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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.
