Jenő Jandó

The association between certain pianists and the record labels that documented their artistry has sometimes seemed inseparable, as with Artur Rubinstein's long partnership with RCA Red Seal or Yo-Yo Ma's alignment with the more eclectic direction of Sony/CBS. In a comparable way, Hungarian pianist Jenö Jandó came to embody the Naxos imprint and its emphasis on broad repertory recorded efficiently and at modest cost. His extensive discography for the company encompassed many areas, with Hungarian works prominent though never dominant.

Born in the southern Hungarian city of Pécs on February 1, 1952, Jandó received his earliest instruction from his mother before enrolling at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. At eighteen he earned third prize in the Beethoven Piano Competition held in Vienna, an achievement that introduced his name to listeners outside Hungary. He later captured first place at the Sydney International Piano Competition in 1987. Wider recognition among American collectors arrived only after Klaus Heymann, the German-born entrepreneur based in Hong Kong, established Naxos in the late 1980s. Jandó numbered among the earliest musicians featured in the label's expanded program of recordings made with Eastern European artists on a scale previously unmatched by any entity operating beyond the former East bloc. A Hungarian intermediary forwarded a tape of his playing, resulting in his selection for one of Naxos's initial flagship projects: the complete cycle of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas.

He proceeded to record the full sets of Mozart's piano sonatas and concertos, Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier in its entirety, Bartók's piano concertos, and the less frequently encountered Haydn keyboard sonatas. Further projects took him deeper into core repertory, including Schubert's sonatas and an extensive survey of Bartók's complete piano output. Chamber-music appearances, often centered on Hungarian scores, also formed part of his activity, as did his role as accompanist to his wife, mezzo-soprano Tamara Takács.

Jandó's suitability for Naxos rested on his readiness to tackle virtually any classical assignment. His command of the piano literature was extensive, and his musical memory was widely regarded as exceptional; although he always arrived at sessions with scores, he routinely set them aside and played from memory. Like Glenn Gould, he tended to hum while performing, a habit his producers countered by inserting an unlit cigarette between his lips. While he never fully embraced historically informed practices, he did record several Liszt works on the composer's own instrument. He voiced the intention of concluding his career with a second complete traversal of the Beethoven sonatas, a feat accomplished by only a handful of elite pianists. Although that goal remained unrealized into the late 2010s, he produced a substantial body of Schubert piano music during the mid-2000s. He stayed exclusively with Naxos. His recording pace diminished somewhat during the 2010s, yet he continued to address uncommon repertoire, among them the infrequently heard piano arrangement of Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, captured in 2014. In 2018 he added Haydn's 10 kleine Klavierstücke and 24 Minuets, both seldom-programmed collections. Further installments of his Bartók survey appeared, along with the 2020 release Franz Liszt: Historical Hungarian Portraits. Jenö Jandó's remarkably productive career ended with his death on July 4, 2023, at the age of 71.