Ernő DOHNÁNYI: Symphonic Minutes, Op. 36
Béla BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 3, Sz. 119, BB 127
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Johannes BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

Mihály Berecz piano
Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor: György Vashegyi

One of the most popular works in Ernő Dohnányi’s (1877–1960) oeuvre, the Symphonic Minutes was written in 1933. This suite of five short movements is typified above all by its variety of character, elegance, humour and colourful orchestration. Béla Bartók (1881–1945) composed his swan song, the unfinished Piano Concerto No. 3 (1945), while in American exile, already gravely ill and in the shadow of death. The final seventeen bars of the work were orchestrated by his young friend and pupil, Tibor Serly. Radiating Mozartian clarity and dedicated to the composer’s wife, Ditta Pásztory, the concerto is a document of the classical turn in Bartók’s late style. Although Johannes Brahms’s (1833–1897) Symphony No. 4 (1884) is not, chronologically speaking, a late work – the composer was 51 when he wrote it and with 13 years of life still ahead of him – its reserved, introspective and meditative character nevertheless creates an unmistakable sense of maturity. After the austere Allegro non troppo and the lyrical, autumnal nature poetry of the Andante moderato, the scherzo indulges in raw, boisterous humour, while the finale, a passacaglia based on a theme by Bach, unfolds with unrelenting gravity and archaic grandeur. Mihály Berecz (b. 1997), who has enjoyed international success, is one of the finest Hungarian pianists of the new generation. György Vashegyi (b. 1970), a Kossuth Prize laureate and founder-director of the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra, has been general music director of the Hungarian National Philharmonic since October 2022.