FSU MUSIC FESTIVAL WILL HONOR A GIANT OF 20TH CENTURY COMPOSITION: THE 'LAST OF THE GREAT ROMANTICS'
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Imagine the most respected musician in Hungary during World War II dissolving the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra to protest the Nazis' insistence that it have no Jewish musicians. Imagine him fleeing Hungary with his magnum opus literally tucked under his arm when conditions became intolerable. Imagine the powers in his Soviet-controlled homeland trying to obliterate all traces of his very existence into the 1990s.
This was part of the life of Ernst von Dohnanyi, one of the finest virtuoso pianists of his time, whom Johannes Brahms described at the start of his career as "a young musician of great talent."
The Florida State University School of Music will honor Dohnanyi, who served on its faculty for the last 11 years of his life, with the first International Ernst von Dohnanyi Festival Jan. 31-Feb. 2. The festival, which will feature a performance of his magnum opus, will mark the 125th anniversary of his birth year. Dohnanyi was born July 27, 1877, in Pozsony, Hungary.
In 1919, Dohnanyi became the conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he held for 25 years. He also served as director of music of the Hungarian State Radio and directed the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, 1934-1943.
"Dohnanyi stayed in Hungary throughout the majority of the Nazi occupation, where he tried to fight anti-Semitic regulations," said Dohnanyi biographer James A. Grymes, the director of the festival. "He had supreme musical authority in Hungary before the Nazis arrived in March 1944 and was outspoken against them and the Russians, who came near the end of that year. Dohnanyi resigned from the Liszt Academy and the Hungarian State Radio to protest the anti-Semitic regulations, and he disbanded the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra in May 1944 because the Nazis' decreed its Jewish musicians be fired.
"He finally fled Hungary for Austria, with his wife and two children. While there, he was subjected to a smear campaign from Soviet-controlled Hungary because he had been so outspoken against the Russians. They branded him a war criminal and that precluded him from being able to perform anywhere."
Fearing for his life in Europe, Dohnanyi went to South America and became a man without a country. But his pre-eminence in the music world wouldn't let him be relegated to obscurity, according to Grymes. Dohnanyi got a letter from Karl Kuersteiner, then dean of the fledgling FSU School of Music, who promised him a job with good weather in Tallahassee. He joined FSU's music faculty in 1949 and served as composer-in-residence until his death in 1960.
Dohnanyi continued to be ignored by Hungary into the 1990s, until its official policies changed after the fall of the Soviet Union. Hungary now has begun to honor Dohnanyi as it has Hungarian musicians Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly.
"Even though his star had faded, such works as his 'Serenade for Violin, Viola and Cello,' and 'Variations on the Nursery Song,' were never out of the classical repertoire," said George T. Riordan, assistant dean in the School of Music. "However, in the past five years alone, there has been a major resurgence of interest in his works, including the first-ever recordings of his symphonic works."
The centerpiece of the festival will be a performance of Dohnanyi's magnum opus, "Cantus vitae, op. 38," which he worked on for nearly 40 years. The symphonic cantata has not been performed since Dohnanyi himself conducted its premiere in Budapest in 1941. The unpublished work, the manuscripts of which are part of the FSU Ernst von Dohnanyi Collection, will be conducted by Matthias Bamert and performed by the FSU Symphony Orchestra and with the 200-member Tallahassee Community Chorus. Bamert was the conductor of three recent albums of Dohnanyi's works.
A number of piano recitals, chamber music concerts, paper presentations and roundtable discussions also are scheduled during the festival, including a solo piano recital by Barry Snyder. Cellist Janos Starker, who as a boy played with Dohnanyi at his home in Hungary, will perform as part of a chamber music concert.
The School of Music also will use the festival to celebrate its new partnerships with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Hungary and the International Dohnanyi Research Center in Budapest. FSU has been designated the center's American branch.
"Because he taught here for a decade, FSU's Dohnanyi Collection contains autographed manuscripts that show how he literally put pen to paper," Riordan said. "This is what scholars want to study, and it's what caused the Hungarian Ministry of Culture to take notice."
The FSU School of Music is one of the largest and most comprehensive music institutions in the nation, with 90 faculty members and more than 1,000 students in baccalaureate through doctoral degree programs in virtually every field of music endeavor.
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NOTE: Visit the festival Web site at http://music.fsu.edu/dohnanyi
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