Nandor Plotenyi
Nandor Plotenyi (or often Germanized: Ferdinand Plotenyi) was born in Velyki Lazy (at that time Kingdom of Hungary, today Ukraine) on 29 August 1844. His father was a miner by profession, but also an amateur musician and Nandor Plotenyi learned to play the piano, violin and cello from his father. At the age of 13 Nandor Plotenyi entered the Prague conservatory and studied violin. One of his first own concerts was in Prague in 1865 and he was accompanied by Bedrich Smetana. At that time the renowned violinist Ede Remenyi learned about the talent of Nandor Plotenyi. The famous violinist offered to teach Nandor Plotenyi privately and so he moved to Budapest.
Between 1867 and 1872 Ede Remenyi made several long concert tours and Nandor Plotenyi was his accompanist. A special concert was given during their time in Egypt: Ede Remenyi, Nandor Plotenyi and a selected company made a trip to the Great Pyramid of Giza. Remenyi and Plotenyi then climbed to the top of the pyramid and gave a concert for the company.
Ede Remenyi was a friend of Franz Liszt and for that reason Remenyi and Plotenyi also visited him in Rome several times. The two studied with Liszt and sometimes gave chamber concerts all together. Around that time they also met in Munich where a famous photo was shot by Joseph Albert, the Royal Bavarian court photographer (see right). It shows Franz Liszt sitting on the left, Ede Remenyi standing on the left and Nandor Plotenyi leaning against the piano.
In 1870 Nandor Plotenyi was the concertmaster of the Hungarian National Opera, but quit very soon and moved to Paris. There he met Eugenis McAllister, an English aristocrat and married her in 1879. During his time in Paris Nandor Plotenyi continued his concert tours with Remenyi, after after his mariage he completely stopped and ended his musical career. In 1885 Nandor Plotenyi first moved back to Budapest and in 1896 finally to his hometown Velyki Lazy where he built his own manor. There he lived with his wife and 8 children, produced wine and spirits and created a park with exotic trees.
In his last days Nandor Plotenyi was seriously ill and therefore his children brought him to Budapest for medical reasons. Nandor Plotenyi died on 5 May 1933 in Budapest.
As a violinist Nandor Plotenyi was in possession of a Stradivarius violin and the Giuseppe Guarnieri violin that previously belonged to Ede Remenyi and therefore today has the name „Plotenyi / Remenyi“.
Nandor Plotenyi composed also a handful of works, all for the violin with piano or orchestra accompaniment: Concert hongrois for violin and orchestra, Polonaise fantastique for violin and orchestra, Danse et chant hongrois for violin and piano, 12 etudes for violin and piano and cadences for the Beethoven violin concerto.
Violin concerto
Nandor Plotenyi composed his violin concerto "Concert hongrois sur deux airs populaires" in 1871 for the 50th anniversary of the stage debut of Franz Liszt. I found no information if the work was composed during the festivities, but it took another 57 years to publish the score of the concerto. This was done by the Hungarian publishing house Rozsavölgyi in 1928. They published piano score, full score and orchestral parts. Nowadays it is nearly impossible to find any of these publications. I found no library world wide that hold a copy of the full score nor the orchestral parts. And only the library of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest holds a copy of the piano score. Therefore I was excited when I found a complete set of the orchestral parts of the violin concerto by Nandor Plotenyi. To make this interesting composition accessible to musicians I decided to typeset the parts into a full score which I present here:
from left to right: Liszt, Plotenyi, Remenyi
