Ernő Dohnányi - Piano Music Vol. 4 (Martin Roscoe)

Information

Composer: Ernő Dohnányi

• Six Concert Études, Op. 28
• Suite in the olden style, Op. 24
• Six Pieces, Op. 41
• Passacaglia in E flat minor, Op. 6
• Rondo alla Zingarese

Martin Roscoe, piano

Date: 2019

Label: Hyperion

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Review

A set of fearsomely demanding concert études, a neo-Gothic exuberant Passacaglia, a Baroque-meets-Romantic suite and a Lisztian cycle of character pieces, topped off by a frenetic transcription of the Hungarian rondo from Brahms’s G minor Piano Quartet, make up the final disc of Martin Roscoe’s survey of Dohnányi’s piano works.

For me the highlight is the Passacaglia, whose combination of complex counterpoint and a thrilling, apparently improvisatory style make it fully worthy of concert-hall rehabilitation, as Jeremy Nicholas also noted in his review of Daniel Röhm’s account (CPO, 9/16). Roscoe achieves more clarity than Röhm, and the Hyperion piano sound is more pleasing, but I can’t help wishing for a little more Sturm und Drang here, even a sense of danger, of the kind Dohnányi himself probably felt as he approached the end of the work at its London premiere, when he reportedly improvised the last few bars, having failed to complete the piece on time.

Roscoe makes no attempt to match the composer’s recorded tempos for the Six Concert Études, Op 28. The results are effortless and characterful if, again, a little low on risk. The last étude (Capriccio) has attracted the attention of some of great pianists, including Rachmaninov. Stephen Hough’s account is stupendously clear and efficient, at an exhilarating tempo (on his first ‘Piano Album’, now Erato), but it is only Horowitz at his most spellbindingly manic (Naxos Historical) who shows how caprice can truly manifest in music (he clocks in at 2'11", compared to Roscoe’s 2'48").

Composed around the same time as Debussy’s exploratory, Prokofiev’s iconoclastic and Bartók’s future-looking studies, Dohnányi’s set, as with so much of his output, looks to the past, mining techniques that had already been extensively probed by the great Romantic composer-pianists. His interest in the Baroque is most explicit in the Suite in the Olden Style. Roscoe brings a touch of grace à l’ancienne to the more lyrical movements while not holding back from suitably Romantic expressivity for the six Op 41 pieces, in particular the poignant final movement, ‘Cloches’. As always, he shines in the layering of Dohnányi’s expansive, quasi-orchestral textures, responding astutely to rhapsodic changes in moods and colours. In short, an eloquent conclusion to a reliable and revealing series.

— Michelle Assay

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Ernő Dohnányi (27 July 1877 – 9 February 1960) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor. Dohnányi studied in Budapest at the Royal Academy of Music. As a pianist he traveled widely and established a reputation as one of the best performers of his day. In 1948 he left Hungary as a political exile and became a U.S. citizen in 1955. Dohnányi's music, which was chiefly influenced by Johannes Brahms, was late Romantic and conservative in style, and after 1910 he occupied only a minor place among contemporary Hungarian composers. His works include three symphonies, a ballet, three operas, and chamber works.

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Martin Roscoe (born 3 August 1952) is an English classical pianist. Born in Halton, Runcorn, Cheshire, he studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music with Gordon Green and Marjorie Clementi. Roscoe has played as a soloist under many of the world's leading conductors, and also gives regular recitals at the Wigmore Hall. He has an international reputation and has played in many countries, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, South America, Australia, USA and France. Roscoe has taught at the Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, and Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

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