Ervin Nyíregyházi
Encyclopedia
Ervin Nyíregyházi was a Hungarian
-born American
pianist.
, not a savant
. Ervin's mother, Mária, was a stage mother
who tried (unsuccessfully) to dissuade him from studying opera and symphonic music and pushed her son to study the standard piano repertoire so he could concertize and make money for their family. (In later years, the pianist would claim that his mother sexually molested him.) Ervin eventually broke with his mother, and later expressed pleasure that she had perished in a Nazi concentration camp.
Nyíregyházi's musical studies took place with Ernő Dohnányi
and Frederic Lamond. At the age of fifteen, Nyíregyházi played Liszt's
Piano Concerto in A Major
, with the Berlin Philharmonic under Arthur Nikisch
. His Carnegie Hall
debut in 1920 was impressive but controversial. Richard Aldrich
of the New York Times noted Nyíregyházi's "brilliant technical equipment, great strength of arm and fingers, remarkable dexterity, a fine feeling for piano tone" but was critical of his "often erratic and misleading" conceptions of "some of the most familiar compositions for the piano". H. T. Finck of the Evening Post praised Nyíregyházi's "originality", while criticizing his "arbitrary disregard of the obvious intentions of great composers." In a 1935 letter to Otto Klemperer
, Arnold Schoenberg
wrote the following about him:
Nyíregyházi, a sex addict and alcoholic with a difficult personality, was married ten times. His first wife allegedly attacked him with a knife, leading to a messy publicized divorce. Although born into comfortable circumstances (his mother insisted that the servants tie his shoes and feed him by hand so as to relieve him of mundane concerns) he nonetheless spent the better part of his life in poverty, at times reduced to sleeping in subways.
In 1928, Nyíregyházi moved to Los Angeles
and worked for a film studio, initially playing piano reductions of film scores, and later as a hand double. Nyíregyházi's hands are shown playing piano in A Song to Remember
, Song of Love
, and The Beast with Five Fingers
among others. He became friends with Béla Lugosi
, and Gloria Swanson
, among others. But his inability to manage his affairs led not only to financial crises, but also to unusual career decisions. In the 1930s, he played piano as part of a Works Progress Administration
project. But the most unusual appearance was likely a 1946 recital where he was billed as "Mr. X" and played while wearing a black silk hood. Several listeners were able to identify Nyíregyházi by his distinctive sonority. Although he continued to play occasionally, he did not own a piano for roughly forty years.
A concert at the Old First Church in San Francisco in 1973 (to raise funds for an operation for his ninth wife) led to a two-year stipend and two professional recordings for Desmar and Columbia records, under the auspices of Gregor Benko
and the Ford Foundation
, which briefly brought him back into public view. An all-Liszt double album won Stereo Review
's 1978 Record of the Year award.
Critical reaction to the recordings was sharply divided, with some claiming to hear an authentic 19th Century pianist (Harold C. Schonberg
wrote that "some critics wonder if Franz Liszt had been reincarnated"). Others denounced Nyiregyhazi's "incredibly slipshod" technique, "ridiculously amateurish" fortissimo playing "glacial tempos and total dissociation from contemporary performance styles. But Romantic revivalists were enthralled." In 1978, he was offered return concerts at Carnegie Hall, but he declined. Recitals in Japan in 1980 and 1982 constituted his last public appearances.
Nyiregyházi was also a prolific composer, writing in a Romantic style reminiscent of Liszt. Nyiregyházi was often moved to compose by outside events, and his compositions included titles such as Goetz Versus the Punks
, It’s Nice to be Soused, Shotgun Wedding, and Vanishing Hope. Only a few of his compositions have ever been published or performed.
, entitled Lost Genius, was published by McClelland and Stewart
of Canada
. He was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California
.
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
-born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pianist.
Childhood and early career
From ages six to twelve, Nyíregyházi was observed by the psychologist Géza Révész and was the subject of an article and a book, published in 1911 and 1916, respectively. Nyíregyházi's father, Ignácz, was a singer in the Royal Opera Chorus in Budapest; he was also very encouraging and caring but died when Ervin was twelve. Before Ignácz's death, he reported several extraordinary things about his son: that Ervin had tried to sing before he was one year old; that he reproduced tunes correctly before he was two; he began to compose at the age of two; and that he played almost every song he heard correctly on a mouth-organ by the time he reached age three; by the age of seven Ervin could identify any note or chord that was played for him. He was known for his musicality just as much as his technique. On tests of general intelligence, Ervin scored a few years above average, meaning he was prodigyChild prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
, not a savant
Savant syndrome
Savant syndrome , sometimes referred to as savantism, is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations...
