Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826):
Rondo Brillant in E flat major opus 62
Ania Dorfmann (1899-1984), piano
recorded in the 30s.
Dorfmann was the daughter of a merchant. Her elder brother and sister both played the piano and Ania received her early musical education in Odessa, giving her first solo public concert at the age of eleven. The success of this concert led to plans being made for her to travel to Paris to study with Isidor Philipp; however, her father died at this time and the journey was postponed. When she did finally arrive in Paris with her mother, she was to stay for just under a year, returning to find her native land already in the throes of revolution. In 1920 she and her mother settled in France and during the next decade Dorfmann played frequently in Europe, collaborating with conductors such as Willem Mengelberg, Thomas Beecham and Henry Wood.
In 1936 Dorfmann made her debut at New York’s Town Hall with works by Beethoven, Schumann, Liadov and Chopin. Critics had reservations about the strength of her musicality, but admired the ‘rapidity and clarity’ of her technique. Further recitals at the same venue in 1938 and 1939 brought Dorfmann to the attention of Arturo Toscanini who engaged her to play Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia with him; she was apparently the first female soloist to be conducted by him. She subsequently played the Beethoven concertos with Toscanini and in 1945 recorded the Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 15 with him. Dorfmann continued a performing and recording career in America during the 1950s and spent her later years on the piano faculty of New York’s Juilliard School of Music.
Source: Naxos
Duration : 0:4:58
[youtube wRJYO9JASwU]
September 9th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Mind-blowing!
Mind-blowing!
September 9th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
She was my mother”s …
She was my mother”s teacher on Juilliard on 60s…She was brilliant !!!
September 9th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Lovely. I heard her …
Lovely. I heard her in the mid-50s playing the Mendelssohn G-minor Concerto. She was terrific.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Very exciting piece.
Very exciting piece.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
A wonderful …
A wonderful recording, thank you.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I like Weber’s …
I like Weber’s compositions a lot… but I don’t get to hear them too often :(.