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]
In Japan: Essays and Studies in Japanese Harmony based on Native Songs, piano, 1918-22[15] (This work has been recorded by Noriko Ogawa[16])
Taifun: A Japanese Tragedy in Three Acts[17][18] an opera on a Japanese subject, set to a libretto by Menyhert Lengyel based on his play Typhoon; the opera was premiered in Mannheim on 29 November 1924, and had later productions in Antwerp, Budapest and Vienna
Japan Suite, orchestra, 1926
Magyarorszag: Concert Sonata in Hungarian style, violin and piano; dedicated to Eugène Ysaÿe[19]
