Born in Budapest in 1903, Ervin Nyiregyházi (nyeer-edge-hah-zee) was composing at two, giving his first public recital at six, and performing all over Europe by eight. He was soon recognized as one of the most remarkable child prodigies in history and became the subject of a four-year study by a psychologist. By twenty-five, he had all but disappeared.

Mismanaged, exploited, and insistent on an intensely Romantic style, his career foundered in adulthood and he was reduced to penury.

In 1928, he settled in Los Angeles, where he performed sporadically and worked in Hollywood. Psychologically, he remained a child, and found the ordinary demands of daily life onerous — he struggled even to dress himself. He drank heavily, was insatiable sexually (he married ten times), and lived in abject poverty, yet such was his talent and charisma that he numbered among his friends and champions Rudolph Valentino, Harry Houdini, Theodore Dreiser, Bela Lugosi, and Gloria Swanson. Rediscovered in the 1970s, he enjoyed a sensational and controversial renaissance.

Kevin Bazzana explores the brilliant but troubled mind of a geniune Romantic adrift in the modern age. The story he tells is one of the most fascinating - and bizarre - in the history of music.

Born in Budapest in 1903, Ervin Nyiregyházi (nyeer-edge-hah-zee) was composing at two, giving his first public recital at six, and performing all over Europe by eight. He was soon recognized as one of the most remarkable child prodigies in history and became the subject of a four-year study by a psychologist. By twenty-five, he had all but disappeared. Mismanaged, exploited, and insistent on an intensely Romantic style, his career foundered in adulthood and he was reduced to penury. In 1928, he settled in Los Angeles, where he performed sporadically and worked in Hollywood. Psychologically, he remained a child, and found the ordinary demands of daily life onerous — he struggled even to dress himself. He drank heavily, was insatiable sexually (he married ten times), and lived in abject poverty, yet such was his talent and charisma that he numbered among his friends and champions Rudolph Valentino, Harry Houdini, Theodore Dreiser, Bela Lugosi, and Gloria Swanson. Rediscovered in the 1970s, he enjoyed a sensational and controversial renaissance. Kevin Bazzana explores the brilliant but troubled mind of a geniune Romantic adrift in the modern age. The story he tells is one of the most fascinating - and bizarre - in the history of music.

Chicago Tribune, 5/12/08
“A compelling and ultimately dispiriting tale of an undoubted musical genius who frittered away his gift and died in semi-obscurity.”

International Piano (UK)
“It is a superb biography: a Hollywood scriptwriter could not have dreamt up such an improbable narrative. Bazzana reveals in closely researched detail the chain of events that led Nyiregyházi from being potentially one of the greatest pianists in history to becoming a deluded, sex-obsessed recluse living on handouts.”

Kevin Bazzana holds a Ph.D. in music history from the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work and Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould. He lives in Brentwood Bay, B.C.

Imprint: Da Capo Press
Distributor: Perseus Books Group
Publication Date: 09-27-2007
Pages: 384
Measurements: 9.00in X 6.00in