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. His complete piano works ^{[12] [13]} are recorded by the composer and virtuoso pianist Artur Cimirro for the cd label Acte Prealable

Szanto 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

References