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Sonetto Nyiregyházi Archive
2CDs + 1 Photobook
In the early 1970s, after decades in poverty and obscurity, 'Lost Genius' Ervin Nyiregyházi started giving public recitals in San Francisco to help pay for his ninth wife's medical bills. After giving successful recitals at the Century Club of California, in 1972 (released as SONCLA002), and the Old First Church, in 1973, he performed at the Forest Hill Clubhouse on May 24, 1973.
The recorded performances from this recital are released here for the first time in their entirety. While his technique may have been declined due to age and blank by the early 1970s, the recording here would prove that he was a genuine inheritor of a Great Tradition of piano performance practice starting from Franz Liszt. For this release, we used the original master tape drawn from our Nyiregyházi archive, digitally transferred at a sample rate of 192kHz/24-bit to guarantee the best possible quality.
The second disc of this album includes his last preserved recordings, made in 1984, in the San Francisco home of his friend Ricardo Hernandez. Our source is the original tape, kindly provided to us by Hernandez.
This 2-CD albums also includes a 24-page photobook 'Nyiregyházi in Japan, 1982', featuring dozens of rare unpublished photos of Nyiregyházi by a renowned photographer Yoshimasa Hatano, combined with quotations by Nyiregyházi.
Finally, the main 20-page sleeve notes are written by Nyiregyházi’s biographer Kevin Bazzana and producer Tomoyuki Sawado (English/Japanese text), offering the full information behind the recordings as well as Nyiregyházi's incredible life story.
This album is authorised by Mattheus Smits, president of the International Ervin Nyiregyházi Foundation, in Krommenie, The Netherlands, which represents Nyiregyházi’s estate.
Disc 1 : Forest Hill Clubhouse, San Francisco, 1973 (remastered from the original tape)
1. Liszt: “Sunt lacrymae rerum: En mode hongrois”
2. Liszt: La lugubre gondola (Dritter Elegie), second version
3. Brahms: Clavierstücke, Op. 119: No. 4, Rhapsody in E-flat Major
4. Debussy : Estampes: No. 1, “Pagodes”
5. Debussy : La plus que lente: Valse
6. Liszt : Années de pčlerinage, troisičme année: No. 6, “Marche funčbre: En mémoire de Maximilien I, Empereur du Mexique"
7. Tchaikovsky : Valse in A-flat Major , Op. 40: No. 8
8. Scriabin : Piano Sonata No. 4 in F-sharp Major, Op. 30, I, Andante.
9. Scriabin : Piano Sonata No. 4 in F-sharp Major, Op. 30, II, Prestissimo volando.
10. Grieg : Lyrische Stücke, Vol. 5, Op. 54: No. 4, “Notturno” in C Major.
11. Scriabin: Počme tragique in B-flat Major, Op. 34
Disc 2: Private recordings, San Francisco, 1984 (remastered from the original tape)
1. Liszt : Années de pčlerinage, troisičme année: No. 3, “Aux cyprčs de la Villa d’Este: Thrénodie (II).” 2. Liszt : Christus: Part 1, “Weihnachts-Oratorium”/No. 4, “Hirtengesang an der Krippe.”
Photobook: Nyiregyházi in Japan, 1982 (photos: Hatano Yoshimasa)
Recorded: May 24, 1973 at the Forest Hill Clubhouse, San Francisco, California, U.S.A (Disc 1); October 1984 at Ricardo Hernandez’s house, San Francisco, California, U.S.A. (Disc 2)
Producer: Tomoyuki Sawado (Sonetto Classics)
Project Advisor & note: Kevin Bazzana
Digital Remastering: Andrew J. Holdsworth and Tomoyuki Sawado
Honorary Executive Producer: Milus Scruggs
This album is dedicated to Ricardo Hernandez, who passed away on September 1st, 2020.