FERENC FRICSAY—Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon

To die young is often an invitation to wider fame by those who follow and appreciate talent. Musicians have applauded the memory of Ferenc Fricsay for over six decades since his tragic death from cancer aged 48 in 1963.

His Hungarian contemporaries such as Georg Solti, Antal Dorati, Istvan Kertesz, Eugene Ormandy and Georg Szell enjoyed huge careers around the world but Fricsay still exerts a fascination for many due to the few short years that he recorded and performed around Europe and the U.S.

He remained largely in Hungary during the Second World War and it was due to his Jewish ancestry that he fled to Switzerland in 1945 to escape persecution and probable death at the hands of the Gestapo. Fricsay was accused of trying to employ Jewish musicians against the prevailing power’s advice.

His early years, 1933-1943, were spent in the city of Szeged conducting the local symphony orchestra after studying at the Budapest Academy with Bartók, Kodaly and Dohanayi. Later, his years as a repetiteur in the Budapest Opera prepared him for his lifelong ability as a first-rate opera conductor.

Unlike most of his peers, Fricsay stayed in Europe after the war and began to rebuild Berlin’s shattered orchestras and opera companies which found themselves without conductors and venues in which to perform. This led to his long association with the RIAS Symphony and the Berlin Philharmonic from the late 1940s.

In order to fully appreciate and document Fricsay’s achievements, Deutsche Grammophon has issued the complete recordings he made for the label between 1949 and 1962 (86CDs + DVD). They make for a fascinating journey through the musical landscape of immediate post-war Germany and Austria. All of these recordings have been available in smaller boxes and as individual CDs for some years but it is probably the last opportunity to gather all these recordings together in one final farewell to physical media. I will treat the works under their respective genre as there is so much to cover.

Opera

In 1930 Fricsay assisted Toscanini in preparing opera and concerts at the Salzburg Festival and Toscanini became a huge influence on the young conductor.

His opera recordings reflect the similar style of Toscanini’s performance—fast tempi, very detailed orchestral playing with great energy and his use of young singers. These singers, at the beginning of illustrious careers, lend their opera recordings a style and quality that keep them at the front of opera choices today.

This box contains; Fidelio, The Flying Dutchman, Die Fledermaus, Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Orpheus and Eurydice and Oedipus Rex. Without exception, these are performances to have in your opera collection.

Sacred Music

Fricsay recorded Verdi’s Requiem in mono in 1954 but it is a very powerful performance that realises Verdi’s vision.

Mozart: Mass in C minor and the Requiem are in stereo and mono respectively and again offer a direct and powerful evocation of Mozart at the height of his powers. Fricsay idolised Mozart and it shines through in all the performances of his music.

Orchestral Music

The twelve years that Fricsay spent recording orchestral works produced some superb readings of mainstream repertoire and his interpretations of the works of Bartók are preeminent in his discography. Geza Anda plays the Bartók piano concertos with suitable authority and the recordings of the Concerto for Orchestra and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste are definitive in my opinion. His Bluebeard’s Castle with Fischer Dieskau in stereo is also a must-have with Dieskau in fine youthful voice.

Likewise, his Kodaly recordings are fresh, lively and full of Hungarian fizz.

Sadly, Fricsay did not complete a Beethoven symphony cycle leaving us 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9 including what is considered a groundbreaking Ninth in stereo with the Berlin Philharmonic. His Haydn likewise only left us with 44, 48, 95, 98, 100 and 101. Also, the late Mozart symphonies in both stereo and mono. I prefer his early Haydn above the later “London Symphonies” but his Mozart is uniformly fine and played with great attention to detail and with plenty of energy and crispness of articulation from a modern orchestra.

Fricsay was also partnered with some fine soloists in his concerto recordings. The Mozart piano concertos with Clara Haskil are rightly famous although in mono and his Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with Annie Fischer and the Triple Concerto with Fornier, Schneiderhan and Geza Anda have some fine moments.

My favourite concerto performances are left to Erica Morini in the Bruch and Glazunov violin concertos and Yehudi Menuhin in the Tchaikovsky in a radio broadcast from 1949.

Tchaikovsky fares fairly well with a powerful mono recording of the Symphony No. 4 and also the Fifth and Sixth symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic. I found the sound in the mono Fifth rather constricted which is a shame because the performance is a blazer in places. The Dvorak New World Symphony is offered in stereo and mono and both recordings have their merits so enjoy comparing the details.

There is much other repertoire on offer from Berlioz overtures and Johann Strauss waltzes to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring unfortunately in mono but a fine performance nevertheless. And a good helping of contemporary German music from the 1940s including music by Boris Blacher, Gottfried von Einem and Rolf Liebermann.

The recorded sound is good throughout and excellent in some places—the mono recordings sound just as impressive in many instances. The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra has its weaker moments of intonation and ensemble but are very good overall and the Berlin Philharmonic and the Bavarian State Orchestra offer the sounds you expect from such ensembles.

In conclusion, this is a box of many delights served up with a fine booklet with photos and interviews from contemporary sources and you also get a DVD of rehearsals for Kodaly’s Hary Janos Suite and The Sorcerers Apprentice in performances from 1961. Very highly recommended.

Ferenc Fricsay—Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon

CD-Box (86CDs + DVD)

€199.99