. Ervin's mother, Mária, was a stage mother
Stage mother
In the performing arts, a stage mother is a term for the mother of a child actor. The mother will often drive her child to auditions, make sure he or she is on the set on time, etc...
who tried (unsuccessfully) to dissuade him from studying opera and symphonic music and pushed her son to study the standard piano repertoire so he could concertize and make money for their family. (In later years, the pianist would claim that his mother sexually molested him.) Ervin eventually broke with his mother, and later expressed pleasure that she had perished in a Nazi concentration camp.
Nyíregyházi's musical studies took place with Ernő Dohnányi
Erno Dohnányi
Ernő Dohnányi was a Hungarian conductor, composer, and pianist. He used the German form of his name Ernst von Dohnányi for most of his published compositions....
and Frederic Lamond. At the age of fifteen, Nyíregyházi played Liszt's
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
Piano Concerto in A Major
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Liszt)
Franz Liszt wrote drafts for his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A major, S.125, during his virtuoso period, in 1839 to 1840. He then put away the manuscript for a decade. When he returned to the concerto, he revised and scrutinized it repeatedly. The fourth and final period of revision...
, with the Berlin Philharmonic under Arthur Nikisch
Arthur Nikisch
Arthur Nikisch ; 12 October 185523 January 1922) was a Hungarian conductor who performed internationally, holding posts in Boston, London and - most importantly - Berlin. He was considered an outstanding interpreter of the music of Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Liszt...
. His Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
debut in 1920 was impressive but controversial. Richard Aldrich
Richard Aldrich
Richard Aldrich was an American music critic. From 1902–23, he was music critic for The New York Times.Aldrich was born in Providence, Rhode Island and graduated A.B. in 1885 from Harvard College, where he had studied music. He began his journalistic career on the Providence Journal...
of the New York Times noted Nyíregyházi's "brilliant technical equipment, great strength of arm and fingers, remarkable dexterity, a fine feeling for piano tone" but was critical of his "often erratic and misleading" conceptions of "some of the most familiar compositions for the piano". H. T. Finck of the Evening Post praised Nyíregyházi's "originality", while criticizing his "arbitrary disregard of the obvious intentions of great composers." In a 1935 letter to Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century.-Biography:Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany...
, Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
wrote the following about him:
Dear Mr. Klemperer,
....
Yesterday at Dr. Hoffmann's I heard a pianist who appears to be something really quite extraordinary. I had to overcome great resistance in order to go at all, for the description I'd heard from Dr. Hoffmann and from Maurice Zam had made me very skeptical. But I must say that I have never heard such a pianist before...First, he does not play at all in the style you and I strive for. And just as I did not judge him on that basis, I imagine that when you hear him, you too will be compelled to ignore all matters of principle, and probably will end up doing just as I did. For your principles would not be the proper standard to apply. What he plays is expression in the older sense of the word, nothing else; but such power of expression I have never heard before. You will disagree with his tempis as much as I did. You will also note that he often seems to give primacy to sharp contrasts at the expense of form, the latter appearing to get lost. I say appearing to; for then, in its own way, his music surprisingly regains its form, makes sense, establishes its own boundaries. The sound he brings out of the piano is unheard of, or at least I have never heard anything like it. He himself seems not to know how he produces these novel and quite incredible sounds - although he appears to be a man of intelligence and not just some flaccid dreamer. And such fullness of tone, achieved without ever becoming rough, I have never before encountered. For me, and probably for you too, it's really too much fullness, but as a whole it displays incredible novelty and persuasiveness. And above all he's only [sc. 33 years] old, so he's still got several stages of development before him, from which one may expect great things, given his point of departure...
Technique: it is amazing what he plays and how he plays it. One never senses that it is difficult, that it is technique - no, it is simply a power of the will, capable of soaring over all imaginable difficulties in the realization of an idea. - You see, I'm waxing almost poetic.
Descent into obscurity and reemergence
His life was no less complex than his musical imagination. In 1925, Nyíregyházi sued his concert manager, R. E. Johnston, alleging that he was being treated as an inferior artist by accompanying singers and instrumentalists. He lost the suit, and thereafter had difficulty finding concert work. In addition, Nyíregyházi - who feared comparison with other pianists - was reluctant to play the standard repertoire and favored performing his own transcriptions of orchestral and operatic works. By the time Schoenberg's letter was written, Nyíregyházi's career seemed to be effectively finished.Nyíregyházi, a sex addict and alcoholic with a difficult personality, was married ten times. His first wife allegedly attacked him with a knife, leading to a messy publicized divorce. Although born into comfortable circumstances (his mother insisted that the servants tie his shoes and feed him by hand so as to relieve him of mundane concerns) he nonetheless spent the better part of his life in poverty, at times reduced to sleeping in subways.
