Jelly d'Aranyi, fully Jelly Aranyi de Hunyadvár ( (30 May 189330 March 1966) was a Hungarian violinist who made her home in London.
She was born in Budapest, the great-niece of Joseph Joachim and sister of the violinist
Adila Fachiri Adila Fachiri (26 February 188615 December 1962) was a Hungarian violinist who had an international career but made her home in England. She was the sister of the violinist Jelly d'Arányi, with whom she often played duets.British Library Sound & Vi ...
, with whom she often played duets. She began her studies as a pianist, but switched to violin at the Music Academy in Budapest when
Jenő Hubay
Jenő Hubay von Szalatna ( ; 15 September 185812 March 1937), also known by his German name Eugen Huber (), was a Hungarian violinist, composer and music teacher.
Early life
Hubay was born into a German family of musicians in Pest, Hungary ...
accepted her as a student. After concert tours of Europe and America as a soloist and chamber musician she settled in London. She formed a notable chamber trio with the Spanish cellist
Pablo Casals
Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), known in English as Pablo Casals,Frederick Septimus Kelly, with whom she was in love, even referring to him as her "fiancé". On memorable occasions, she and
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...
gave sonata recitals together in London and Paris. His two sonatas for violin and piano were dedicated to her; Jelly and Bartók presented them in London in March 1922 (No. 1) and May 1923 (No. 2).
She was an excellent interpreter of Classical, Romantic and modern music. After d'Aranyi had, at his request, played "gypsy" violin music to him one evening,
Maurice Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...
dedicated his popular violin-and-piano composition '' Tzigane'' to her. Again at his request, she gave the first British performance of the Sonata for Violin and Cello in 1922.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...
dedicated his ''Concerto Accademico'' to her.
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...
's '' Double Concerto for Two Violins'' was written for Jelly and Adila.
She played a curious role in the emergence and 1937 world premiere of
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...
's
Violin Concerto
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...
. On the basis of messages she received at a 1933
séance
A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French language, French word for "session", from the Old French , "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general and mundane: one ma ...
, allegedly from Schumann himself, about this concerto of which she had never previously heard, she claimed the right to perform it publicly for the first time. That was not to be, but she did perform it at the London premiere.
From her 20s, Jelly d'Aranyi was a lifelong friend of Georgie Hyde-Lees, the wife of
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...
.
She died in
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
in 1966, aged 72.
The D'Aranyi String Quartet is named after her. The Bourjois perfume "Printemps de Paris" invented by Constantin Weriguine in 1931 was named for her.
''Elgar's Tenth Muse'', a 1996 television movie, depicts a tentative relationship between the widowed
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
* A Eaglefield-Hull (Ed), ''A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians'' (Dent, London 1924)
* Elkin, Robert, ''Queen's Hall 1893–1941'' (Rider, London 1944), 51.
* MacLeod, Joseph, ''The Sisters d'Aranyi'' (London, Allen & Unwin, 1969).
* Magidoff, Robert, ''Yehudi Menuhin: The Story of the Man and the Musician'' (Robert Hale, London 1956).
* Kárpáti, János, ''Bartók's Chamber Music'' (Pendragon Press, Stuyvesant, NY, 1994)