Ernő Dohnányi: A Discography of the Performer

Abstract

The performances of Ernő Dohnányi as pianist and conductor were preserved on numerous sound recordings. He was involved in the recording industry first in 1905, and his death was notoriously caused by a cold suffered in a recording studio in 1960. His interpretation is preserved on different audio media: piano rolls, 78rpm and Long Play discs, x-ray foils and reel-to-reel tapes. Although the number of his studio recordings, made for commercial purposes, is relatively small, the amount of live concert and home recordings, including the huge collection of unpublished recordings made in the USA between 1945 and 1960, expands it to a significant corpus of sound recordings. This article contains the complete discography of Ernő Dohnányi as a performer. The discography provides all available data of the studio and live recordings of Dohnányi, including the data of reissues (closing date: June 2022). It is preceded by an article in which Dohnányi's discography is analysed from several aspects. The analysis of the recorded repertoire sets the stage for further research on Dohnányi's interpretation; however, lost recordings are also reviewed. Dohnányi's controversial relationship to the technical media, and vice versa the recording firms changing interest in him as a performer, are also discussed in detail, involving several sources formerly unknown to Dohnányi research.