Leon Botstein - Dohnányi: Symphony No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 9 (1998)

Acclaimed for his innovative programming and impressive performances, Leon Botstein conducts the LPO in a moving performance of the post-romantic Symphony No. 1 by Ernst von Dohnanyi. (The only recorded performance currently available of this!)

Ernst von Dohnányi wrote the D-minor Symphony when he was only twenty-three. Roosted firmly in the post-romantic tradition, it is the first important Hungarian symphony. Dohnányi created it in five movements rather than four, with two slow movements surrounding a central scherzo. Bartók had such enthusiasm for the work that he committed the entire symphony to memory and played it on the piano at the home of Emma Gruber, who was to become Mrs. Kodály, in Budapest.