Dohnányi: String Quartets 1 & 3

Aviv Quartet Naxos 8.572569***

Ernö Dohnányi (1877-1960), who along with Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók dominated Hungarian musical life in the first half of the 20th century, ended his life in enforced exile in Florida. Musically, he was the most conservative of the three, and his best-known works are at the lighter end of the spectrum, the Variations on a Nursery Songfor piano and orchestra, and a Serenade for string trio. His First Quartet (1899) is in thoroughly Brahmsian mode. Brahms had given his benediction to the young Dohnányi by arranging the première of his Piano Quintet, Op 1, and the young composer had faithfully assimilated the older man's style. The Third Quartet (1926) is much more harmonically advanced, but still has one foot firmly in the 19th century. The Aviv Quartet don't quite manage to balance the work's stylistic tensions, but are fully persuasive in the earlier piece. url.ie/af6o