Antal Doráti
Most of us only think of the great Antal Dorati as a conductor, but this prominent Hungarian came from a family of musicians and started the study of music at the age of five, learning the cello a couple of years later and composition lessons beginning at 12; this in spite of the fact that he had already written several works, including three operas with original libretti, all of which he considered to be immature effords.
His first composition teacher was Leo Weiner (1885-1960) who had a profound effect on Dorati's musical taste and performing background. After a year with Weiner he became the pupil of Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967) with whom he studied for the remainder of his school life.
At the age of 18, Dorati began work at the Budapest Opera House, first as a rehearser, then as a conductor for opera and ballet productions and finally to his preeminent career on the symphonic concert stage. Concert work put a crimp in his composing for about 20 years but in the mid-'50s the creative impulse returned in energy sufficient to produce on major work each year for many years thereafter.
The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra took five years of planning but was written during the summer of 1974 for Ilse Von Alpenheim, Dorati's wife, also from a very musical family. She world-premiered it -- a richly tonal work, centered around the key of D -- at Kennedy Center in the fall of 1975. Dorati makes no apology for being a tonalist, in fact (like many tonalists) he seems in his notes to be almost defensive about tonalism in what he perceives to be an era of atonalism or worse. The work is in a straightforward three-movement form. The first movement is in sonata form, featuring three groups of musical ideas subjected to various rearrangements, a recapitulation and cadenza finale. The most interesting slow movement uses a set of quiet variations on the central theme followed by a dramatic, jagged middle section with it's own development section, and a return to the quiet theme over muffled drums. The fast final movement is a complex rondo with intermittent recurrences of the main subject, a relazed "trio" section, a return of themes from all three movements in a suspended, introspective moment, finished off by a stormy "stretto" conclusion.
The Concerto was recorded in April of 1976 (by Ilse Von Alpenheim) in the concert hall of Kennedy Center. It was released on a Vox/Turnabout LP in August of the same year. The album also presented Von Alpenheim's performance of Dorati's Variations on a Theme of Bartok, a difficult work based on the "Peasant Song" (No.15) of Bartok's Mikrokosmos.
Dorati's Symphony No. 1 (1972) and No. 2 (1988) are available on a BIS CD, as are two works for choir and orchestra, Jesus oder Barabbas? and Pater Noster, works written the year before, and the year of his death.
© Philip Krumm /TiVo
Similar artists
-
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet - Suites Nos. 1 & 2 / Mussorgsky: A Night on the Bare Mountain
Minnesota Orchestra, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 11 Sep 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Symphony No. 8; Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture (The Mercury Masters: The Mono Recordings)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1954
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann & Mendelssohn : Violin Concertos
Henryk Szeryng, London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Violin Concertos - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Copland: Rodeo; El Salón Mexicó; Danzón cubano; Gershwin: An American in Paris (Antal Doráti / Minnesota Orchestra — Mercury Masters: Stereo, Vol. 12)
Minnesota Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 23 Jun 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dvorák: Slavonic Dances; American Suite
Antal Doráti, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 4 Nov 1984
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Respighi: Ancient Dances and Airs for Lute by Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti, Philharmonia Hungarica
Classical - Released by Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording on 6 Feb 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gerhard: The Plague
Antal Doráti, Alec McCowen, National Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Orchestre Symphonique National de Washington
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 2 Nov 1974
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Khachaturian: Gayaneh Ballet Music / Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti, Minnesota Orchestra, Stanisław Skrowaczewski
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 13 Oct 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini & Verdi Overtures
London Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 15 Nov 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: La bataille de Vitoria - Tchaikovsky: Ouverture 1812 (Stereo Version)
London Symphony Orchestra, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann - Lalo - Saint-Saëns : Cello Concertos
Janos Starker, London Symphony Orchestra, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 15 May 2015
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture; Capriccio italien; Romeo and Juliet; Marche slave
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique National de Washington, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Symphony No.3 “Scottish” & No.4 “Italian”...
London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti, Minnesota Orchestra, Stanisław Skrowaczewski
Symphonic Music - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Khachaturian: Violin Concerto
Henryk Szeryng, London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 22 Apr 1965
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Copland: Appalachian Spring / Stravinsky: Apollon musagète
Antal Doráti, Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Apr 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol; Borodin: Polovtsian Dances, etc.
London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: Petrouchka (Antal Doráti / Minnesota Orchestra — Mercury Masters: Stereo, Vol. 19)
Minnesota Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1959
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite; Symphonic Fantasie from "Die Frau ohne Schatten"
Antal Doráti, Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Aug 1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bloch: Sinfonia breve; Peterson: Free Variations for Orchestra (Antal Doráti / Minnesota Orchestra — Mercury Masters: Stereo, Vol. 21)
Minnesota Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kodaly: Háry János Suite; Bartók: Hungarian Sketches; Roumanian Folk Dances (Antal Doráti / Minnesota Orchestra — Mercury Masters: Stereo, Vol. 3)
Minnesota Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1957
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen - Orchestral Music
Antal Doráti, Orchestre Symphonique National de Washington
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 21 Apr 1976
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo