Theodor Szántó

Theodor Szántó, also seen as Tivadar Szántó (3 June 1877^[1][2][3] – 7 January 1934) was a Hungarian Jewish^[4] pianist and composer.

Life and career

Szántó was born in Vienna, then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His family name was originally Smulevic, of Jewish and Slavic origin.^[5] His musical studies were in Vienna and Budapest, and with Ferruccio Busoni in Berlin 1898-1901.^[6] He resided in Paris from 1905, Switzerland from 1914, and Budapest from 1921 until his death there in 1934.^[1]

Szántó contributed substantially to the rewriting of the piano part of the third and final version of Frederick Delius’s Piano Concerto in C minor, and he introduced this version at a Prom Concert in London on 22 October 1907 under Henry Wood.^[7] For these services, Delius dedicated the Concerto to Szántó.^[1] He also played the work at the Proms in 1912, 1913 and 1921.^[8] This final version has become the standard version, but Delius's original conception has also been recorded.^[9]

Theodor Szántó was an early champion of the music of Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók.^[10] It was his playing of Bartók's Romanian Dance in 1914 that introduced Arthur Hartmann to the music of that composer.^[11] For his part, however, Bartók had little respect for Szántó.^[5]

He exhibited an interest in the music of Japan by writing at least three works using Japanese influences (an opera, an orchestral suite, and a piano suite).^[1][10]

He also made some piano transcriptions of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Igor Stravinsky, which reveal a virtuoso technique. He was considered an important piano teacher.^[4] His students included Berta Alves de Sousa in Paris.

Szántó was awarded the Legion of Honour.^[5]

Compositions

Original works

Szántó's own original compositions include:

• Violin Sonata, 1906
• Land and Sea Symphony, 1909
• Contrasts, piano suite, 1912^[12]
• Variations on a Hungarian Folksong, piano, 1915
• Symphonic Rhapsody, 1917
• In Japan: Essays and Studies in Japanese Harmony based on Native Songs, piano, 1918-22^[13] (This work has been recorded by Noriko Ogawa^[14])
• Taifun: A Japanese Tragedy in Three Acts^[15][16] an opera on a Japanese subject, set to a libretto by Menyhert Lengyel based on his play Typhoon; the opera was premiered in Mannheim on 29 November 1924, and had later productions in Antwerp, Budapest and Vienna
• Japan Suite, orchestra, 1926
• Magyarorszag: Concert Sonata in Hungarian style, violin and piano; dedicated to Eugène Ysaÿe^[17]

Transcriptions

• Johann Sebastian Bach: About a dozen transcriptions,^[10] including:
  • Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542, 1904^[18] (This has been recorded by Cyprien Katsaris^[19] and Marc-André Hamelin^[20])
  • Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543,1912^[21]
  • Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 546, 1914^[22]
  • Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582, 1932^[23]
  • 4 Organ Chorale Preludes, c. 1900^[24]
    • Aus der Tiefe rufe ich
    • Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 649
    • Jesu Leiden, Pein und Tod
    • Allein Gott in der Hoh sei Ehr, BWV 663
• Igor Stravinsky:
  • Suite of five pieces from Petrushka, 1922^[25]
    • "Fète populaire de la semaine grasse"
    • "Chez Petrouchka"
    • "Chez le maure"
    • "Danse de la ballerina"
    • "Danse russe"
  • "Marche chinoise" from Le Rossignol^[10][26]

References