Pastorale on the Hungarian Christmas Song: An Angel from Heaven, for piano
Singular Pieces (3), for piano, Op. 44
Coppélia Waltz, transcription for piano (after Delibes)
Ernö Dohnányi's music fell out of fashion when Bartók became the modern composer the avant-garde and the general classical audience could all agree on, but much of it has an elegant charm. Moreover, the two large sets of piano works on this album offer a part of the missing link between Liszt and Bartók: they are late Romantic in conception and generally in harmony, but the emphasis is on structure rather than expression, and they are not especially virtuosic. Consider "An Ada" (track 7) from the set of ten bagatelles ...
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Ernö Dohnányi's music fell out of fashion when Bartók became the modern composer the avant-garde and the general classical audience could all agree on, but much of it has an elegant charm. Moreover, the two large sets of piano works on this album offer a part of the missing link between Liszt and Bartók: they are late Romantic in conception and generally in harmony, but the emphasis is on structure rather than expression, and they are not especially virtuosic. Consider "An Ada" (track 7) from the set of ten bagatelles entitled Winterreigen (Winter Rounds). It is built on the interval of a fourth, to which slightly differing counterpoints are added, and it's easy to imagine the young Bartók beginning to abstract patterns like this one. The Winterreigen and the Four Rhapsodies, Op. 11, at the beginning of the program are the most interesting, but the Pastorale (track 15) could easily fit on a program of unusual Christmas music. Pianist Martin Roscoe, a specialist in Dohnányi's music who earlier recorded...
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