Ervin Nyiregyhazi (1903-1987), child prodigy pianist and composer, performed extensively between 1909 and 1930. His 1920s Carnegie Hall debut is said to have received a much more enthusiastic response than that of Vladimir Horowitz a few years later. Following a lawsuit against his manager (R.E. Johnston - who, to judge from accounts in Andre Benoist's "The Accompanist", did not have a performer's best interests at heart), Nyiregyhazi's performing career dissipated. He participated in some movies, was juror at a piano competition in which one of the participants was Raymond Lewenthal (whom Nyiregyhazi voted for - but who also did not win the competition), and composed. A live broadcast during the 1940s of him performing Ferenc Liszt's (or, Germanized, Franz Liszt's) second piano concerto, has never surfaced as having been recorded. Similarly, a 1960s private recording of Liszt's B Minor Sonata, has remained elusive. To defray his ninth wife's medical expenses, Nyiregyhazi gave a number of recitals in the 1970s, primarily of repertoire by Ferenc Liszt, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Frederic Chopin, Claude Debussy and Theodore Leschetizky, which led to a Desmar LP (Nyiregyhazi Plays Liszt) produced under the auspices of the International Piano Archives, and a Columbia Records two-LP Liszt set that was Stereo Review's record of the year in 1978. Following this, Nyiregyhazi was offered return concerts at Carnegie Hall, but Nyiregyhazi declined. He continued to compose, performed in Japan in 1980 and 1982, and died of colon cancer in 1987.
Ervin Nyiregyhazi in 1978
the composition is Emile R. Blanchet's
Au jardin du vieux Serail
(Op. 18 No. 3)
AMICA Hall of Fame:
Ervin Nyiregyhazi Gives recital in Novato, CA
by Bill Knorp, The AMICA, V. 10, No 9, Sept 1973;
obituary from the AMICA, May/June 1987
