Ernst von Dohnányi – here described as ‘Ernö Dohnányi’, a name he used
just about as often as Mrs H.H.A. Beach used ‘Amy Beach’ – did more for
Hungarian music in the first half of last century than anyone else. His
reward for untiring toil as pianist, conductor, composer, teacher and
administrator was to be accused at the end of the war of having been a Nazi.
In truth he had constantly striven against the fascist regime of Admiral
Horthy and had lost a son to the Nazi execution squads in the wake of the
July Plot against Hitler. Recent research has shown that he was politically
conservative but nothing more.
His manifold activities meant that Dohnányi, a major piano virtuoso, had
limited time for practising; and composing often had to wait until he was
recovering from some illness. Even in the 1930s, when he was theoretically
at his peak as a pianist, he was sometimes criticised for technical lapses –
in an enjoyable booklet essay, Jonathan Summers quotes one such critique
from his 1936 London visit. Although Dohnányi made a reasonable number of
recordings, many of them came from the last decade of his life, when he was
living and teaching in America. His pupil Bela Siki once recalled that
Dohnányi could rarely remember his own compositions. In his 70s he was
obviously not the lion of the keyboard that he had been. Yet he remained a
wonderful pianist and a front-rank interpreter. Of the recordings here, his
final recital from Florida University in 1959 has been available before, on
a BBC LP which had relatively little publicity. The rest is fresh to the
market, as they say in the antiques business.
The opening flourishes of the Beethoven sonata set the tone, not exactly
tidy but getting the spirit of the music exactly right: the first movement
has tremendous lift and impetus, indeed freshness. The 82-year-old summons
up a lovely cantabile for the
Adagio grazioso and really takes off
in the agitated central section. The piano tone is realistic. Dohnányi
begins the Rondo quite guilelessly. He does not exactly clarify the texture
in the heavier moments but again gets the spirit of it right, putting it
over with terrific gusto. There are lovely touches and the ending is really
witty.
It has become received wisdom that Schnabel revived Schubert’s piano
sonatas, but in truth the G major, D894, sometimes given the subtitle
Fantasia, was known to a number of pianists; and its
Menuetto was known to an even greater number. I have found a
Dohnányi performance of the whole sonata in 1907, so he certainly knew it
well by then. His Florida performance is treasurable, not least for the
tempi, so much better than the funereal speeds adopted by Sviatoslav
Richter. The first movement is beautifully played and the
Andante
is given a nice thoughtful reading, with excellent rhythm and a good dynamic
range. The famous
Menuetto is marvellous and Dohnányi’s approach to
the
Allegretto is just right, despite the odd inaccuracy: he teases
it out beautifully. Various commentators have remarked on the contrast
between this genial sonata and the other G major work from the same period,
the epic string quartet. Too many pianists play it with a misguided attempt
at Profundity with a capital P. Dohnányi returns it to its proper nature and
thereby achieves real profundity.
The three encores are all Dohnanyi compositions. The
Scherzino is
delightfully played, with wonderful rhythm and a twinkling ending. The
March – with emendations not in the published score, Summers tells
us – has a marvellous left-hand part: Dohnányi varies his dynamics and again
the ending is pleasing. He announces the final encore,
Cascade, a
fine water piece which is superbly played. As Summers comments: ‘It is
obvious that he loved to play the piano and retained the technique to do so
right until the end of his life.’
Six more Dohnányi pieces come from a broadcast recital at the 1956
Edinburgh Festival. The
Variations on a Hungarian Folksong give
rise to wonderful colours, contrasts and rhythms. The F sharp minor
Rhapsody, a piece in the grand manner, gets appropriate treatment
with a characterful quiet ending. The
Pastorale, based on the
Christmas song
The Angel is from Heaven, is a lovely piece which
Dohnányi previously recorded in the studio in 1929. The
Adagio non
troppo from the original piano score of
Ruralia hungarica has
one of those soulful Hungarian melodies for its main theme and an
impassioned central section, leading to a reprise of the main theme and a
nice rippling ending. The
Capriccio is a terrific performance of a
virtuoso piece, with a fine dynamic range.
Dohnányi did not record his most celebrated short piano piece, the C major
Rhapsody, until his Remington period; but a 1936 live performance
was captured on inferior equipment. The sound quality demands a good deal of
tolerance but amid the noise and the wow you can hear a terrific performance
which demands another kind of Wow! From a concert two days earlier with the
BBC Symphony Orchestra – unmentioned in the recording details – comes an
equally primitive off-the-air recording of four of Dohnányi’s five
Symphonic Minutes. The tolerant ear will pick up some very nifty
orchestral playing in the three faster movements – the
Capriccio is
almost like gossamer – but pitch waver afflicts the slower
Rapsodia. The music is attractive.
Tully Potter
