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Concert Artist/Fidelio Recordings
Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 7EG, England
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Concert Artist/Fidelio Recordings Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 7EG, England
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Featured Artists Edward Kilenyi
At
the age of 11, Edward travelled to Budapest, at the invitation of the great
Hungarian composer, and pianist, Ernst von Dohnänyi. There, Dohnänyi
supervised his musical education, gave him a great deal of personal tuition, and
eventually took the budding young virtuoso with him on a concert tour of Hungary
playing, among other things, Schubert works for four hands. Receiving
the Artist Diploma from the Franz Liszt Academy, Kilenyi moved to Paris. Making
his official debut in 1937 with a triumphant recital at the Salle Gaveau and
began his concert career in earnest. The Paris critics gave him a resounding
endorsement comparing his Chopin playing to that of Paderewski.
Disques Pathé lost no time in contracting Kilenyi and he made the
premiere recording of Liszt’s Totentanz under Selmar Meyrowitz. This won the
Grande Prix du Disque and several other successful recording quickly followed.
Concert Artist released many of these recordings on audio cassettes but some
fine new transfers of the complete Pathé recordings 1937/39 on Compact
Disc are available In
England his recording of the Chopin Études were released on Columbia. His much
acclaimed London debut followed and he toured the country giving many concerto
performances with Sir Thomas Beecham. The
American public had already had already been able to admire the young pianist
through his many records issued on Pathé and Columbia Masterworks albums. Now
they could hear him in person and he made his American debut in New York’s
Town Hall in October 1940. Critics hailed his “magnificent ardour and élan,”
his “enormous musicianship,” and “His natural feel for the
instrument, and the wide ranging colour of his playing.”
Edward had little time to build upon this success as his career was
interrupted for four vital years by army service. After
the war, Kilenyi returned to the concert platform and appeared with a great
number of leading orchestras. Among these, The New York Philharmonic, The
Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Symphony Orchestra, Minneapolis Symphony,
Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Paris Colonne,
Lamoureux and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra. All these appearances were
made under such conductors as Mitropoulos, Ormandy, Klemperer, Barbirolli, Paray,
Henry Wood, and Munch. In
later years he gradually gave much time to teaching. Possibly, his father
influenced him, but quite certainly he was influenced by the example of
Dohnänyi. He took up an appointment at the Florida State University of
Music in 1953 just four years after Dohnänyi had joined the faculty there. He
continued with his concert career well into his seventies. He
presented his audiences with arduous programmes and he made considerable efforts
to introduce the music of his compatriots to audiences in the United States. His
appearances in the recording studios became rare but, in 1986, he was persuaded
by Ozan Marsh to conclude a contract with Concert Artist Recordings to record
Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and, of course, Dohnänyi. Illness prevented the
arranged sessions for that year and again in 1987. An opportunity did present
itself in 1989 when Kilenyi travelled to Budapest to receive the Liszt Medal
from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. He flew on to London, accompanied by his
wife, spending two happy weeks in our Cambridge Studios recording much loved
music from his repertoire. He was unable to make a return journey and,
consequently, these recordings marked the end of his long studio career.
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© 2005 Concert Artist Recordings
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Edward
Kilenyi was born in Philadelphia in America of Hungarian parents.