Ferenc Fricsay | |
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 Fricsay on 1st January 1941 | |
| Website | http://www.ferenc-fricsay.net/faminde.html |
Ferenc Fricsay (Hungarian pronunciation:[ˈfɛrɛnt͡sˈfrit͡ʃɒi]; 9 August 1914 – 20 February 1963) was a Hungarianconductor. From 1960 until his death, he was an Austrian citizen.
Fricsay was born in Budapest in 1914 and studied music underBéla Bartók,Zoltán Kodály,Ernst von Dohnányi, andLeó Weiner. With these and other faculty at theBudapest Academy of Music he studied piano, violin, clarinet, trombone, percussion, composition and conducting.[1] Fricsay made his first appearance as a conductor at age 15, substituting for his father at the podium of the Young Musicians Orchestra of Budapest. In 1930, at the age of 16, he succeeded his father as conductor of the Young Musicians Orchestra.[1]
On graduating in 1933, Fricsay becamerépétiteur for the chorus of theBudapest Opera;[2] then, from 1933 to 1943, he was music director of theSzeged Philharmonic Orchestra in the third largest city in Hungary; he also served as director of its military band from 1933. In 1942, he was court-martialed by the government ofMiklós Horthy for wanting to employ Jewish musicians, and for having "Jewish blood" himself (according to reliable reports, his mother was Jewish).[2] When the Nazis occupied Hungary in 1944, the chief editor of the Szeged daily newspaper warned Fricsay that theGestapo planned to arrest him; he and his wife, Marta (née Telbisz) and three children Marta, Ferenc and Andras, avoided this fate by going underground in Budapest.
In 1945, secret emissaries offered him the co-directorship of the Metropolitan Orchestra of Budapest (laterBudapest Philharmonic Orchestra); he also became principal conductor of the Budapest Opera. He conducted opera at theVienna Volksoper and at theSalzburg Festival in the late 1940s, including world premieres in Salzburg of operas byGottfried von Einem ("Dantons Tod" in 1947) and byFrank Martin ("Zaubertrank" in 1948). The enthusiastic reception of Fricsay's work on this international stage led to his being appointed Chief Conductor of the BerlinRIAS Symphony Orchestra and General Music Director of theDeutsche Oper Berlin, from 1949 to 1952, performing then in theTheater des Westens. He made his United Kingdom debut at the 1950Edinburgh International Festival, conductingMozart'sLe Nozze di Figaro at theGlyndebourne Festival. He made hisBuenos Aires debut that year withCarmina Burana. In 1951 he made his debuts in Italy and with theRoyal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. In 1953 he made his debuts in Paris, Milan, Lucerne, and the US, where he conducted theBoston Symphony Orchestra andSan Francisco Symphony. He was appointed musical director of theHouston Symphony in 1954, but resigned halfway through the season over "disagreements on musical policy."[3][n 1] He made his debut with theIsrael Philharmonic in 1954. He spent much of his time from the 1950s onward in Germany as music director of theBavarian State Opera (1956–1958) and as conductor of theRIAS Symphony Orchestra, theDeutsche Oper Berlin and theBerlin Philharmonic. Also in 1956, he was appointed General Music Director of theBavarian State Opera, a position he held until 1958.
Fricsay gave his last concert on 7 December 1961 in London, conducting theLondon Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK premiere ofZoltán Kodály's Symphony,Felix Mendelssohn'sViolin Concerto (withWolfgang Schneiderhan), andBeethoven'sSymphony No. 7.[4]
He suffered from repeated illnesses throughout his life and finally succumbed to cancer of the stomach on 20 February 1963 at the age of 48 inBasel,Switzerland.
Fricsay found his final resting place at the cemetery ofErmatingen in the Swisscanton of Thurgau, where the family settled in 1952. His mother Berta, née Lengyel (1876-1963), died less than a month after Fricsay and was buried in the same grave. His grandson Dominic-Ferenc Dobay (1972-1992), his first wife Martha Fricsay-Telbisz (1915-1997) and Herta Stein (1912-2005) were buried in the same site as well. In 2015, the grave was declared by the municipality as a memorial which is protected from dissolution.[5]
Fricsay was known for his interpretations of the music of Mozart and Beethoven, as well as that of his teachersBéla Bartók andZoltán Kodály. According to the entry in "New Grove", he conducted without a baton, but "confounded the adverse critics of this technique by the extreme clarity and precision of his performances," to which "New Grove" ascribes "a dynamic spirit" and "vividness of character in familiar classics."
From the 1950s until his death, he recorded forDeutsche Grammophon. He led the inauguration of the rebuiltDeutsche Oper Berlin with a performance ofDon Giovanni on 24 September 1961.[3]
| Cultural offices | ||
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| Preceded by unknown | Music Director, Budapest Opera 1945–1948 | Succeeded by unknown |
| Preceded by Ernő Dohnányi | co-Music Director, Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra 1945–1948 | Succeeded by unknown |
| Preceded by none | Chief Conductor, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin 1948–1954; 1959–1963 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Efrem Kurtz | Music Director, Houston Symphony Orchestra 1954–1954 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Rudolf Kempe | General Music Director, Munich Court Opera 1956–1958 | Succeeded by |
Bayerisches Staatsorchester General Music Directors | ||
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