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 The Symphonic Minutes, subtitled "Character Movements," have their own charms, in terms of humor, harmonic invention, and melodiousness. The five movements - none more than four minutes long - consist of a bright-toned, witty Capriccio; a lush Rapsodia featuring the woodwinds (for which Dohnányi always wrote with particular sympathy); a jagged little scherzo; a miniature set of variations on a Hungarian folk tune; and, finally, a whirling moto perpetuo rondo.

Clearly, here and in his other compositions, Dohnányi's take on Hungarian folk idiom is by no means of the commercial, Lászlo-and-his-magic-violin variety. It is, however, more sweet-tempered, certainly more soft-edged and harmonically conservative, than his colleague Béla Bartók's similarly inspired creations.