The pioneering Croatian composer who was making her country famous in all Europe when she died of childbirth. Far too young.
She was also a countess, the beloved Countess Dora, born 1885 in Budapest into a noble family who traced their lineage back to the Magyars. Widely read and educated, acutely conscious of and somewhat troubled by her privileged social position, she gravitated to music like her mother who was a fine singer and pianist and composed her first known piece at the age of 12. Occasional lessons followed. The family would travel between their castle in Našice and their other homes in Vienna, Budapest, Munich Dresden and Prague, so essentially she was self-taught, composing romantic little piano pieces and songs to perform in their musical salons.
Her first orchestral work came out just before the first world war – a piano concerto, making her the first composer to write a concerto in Croatian music. And more followed: the first Croatian symphony, written while she was working as a paramedic, premiered in 1918 under the great Oskar Nedbal in Vienna and recently performed again to tremendous acclaim at the Proms.
The war years altered her profoundly. There is a vein of suffering to all the rest of her music and also a desire to be modern, to keep up with the new harmonies that were coming out of Russia and France. Works poured out of her – over 100 in total, from these major orchestral works to chamber and piano music and songs.
And then she fell in love. In 1921 she married a Count Otto, moved to Munich, and died giving birth to their first child. She was 37
Her son, Theo, survived. and in 2011 presented a portrait of his mother to the Gallery of Modern Art in Zagreb. She’s seated, holding a violin. Beneath it, is something she once said: “The only truth is music”
Dora Pejačević (1885 – 1923)
MUSIC: Piano Concerto Op.33 (1.Allegro)
Peter Donohoe, piano
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sakari Oramo
Presented by Anna Clyne
Written and produced by Charlotte Wilson for WMHT
