in F minor / Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17 "The Tempest"
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Franz Joseph Haydn , Ludwig van Beethoven , Ernö von Dohnanyi , and Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra
Manufacturer: Dante Records Hpc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000G29T
Release Date: 1998-11-10

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