Ernö Dohnányi

Ernö (Ernst von) Dohnányi was born in 1877 in Bratislava—then part of the Kingdom of Hungary—and he would become one of Hungary’s leading composers of the first half of the 20th century, overshadowed only by Bartók and Kodály. Unlike them, he was not a folklorist: his music is steeped in the opulent late-Romantic tradition of fin-de-siècle Vienna, to which he brought a very personal (but never overwhelming) touch of Magyar spice. Dohnányi wrote two expansive symphonies (1901 and 1945), and concertos for violin, cello and piano (he was a virtuoso pianist). But his playful musical personality shines through most engagingly in chamber works such as the Sextet (1935) and the zingy Serenade for String Trio (1902), and in his lighter orchestral pieces: the Symphonic Minutes from 1933, the radiant Suite in F sharp (1909) and the 1914 Variations on a Nursery Tune for piano and orchestra, still probably his best-loved work. Exiled to the US after the Soviet occupation of Hungary, he died in New York in 1960.