Dohnanyi / Mosonyi: String Sextets

Chronique

This disc fills two holes in the catalog. Perhaps understandably, it features the only extant recording of the C minor String Sextet composed by the relatively unknown except to Hungarians Mihály Mosonyi (1815-1870). But surprisingly, it also includes the only extant recording of the B flat major String Sextet composed by the fairly well known even to non-Hungarians Ernõ Dohnányi (1877-1960). Both are youthful works -- although he subsequently revised it, Dohnányi wrote his Sextet at 17, while Mosonyi wrote his when he was first hitting his stride as a composer at 29 -- and both are well-wrought, high-spirited, and thoroughly ingratiating four-movement works. Of course, being youthful works, they do show the influence of earlier composers -- Beethoven in Mosonyi's intensely dramatic work and Brahms in Dohnányi's passionately lyrical work -- but both composers possessed enough strength of character to turn their influences into their own individual styles. The performances by the Budapest Sextet could not be more appropriate for the music. Made up of pairs of fathers and sons, the Budapest is not only wonderfully idiomatic and thoroughly unified, but it grants the works both youthful energy plus interpretive maturity. Besides, there's nothing quite like hearing such superbly blended, extraordinarily sympathetic playing to bring a tear to the eye. For fans of nineteenth century chamber music, this disc will bring hours of listening pleasure, particularly in Hungaroton's richly detailed and marvelously evocative sound.

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