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Music
(Select List)
Opera
- ’The Chosen’, opera in 3 acts after a play by Martin Buber (1984)
Ballet
- ’Magdalena’, choreographic legend in 12 tableaux (1960-61)
Orchestral works
- Divertimento on Hungarian Tunes (1939, withdrawn)
- American Serenade for string orchestra (early 1940s)
- Symphony No.1 (1956-57)
- Threnos for string orchestra (1959 rev. 1977)
- Largo Concertato for string orchestra (1966); Silhouettes - seven pieces for large orchestra (1966 - withdrawn)
- Night Music for flute and small orchestra (1968)
- Piano Concerto (1975)
- Divertimento for oboe and orchestra (1976)
- Cello Concerto (1977)
- Trittico for oboe, oboe d’amore and cor anglais with string orchestra (1984-85)
- Symphony No.2 ‘Querela Pacis’ (1985)
Choral and vocal works
- Le Chemin, cantata after Paul Claudel (1955-56)
- The Two Enchantments of Li Tai Pe for baritone and small orchestra (1957)
- Missa Brevis (1959)
- Madrigal Suite for chorus and small orchestra (1965)
- ’Chamber Music’, song-cycle for soprano and 25 instruments (1967)
- Die Stimmen, song-cycle for bass and piano or orchestra (1975, orch. 1978)
- Of God, man and Machines for SATB (1978)
- In the Beginning for bass-baritone, oboe, cello and percusssion (1979)
- Autumn, six epigrams for bartitone and 19 players (1986)
- Jesus or Barabbas?, melodrama for speaker, chorus and orchestra (1987)
- Hexaphoneia for baritone and string quintet (1988)
Chamber Music
- Nocturne and Capriccio for oboe and string quartet (1926)
- Threnos for string quartet (1959)
- String Octet (1964)
- String Quartet (1980)
- Duo Concertante for oboe and piano (1984)
- Adagio for viola and piano (1987)
Instrumental music
- Capriccii for piano (1970-75)
- Variations on a Theme of Bartok, for piano (1974)
- Sonata per Assissi for 2 flutes (1980)
- Cinq Pieces for solo oboe (1980)
Life
Dorati was best known as a conductor, starting at the Royal Opera in Budapest in 1924. From 1933 to 1944 he conducted ballet companies in Europe and the USA. 1945-49 with the Dallas SO, 1949-60 with the Minneapolis SO, 1962-66 with the BBC SO in London, and 1977-81 with the Detroit SO. But he was also a prolific and quite individual composer; he studied with Kodaly and Leo Weiner. He destroyed almost all his early compositions, and from the 1920s to 1950s wrote very little - he did, however, produce many successful arrangements, notably the well-known ballet on music by Johan Strauss II, ‘Graduation Ball’ (1939). After the mid-1950s, however, he composed steadily, often for the internationally-accliamed soloists with whom he routinely worked.