Born in Pozsony (Pressburg), Hungary (now Bratislava, Slovakia), Dohnanyi studied music with his father, a professor of mathematics and amateur cellist, in the Gymnasium at Pressburg, later becoming a pupil at the Budapest Academy of Music, studying piano and composition with Carl Forstner, a famed organist of the Bratislava Cathedral. In 1894 he became a pupil of Stephan Thoman studying piano and Hans Koessler in composition. Béla Bartók was one of his classmates there. Dohnányi’s first published composition, The Piano Quintet in C minor heard in tonight’s concert, earned the acclaim of Johannes Brahms, who promoted the work in Vienna. As a conductor, Dohnányi pioneered Bartók’s more accessible music to great acclaim.

In 1902 was born one of his two sons, Hans von Dohnanyi, also a pianist. Hans later distinguished himself as a leader of the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany, and was a friend and collaborator of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Hans in turn became the father of the well-known orchestral conductor, Christoph von Dohnányi.

Joseph Joachim, the great German violinist and friend of Brahms, invited Dohnányi to teach at the Hochschule in Berlin, which he did from 1905 to 1915. In 1919 he was appointed director of the Budapest Academy, but was replaced the same year for purely political reasons. He became music director of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra and promoted the music of Bartók and Zoltán Kodály and other Hungarians.