Ernő Dohnányi - String Quartet No. 3; Serenade; Sextet (Nash Ensemble)

Information

Composer: Ernő Dohnányi

• Serenade for string trio in C major, Op. 10
• String Quartet No. 3 in A minor, Op. 33
• Sextet for piano, clarinet, horn and string trio in C major, Op. 37

Nash Ensemble

    Stephanie Gonley, violin

    Laura Samuel, violin

    Lawrence Power, viola

    Adrian Brendel, cello

    Ian Brown, piano

    Richard Hosford, clarinet

    Richard Watkins; horn

Date: 2018

Label: Hyperion

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Review

The Nash Ensemble dig into Dohnányi’s Serenade (1902) with gusto, relishing the music’s myriad felicities. If they don’t quite match the exhilarating élan of the 1941 RCA account with Heifetz, Primrose and Feuermann (RCA, 4/43) – no recording has, as of yet – their performance is rife with character and incident, and absolutely riveting in its own right. I love the theatrical way they sigh and sob at 2'00" in the fourth movement, for example. And in the rambunctious finale, especially, their playing conveys a frisson that’s unusual for a studio recording.

The Nash’s performance of the Third String Quartet (1926) is more impressive still. Right from the first surging phrase – which froths and spits like a crashing wave – they grasp the emotional meaning of the composer’s agitato e appassionato directive. At times their playing feels almost desperate in its intensity, yet they can be powerfully seductive, too, as in the sinuous, conspicuously Debussian second theme – and particularly its return at 7'33". The central Adagio religioso is as sleek as the opening Allegro is tumultuous – in my mind evoking glossy, candlelit marble – yet also contains passages that suggest acute internal turmoil. The brief finale is arguably less inspired than the preceding movements but the Nash make the best of it, balancing hearty jocularity and athletic grace.

I’ve listened often and with pleasure to the Ensemble Kheops’s fascinatingly edgy, Modernist take on the 1935 Sextet (Fuga Libera, 1/12). The Nash, by contrast, seize upon the score’s unabashed Straussian sensuality and the result is simply irresistible. Indeed, in their hands there’s something distinctly – and quite magically – Ariadne-esque about the music’s play of humour and seriousness, light and shade (not to mention the occasional suggestion of the harmonium in the writing for clarinet and lower strings). It’s a gloriously overripe, at times rapturous interpretation, and I’m smitten by it.

If you’ve never taken to Dohnányi’s music before, these performances should win you over. If you’re already a convert, you’ll want this.

— Andrew Farach-Colton

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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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The Nash Ensemble of London is an English chamber ensemble. It was founded by Artistic Director Amelia Freedman and Rodney Slatford in 1964, while they were students at the Royal Academy of Music, and was named after the Nash Terraces around the academy. The Ensemble has won awards from the Edinburgh Festival Critics and the Royal Philharmonic Society, as well as a 2002 Gramophone Award for contemporary music. In addition to their classical repertoire, the Ensemble performs works by numerous contemporary composers, and has given premier performances of more than 200 works.

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