May 29, 2010

  • Review: Dohnanyi Nursery Variations

     

    Dohnanyi: Variations on a Nursery Song / Symphonic Minutes / Suite in f#
    Naxos 8.572303
    Total Time:  69:39
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

     

    The music of Erno von Dohnanyi has slipped into undue obscurity.  Dohnanyi, whose grandson is conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi, was born in 1877 at grew up in the height of German Romanticism.  His music tended to stay fairly within the parameters of that sound, though there are moments in his music that flirt with Impressionism.  Before the national modernism of Bartok and Kodaly overshadowed his own compositions, Dohnanyi’s music was fairly popular and one of his best-loved works makes an appearance here between two other delightful orchestral pieces.

    The newest work begins this release featuring the Buffalo Philharmonic.  The Symphonic Minutes, Op. 36 dates from 1933 and was first performed in 1935 by the Budapest Philharmonic Society.  It is a five-movement work of delightful orchestration and fantastic color that puts the orchestra through a variety of styles making for a perfectly balanced concert work.  A beautiful highlight is the fourth movement’s set of variations on a 17th-century theme first stated by English horn.  Playing at about 15 minutes this is one Dohnanyi piece worth more concert appearances.

    The central work, which also lends its name to this disc, is the 1914 Variations on a Nursery Song, Op. 25.  My own experience of this piece came about through an old, and long-time respected recording, featuring Julius Katchen.  It is the first release in nearly 10 years of the work.  The Variations is one of those pieces with a wickedly wonderful sense of humor.  The opening bombastic seriousness must be one of music’s greatest jokes when it gives way to the nursery song which will be sent spinning through a series of eleven variations.  From Mahler to Rachmaninoff, to Viennese waltzes and Brahms orchestral gestures, Dohnanyi’s work moves from one surprise to another.  The piano soloist is taken through their paces just as well with its own set of brilliant perorations.

    In listening to this new recording, it is impressive to hear the detail and care taken in Falletta’s wonderfully dramatic reading of the opening bars, an improvement to the more established European orchestra from Katchen’s classic release.  The sonic detail also helps make this performance shine allowing the quiet moments to shimmer away and making the first solo entry such a wonderful delight.  Eldar Nebolsin, a winner of the Sviatoslav Richter Prize of the International Piano Competition, has several Naxos releases under his belt.  His thematic presentation of the nursery song is humorously heavy handed adding to the musical punch line, but then things get quite serious as he begins to gorgeously shape this music.  There is a lot more rubato in this performance which allows for some wonderful shaping of the music.  The piano does feel a bit too close-miked at times which keeps some of the orchestral commentary from shining through as much as one might like.  (Though in all honesty, this may be the result of over-miking from the performances which this reviewer had grown used to over the years.)  Worth noting as well is that Naxos has decided to give each variation its own track number for accessibility which also makes this a perfect disc to teach variation technique with in the classroom!

    The final work on the disc is the Suite in f#, Op. 19.  A relatively early work (written between 1908-1909), the four-movements also feature an opening set of variations (individually tracked for reference!).  Again this is truly a showpiece for the Buffalo orchestra allowing for the various sections and soloists to show off their capabilities in this beautifully orchestrated work.  The music is still steeped in the German Romantic tradition and one gets a sense here of Dohnanyi’s compositional technique and intent to write a worthy orchestral entry to announce his name to the world without pretensions of a “symphony.”  But this is a work of a more serious nature, though not without a sense of musical delights, and highly Romantic thematically.  The performance here is as committed as the piece is likely to ever get.

    Naxos is apparently trying out a new cover design for some of its more recent recordings with the present release featuring an attractive full color front cover that will grab the eye.  You will not find a more delightful set of music and with a chewy fun center that might soon become one of your own favorite piano and orchestra works.  All of these works have been around in the catalogue (though most now date to 10 years back and are either out-of-print or hard to find) but for the most part, this release brings together three delightful pieces in one wonderful package.  Highly recommended.