In 1928, Nyíregyházi moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and worked for a film studio, initially playing piano reductions of film scores, and later as a hand double. Nyíregyházi's hands are shown playing piano in A Song to Remember
A Song to Remember
A Song to Remember is a 1945 Columbia Pictures biographical film which tells a fictionalised life story of Polish pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin...
, Song of Love
Song of Love (film)
Song of Love is a biopic starring Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Robert Walker, and Leo G. Carroll, directed by Clarence Brown and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer....
, and The Beast with Five Fingers
The Beast with Five Fingers
The Beast with Five Fingers is a horror film directed by Robert Florey and with a screenplay by Curt Siodmak, based on a short story by W. F. Harvey first published in the New Decameron. The original music score was composed by Max Steiner...
among others. He became friends with Béla Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
, and Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
, among others. But his inability to manage his affairs led not only to financial crises, but also to unusual career decisions. In the 1930s, he played piano as part of a Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
project. But the most unusual appearance was likely a 1946 recital where he was billed as "Mr. X" and played while wearing a black silk hood. Several listeners were able to identify Nyíregyházi by his distinctive sonority. Although he continued to play occasionally, he did not own a piano for roughly forty years.
A concert at the Old First Church in San Francisco in 1973 (to raise funds for an operation for his ninth wife) led to a two-year stipend and two professional recordings for Desmar and Columbia records, under the auspices of Gregor Benko
Gregor Benko
Gregor Benko is an American writer, lecturer, record producer, and collector-historian whose primary focus is classical piano performance documented on recordings from the Romantic Era...
and the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
, which briefly brought him back into public view. An all-Liszt double album won Stereo Review
Stereo Review
Stereo Review was an American magazine first published in 1958 by Ziff-Davis with the title HiFi and Music Review. It was one of a handful of magazines then available for the individual interested in high fidelity. Throughout its life it published a blend of record and equipment reviews, articles...
's 1978 Record of the Year award.
Critical reaction to the recordings was sharply divided, with some claiming to hear an authentic 19th Century pianist (Harold C. Schonberg
Harold C. Schonberg
Harold Charles Schonberg was an American music critic and journalist, most notably for The New York Times. He was the first music critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism...
wrote that "some critics wonder if Franz Liszt had been reincarnated"). Others denounced Nyiregyhazi's "incredibly slipshod" technique, "ridiculously amateurish" fortissimo playing "glacial tempos and total dissociation from contemporary performance styles. But Romantic revivalists were enthralled." In 1978, he was offered return concerts at Carnegie Hall, but he declined. Recitals in Japan in 1980 and 1982 constituted his last public appearances.
Nyiregyházi was also a prolific composer, writing in a Romantic style reminiscent of Liszt. Nyiregyházi was often moved to compose by outside events, and his compositions included titles such as Goetz Versus the Punks
Bernhard Goetz
Bernhard Goetz is an American man best known for shooting four young African American men who tried to mug him on a New York City Subway train, resulting in his conviction for illegal possession of a firearm. He came to symbolize New Yorkers’ frustrations with the high crime rates of the early...
, It’s Nice to be Soused, Shotgun Wedding, and Vanishing Hope. Only a few of his compositions have ever been published or performed.
Death and burial
Ervin Nyíregyházi died from colon cancer in 1987. Only the last of his ten wives survived him. In 2007, a biography by Kevin BazzanaKevin Bazzana
Kevin Bazzana is a Canadian music historian and biographer, best known for his works on the influential Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Bazzana currently lives in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia...
, entitled Lost Genius, was published by McClelland and Stewart
McClelland and Stewart
McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is partially owned by Random House of Canada, now a subsidiary of Bertelsmann....
of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
.
Recordings
A few of Nyiregyházi's recordings, including some live performances, have been issued on CD on the VAI and Music and Arts labels.Discography
- Nyiregyhazi Plays Liszt (Desmar/International Piano Archives IPA 111, Telefunken 6.42626, 1977)
- Nyiregyhazi: All Liszt Program (Columbia M2-34598, 1978)
- Nyiregyhazi: Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Bortkiewicz, Blanchet (Columbia M-35125, 1979)