Dohnányi’s First Orchestral Suite, in F sharp minor, Op 19, was composed in Berlin in 1909. Sometimes known as ‘Suite romantique’, it is an apotheosis of his post-Brahmsian style with exotic ‘Hungarian’ colouring, especially in the third movement, the Romanza, which the great Jascha Heifetz arranged as a thoroughly idiomatic piece for violin and piano. The somewhat ‘oriental’ melody of the outer sections is twice briefly interrupted by a hint of a livelier, but rather melancholy csárdás rhythm.
from notes by Calum MacDonald © 2010
