Dohnányi, Ernö von

[richardfinegold]

The current issue of Classical Recordings Quarterly features the Composer/Pianist on the cover. There is an article devoted to his recordings, most of which were apparently made in America in his last decade, the 1950s.
I had recently become aware that the Composer's son, Hans,(also the father of the Conductor Christoph, and a brother in law of German Theologian and Nazi Prisoner Dietrich Bonhoeffer) was one of the most determined members of the anti Hitler Resistance in the German Military and was killed by the Gestapo before the end of the war for his involvement in some of the assassination attempts on Hitler.
The above article states "Much has been written about Dohnanyi's wartime record, but suffice to say that he and his family suffered under the fascists, and then again under the Communists after the war, before they finally found refuge abroad..."
This lead me to investigate a Wikipedia article, which takes an opposite view. The article claims that Erno was the "czar" of musical life in Budapest during the war. It claims that Erno insisted on a completely Jew Free Orchestra at the Budapest Academy, even when official quotas were allowing 6% Jews; that he did nothing to save his colleague and friend Leo Weiner from starving in the Budapest Ghetto (another Professor intervened to save Weiner and sheltered him at the Academy. It also claims that Erno left Hungary with the last SS detachment to leave the city ahead of the Russians in 1944 and never returned to Hungary. It claims he went to Austria, then Switzerland, and then Argentina, which was the standard highway for Nazis avoiding retribution to travel after the war, before settling in the States.
So we have two contrasting narratives here. I realize that this kind of a topic isn't very popular amongst the members of the Forum, but does anyone know which is closer to the truth?

[LeMartinPecheur]

My impression is that D was always in the wrong place at the wrong time! His musical upbringing put him firmly in the Austro-German camp and that's where he stayed musically for the rest of his life. He was acclaimed by Brahms - not many young composers could say that. His repertoire as a pianist included "neglected works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert". He was supported by Richter and Joachim and taught at the Berlin Hochschule fron 1905, aged 28. Contrast Bela Bartok, his friend and only 4 years his junior, who after early flirtations with Richard Strauss's style (eg Kossuth), quickly broke away from Germanic influences through his interests in Hungarian and other folk musics, and adoption of a much more modernist ethos.

According to New Grove the early years of the war seem to show him fighting Nazi influences in Hungary, "resigning his directorial post...rather than follow the anti-Jewish legislation. In his orchestra he succeeded in keeping on all Jewish members until two months after the German occupation of Hungary." In Nov 1944 he fled Hungary for Austria, which certainly exposed him to charges of siding with the Nazis when push came to shove, but if he felt his roots were in Austro-German culture and with Russian communist take-over the alternative, this decision would hardly have been easy. Yes he went to Argentina, to a respectable academic post, but surely rather more is necessary to make this evidence of Fascism?

Once in the US the post-war tide was firmly against the direct descendants of the tonal/romantic post-Brahmsian school. Darmstadt followed, and D was never going to be a modernist let alone a serialist. On all scores firmly in the wrong camp(s) still! Fifty years after his death it seems time enough to assess his music for its intrinsic quality rather than its up-to-the-minuteness at time of composition.

Not that I'm a besotted fan. I bought his piano and violin concertos and piano quintets some years back and they didn't do much for me. But a recording and a concert hearing of his sextet for piano, clarinet, horn and string trio impressed greatly (having to write a programme note made me concentrate hard beforehand!). So that's the work - after the Nursery var's! - where I'd recommend starting. There's a decent version on Naxos together with a Serenade for string trio. Must try the other discs again.

[richardfinegold]

My impression is that D was always in the wrong place at the wrong time! His musical upbringing put him firmly in the Austro-German camp and that's where he stayed musically for the rest of his life. He was acclaimed by Brahms - not many young composers could say that. His repertoire as a pianist included "neglected works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert". He was supported by Richter and Joachim and taught at the Berlin Hochschule fron 1905, aged 28. Contrast Bela Bartok, his friend and only 4 years his junior, who after early flirtations with Richard Strauss's style (eg Kossuth), quickly broke away from Germanic influences through his interests in Hungarian and other folk musics, and adoption of a much more modernist ethos.

According to New Grove the early years of the war seem to show him fighting Nazi influences in Hungary, "resigning his directorial post...rather than follow the anti-Jewish legislation. In his orchestra he succeeded in keeping on all Jewish members until two months after the German occupation of Hungary." In Nov 1944 he fled Hungary for Austria, which certainly exposed him to charges of siding with the Nazis when push came to shove, but if he felt his roots were in Austro-German culture and with Russian communist take-over the alternative, this decision would hardly have been easy. Yes he went to Argentina, to a respectable academic post, but surely rather more is necessary to make this evidence of Fascism?

Once in the US the post-war tide was firmly against the direct descendants of the tonal/romantic post-Brahmsian school. Darmstadt followed, and D was never going to be a modernist let alone a serialist. On all scores firmly in the wrong camp(s) still! Fifty years after his death it seems time enough to assess his music for its intrinsic quality rather than its up-to-the-minuteness at time of composition.

Not that I'm a besotted fan. I bought his piano and violin concertos and piano quintets some years back and they didn't do much for me. But a recording and a concert hearing of his sextet for piano, clarinet, horn and string trio impressed greatly (having to write a programme note made me concentrate hard beforehand!). So that's the work - after the Nursery var's! - where I'd recommend starting. There's a decent version on Naxos together with a Serenade for string trio. Must try the other discs again.

Thank you for your thoughtful reply, LMP. I would urge you however, to read the Wikipedia article as it is quite damning, particularly in the accusations concerning EvD insistence that his Orchestra be completely jew free and his treatment of Weiner.
Nursery Rhyme variations have long been a favorite piece of mine, but every other piece of his that I have auditioned has left my attention wandering long before the finish. I would not hold his "being out of step with his times" against him any more than I would when enjoying the music of Vaughn Williams, Rachmaninov, or other composers.

[kea]

Those sections of the article appear to have been added by an editor with an agenda. Scroll down to May 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...action=history

Wikipedia is not a reliable source.

[richardfinegold]

Those sections of the article appear to have been added by an editor with an agenda. Scroll down to May 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...action=history

Wikipedia is not a reliable source.

No, it isn't. Thank you for that.

[Ferretfancy]

Katchen's recording of the Nursery Variations is a classic, in both its mono and stereo editions. Dohnanyi's own stereo recording, also with Boult, appeared briefly on CD, coupled with the Serenade. It's interesting, but it was made only a couple years before his death, and it isn't the most accurate or arresting performance.
The ballet suite The Veil of Pierrette is well worth hearing, as are the Symphonic Minutes.

[Jonathan]

I would also recommend the piano music - this is an excellent CD: http://www.mdt.co.uk/dohnanyi-the-co...-hyperion.html
and volume 2 looks good too: http://www.mdt.co.uk/dohnanyi-the-co...-hyperion.html

[richardfinegold]

Katchen's recording of the Nursery Variations is a classic, in both its mono and stereo editions. Dohnanyi's own stereo recording, also with Boult, appeared briefly on CD, coupled with the Serenade. It's interesting, but it was made only a couple years before his death, and it isn't the most accurate or arresting performance.
The ballet suite The Veil of Pierrette is well worth hearing, as are the Symphonic Minutes.

The CRQ article that I referenced in the OP makes so many allusions to declining technique in EvD at the time that he made most of his recordings that it doesn't make one want to run out and purchase them.

[subcontrabass]

Those sections of the article appear to have been added by an editor with an agenda. Scroll down to May 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...action=history

Wikipedia is not a reliable source.

The Grove entry, which gived the opposite perspective to the Wikipedia page, is possibly also suspect, in being written by a Hungarian born scholar who studied with Dohnanyi in his later years in USA, and presumably picked up the version preferred by the family. Independent scholarship seems to be missing here.

[Barbirollians]

The Konzertstuck with Starker on EMI is a lovely work.

[richardfinegold]

The Grove entry, which gived the opposite perspective to the Wikipedia page, is possibly also suspect, in being written by a Hungarian born scholar who studied with Dohnanyi in his later years in USA, and presumably picked up the version preferred by the family. Independent scholarship seems to be missing here.

I concur. It is a pity.
It is understandable that Musicians who had successful careers under a Fascist, or Communist, Governments to want to obfuscate about any collaboration that they may of had with the policies of those governments. EvD case would be particularly interesting because his son tried very actively to kill Hitler. He personally carried a bomb that was placed in Hitler's private plane in 1943 and unfortunately did not detonate, and was hung on Piano wire until he died by the Gestapo.
Did EvD wrap himself in the shield of his son's martyrdom after the war to protect his own reputation? Or was he personally more of a victim than a participant in Fascist Policies?
We celebrate Musicians for their talents and not for their politics, but I would have trouble listening to "Nursery Rhyme" going forward if I thought that EvD was an active participant in the racial policies of the time and then worked diligently to cover his tracks after the war.

[Ferretfancy]

I concur. It is a pity.
It is understandable that Musicians who had successful careers under a Fascist, or Communist, Governments to want to obfuscate about any collaboration that they may of had with the policies of those governments. EvD case would be particularly interesting because his son tried very actively to kill Hitler. He personally carried a bomb that was placed in Hitler's private plane in 1943 and unfortunately did not detonate, and was hung on Piano wire until he died by the Gestapo.
Did EvD wrap himself in the shield of his son's martyrdom after the war to protect his own reputation? Or was he personally more of a victim than a participant in Fascist Policies?
We celebrate Musicians for their talents and not for their politics, but I would have trouble listening to "Nursery Rhyme" going forward if I thought that EvD was an active participant in the racial policies of the time and then worked diligently to cover his tracks after the war.

You say that you would find it difficult to listen to the Nursery Variations if the charges against Dohnanyi were correct. It might be worth remembering that the piece was written before WWI. I doubt if we know what his political views were at that time,but it's a bit unfair to suggest that he was a Nazi sympathiser before Hitler left the trenches .

[richardfinegold]

You say that you would find it difficult to listen to the Nursery Variations if the charges against Dohnanyi were correct. It might be worth remembering that the piece was written before WWI. I doubt if we know what his political views were at that time,but it's a bit unfair to suggest that he was a Nazi sympathiser before Hitler left the trenches .

I agree with you, ferret, on an abstract level. However, on a gut emotional level, the humor of "Nursery Rhyme" just wouldn't seem the same to me. I'm Jewish, and a few months ago I toured the temple in Budapest were thousands of Jews were slaughtered and buried in a mass grave; the thought that EvD may have let a colleague languish there when he had the power to save him makes the music he composed, at any time of his life, harder to take.
I heard a radio station play a few folk dances arranged by Zhadanov, Stalin's henchman who led the persecutions of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and other Russian Composers after WWII. I just simply find it hard to separate the music from the individual that created it. I don't expect Sainthood, but actively causing Physical danger to others is the line for me, I guess.

[Ferretfancy]

I understand how you must feel, this is such a complicated issue. I suspect that we may never know the full truth. There were so many degrees of complicity at the time, sometimes in the case of important figures like Strauss, and many others who basically went with the tide. Since there seem to be opposing views about what Dohnanyi did or did not do, who are we to believe ?

Bws. Ferret

[richardfinegold]

I understand how you must feel, this is such a complicated issue. I suspect that we may never know the full truth. There were so many degrees of complicity at the time, sometimes in the case of important figures like Strauss, and many others who basically went with the tide. Since there seem to be opposing views about what Dohnanyi did or did not do, who are we to believe ?

Bws. Ferret

Agreed.