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
-
Gershwin: Concerto pour piano, Rhapsody in Blue & Un Américain à Paris (Mono Version)
Eugene List, Howard Hanson, Antal Doráti
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1/01/1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Offenbach: Gaîté Parisienne - Strauss II: Graduation Ball (Mono Version)
Antal Doráti, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1/01/1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Mono Version)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1/01/1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Khachaturian: Violin Concerto
Henryk Szeryng, London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 22/04/1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto / Schumann: Violin Concerto
Henryk Szeryng, London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 8/11/1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66, TH 13: Valse
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 14/02/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Aïda - Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price, The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti
Opera - Released by ISIS on 31/01/2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Tone Poems
Orchestre Symphonique National de Washington, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1/01/1975
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grandes Virtuosos de la Música: Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti, London Philharmonic Orchestrap, Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by ns on 9/09/2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Great Musicians, Great Music: Antal Dorati Conducts Famous Ballets by Offenbach and Strauss
Classical - Released by YOYO USA Digital on 19/06/2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn / Hungarian Dances
Antal Doráti, London Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by >ReNovo< on 13/09/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Peter I. Tchaikovsky - Annyversary Edition, Vol. 1
Classical - Released by Documents 2 on 13/12/2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Peter I. Tchaikovsky - Annyversary Edition, Vol. 2
Classical - Released by Documents 2 on 13/12/2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Piano Concertos Nos. 2-4 & Divertimento in C Major
Ilse Von Alpenheim, Bamberger Symphoniker, Antal Doráti
Concertos - Released by Vox on 1/01/1975
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky, Albéniz & de Falla: Symphony No. 5 - Iberia - La Vida Breve - Interlude And Dance
Antal Doráti, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Infinity on 18/10/2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fatum, Op. 77 (Main Theme)
Orchestre Symphonique National de Washington, Antal Doráti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 28/02/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Antal Dorati & Ferenc Fricsay
Classical - Released by History on 1/09/2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Op. 20 (Grand Ballet in 4 Acts)
Rafael Druian, Antal Doráti, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (Now renamed Minnesota Orchestra)
Classical - Released by Mangora Classical on 15/03/2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Respighi Suite No. 1 & 2 for Orchestra Suite No. 3 for Strings
Antal Dorati, Philharmonia Hungarica
Classical - Released by Mangora Classical on 3/03/2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky the Nutcracker Op. 71, Act II and Serenade for Strings in C Major
Antal Dorati, John McCarthy, London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Philharmonia Hungarica Orchestra
Classical - Released by Mangora Classical on 5/02/2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Copland Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kidm Danzòn Cubano and El Salòn México
Antal Dorati, London Symphony Orchestra, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Mangora Classical on 22/01/2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo