Ernest Von Dohnanyi - Piano Quintet No.1; String Quartet No.2

Ernest Von DOHNANYI (1877-1960)

  

 Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1. 

String Quartet No. 2 in D flat major, Op. 15. 

Gabrieli Quartet 

John Georgiadis, Brendan O'Reilly (violins)

Ian Jewel (viola)

Keith Harvey (cello)

Wolfgang Manz (piano). 

Dohnanyi was only 17, and still in his second year as a student at the Academy in Budapest, when he wrote his C minor Piano Quintet. In more senses than one it was deeply indebted to Brahms: not only musically, in its harmonic and rhythmic language and in style, but for its success, since after a characteristically daunting silence when first shown the score Brahms scheduled a performance of it (with the young composer at the piano) at the Tonkiinstlerverein in Vienna. DohnAnyi had already written a large number of juvenile chamber works before this official Op. 1, but even so the assurance, fluency and technical skill it shows are remarkable. The Takacs/Schiff performance issued by Decca a few months ago was enthusiastic and full-blooded but marred by the over-resonant acoustic in which it was recorded. The present recording is far cleaner—a particular advantage in the scherzo—and better balanced between piano and strings (the interplay of imitative lines in the Adagio is most effective), though I should have welcomed a more forward sound. The Gabrieli's interpretation is more controlled—dare one say more English?—than that of their Hungarian rivals, whose impassioned playing leads them into forcing the pace at times and making uncalled-for accelerandos. Our home team is always on the ball, but sounds rather less spontaneous; and at the reminiscence of the initial Allegro in the finale (which might in general have been more animalo?) it doesn't really observe the pp marking.

The Second String Quartet, composed a decade after this quintet, is a far more individual work, with a much developed harmonic sense and some interesting structural ideas. Michael Oliver rightly praised the Artis Quartet's intelligent and cleanlyrecorded performance on a Schwann/Impetus LP: this is, if anything, even better, with finely graded tone (slightly more warmly recorded), most sensitive phrasing, and, in the long finale, a degree of intensity comparable to that in a great slow movement by Beethoven. L.S.

From Gramophone Magazine Review