Mozart Dohnanyi

Erno” Dohnányi is the least celebrated of the seminal triumvirate of twentieth-century Hungarian composers; Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók have become household names, yet Dohnányi’s posthumous fame hangs upon an unrepresentative handful of compositions. This recording brings together three of his finest chamber works; the two masterful yet hugely contrasting Piano Quintets, and his remarkable essay in that most underutilized of instrumental genres, the string trio.

This programme is something of a memorial to Daniel Majeske who died from cancer in November 1993 after being Concert Master of the Cleveland Orchestra for 25 years. Christoph von Dohnanyi honours his memory in a written note, and Majeske's performance of Mozart's Sinfonia concertante, K364, recorded two years before his death, celebrates his searching, highly cultivated solo playing.

This packed four cd set is a bargain in quantity and quality. Dohnanyi can be great, as in his Decca Mozart
symphonies 35-41, wind concerti and sinfonia concertnte k364 et al. I heard him live once with the Boston SO: a supremely dramatic and large-scaled Schubert Unfinished and a terrific Brahms Violin Concerto with Frank Peter Zimmermann.

Involving, as it does, three master musicians and a fine chamber orchestra this was never likely to be be other than rewarding. It may not correspond with the ways of playing Mozart at the beginning of the twenty-first century which are fashionable at the beginning of the twenty-first century, but it has virtues – such as high intelligence, sympathy, certainty of purpose, grace, alertness of interplay – which transcend questions of performance practice. Looking at the names of the pianists above, we might be surprised by the presence of Sir Georg Solti, so used are we to thinking of him as a conductor. But the young Solti appeared in public as a pianist from the age of twelve and went on to study piano in Budapest, with Dohnányi and Bartok.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 21
Christian Zacharias, piano / Sinfonie-Orchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks / David Zinman
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 213 MB | Full Artwork: 60 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: EMI # 7243 5 74676 2 9 | Country/Year: Germany 2001, 1989/1992
Genre: Classical | Style: Viennese School

…Zacharias began recording for EMI the following year, and would, by 1997, make over 40 albums for the label, covering a broad range of repertory, including Mozart (complete concertos and sonatas), Beethoven (complete concertos), Scarlatti, Schubert, Schumann, and many others. Despite great success throughout the 1980s and early '90s in his keyboard career, Zacharias decided to take up conducting in 1992. His debut was in Geneva with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande…