Dora Pejačević (1885-1923)
Piano Concerto in G minor, Op 33 (1913)
Symphony in F-sharp minor, Op 41 (1916-17 rev. 1920)
Peter Donohoe (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo
rec. 2021, Phoenix Concert Hall, Fairfield Halls, Croydon, UK
CHANDOS CHSA5299 SACD [71]
Dora Pejačević was born in Croatia, now an independent country but then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Her parents were aristocrats: her father held several important positions and her mother was an amateur pianist, singer and artist. Dora early showed her talent for music, learning the piano from her mother, also the violin, and enjoying a good education. She started composing when she was eleven. Her parents supported her musical gifts and facilitated her study at the Zagreb Music Institute. She later studied widely across Central Europe and continued to compose. During the first World War she volunteered as a nurse. In 1921 she married. She gave birth to a son in February 1923 but died a month later from kidney failure.
In her earlier years Pejačević composed songs, piano music and chamber music. However, in 1913 she composed her piano concerto, her first orchestral work and the first such work by a Croatian composer. This is a big late romantic concerto which rather obviously takes Rachmaninov for a model, and is none the worse for that. There are three movements. She offers strong and distinctive themes and there is a constant interplay between the solo piano and the orchestra. The piano writing is virtuosic, sometimes massive and often highly ornate, but the work is certainly a serious one and not simply a display vehicle. There is a big cadenza in the first movement and a smaller one in the finale. Much of the second movement is a rather Chopinesque reverie with a good deal of delicate writing as well as some more forceful passages. The finale is very varied in mood and tempo and ends with toccata-like brilliance. Despite this being Pejačević’s first orchestral work, the writing for the orchestra as well as for the piano is assured and effective – clearly the fruit of much study of good models.
The symphony is a slightly later work and it was revised a few years afterwards. Along with a symphony by her contemporary Franjo Lučić, it was the first symphony by a Croatian composer. The model here seems to be Franck, with Wagnerian harmonies of the Franckian kind, much restless modulation, the use of a solo cor anglais in the slow movement and the reprise of earlier themes in the finale. Unlike Franck’s symphony, however, there is a scherzo, of a rather Dvořákian cast. Again the themes are powerful and much of the first movement is sombre and anguished. The slow movement is less tense and more reflective, the scherzo lighthearted and the finale, as in the concerto, varied in mood and tempo.
These are both good works and, for me, they start putting Croatian music, about which I previously knew nothing, on the map. Although it is a small country, with a population of less than four million, it has many orchestras and numerous active composers. Perhaps, like other small countries such as Finland and Czechia, it will turn out to punch well above its weight in classical music. These performances are assured and confident, although I don’t suppose the orchestra had played the works previously. Peter Donohoe’s barn-storming style suits the piano concerto and Sakari Oramo conducts as if these were repertoire works. The recording is rich and full, in the Chandos manner, even though I was listening in ordinary two channel stero, and the booklet, on which I have drawn for the biographical details in this review, very helpful.
On checking, I find that Pejačević has been reasonably well served in recordings, particularly by the CPO label, which has issued six CDs of her music. These include a rival version of the piano concerto (review) and of the symphony (review) but not coupled together. They also offer a number of discs of her chamber and piano music. These look as if they would be well worth exploring. Meanwhile, here is a good coupling of her two largest orchestral works.
Stephen Barber
Previous review: Nick Barnard
