Ernst von Dohnanyi (1877-1960) was a precocious composer and pianist, winning competitions as both before he was 20 years old. Between the two world wars, he was a leader of the Hungarian music scene and promoted and protected Bartok and Kodaly. Dohnanyi’s reputation was stained by alleged Nazi sympathies, which were later disproven and may have started as slander. But the damage to his name was done. He ended his career as a teacher at Florida State University and was buried in Talahassee.

Music and politics were associated to the Dohnanyi name also through Ernst’s son and grandsons.

Hans von Dohnanyi, Ernst’ son, was a leader of the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler, for which he was executed in 1944 with his co-conspirator and brother in law, Dietrich Bonhoffer.

Ernst Von Dohnanyi’s grandsons Klaus and Christoph respectively became the mayor of Hamburg, Germany, and the conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra.

DOHNÁNYI AND BARTÓK

Bartók, Kodály, Dohnányi: there was a time when the leading role of these three in Hungarian music was not in doubt. However, in the troubled years after the war the oldest member of the triumvirate, Ernő Dohnányi (1877−1960), suddenly ceased to be an ideal, and as a consequence of a campaign of political slander that to this day has still not been totally explored (although it is almost certainly unfounded), his name was in effect airbrushed out of music life in Hungary for decades. Even though his works have been played ever more frequently from the 1990s onwards, and musicology discovered him towards the turn of the millennium, still one can say that today, in 2017, on the 140th anniversary of his birth, we still know shamefully little about the work of this brilliant composer-pianist, who – as director of the Liszt Academy, president-conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra and head of the music department of Hungarian Radio – was virtually absolute ruler of Hungarian music life during the interwar period. Leaving aside the obvious biographical information, his relationship with Bartók and Kodály is not clear either, although sources would suggest that of his two colleagues he was more drawn to Bartók. At the same time, it is impossible to disregard famous quotes from Bartók’s correspondence such as “[…] his [Dohnányi’s] much worse and unforgiveable sin is his lack of patriotism. This excludes the possibility that there can ever be a ‘better relationship’ between us” (1903) or “my relations with […] Hubay are utterly bad, with Dohnányi very chilly” (1934). Of course, the true picture is far more nuanced than this.

From an essay written by Veronika Kusz, Dohnányi researcher, on Bartók and Dohnányi’s relationship.