Ferenc Pinter

This set, issued to mark the 75th anniversary of Fricsay's birth, dates from late 1960 when the conductor was already suffering from the disease that killed him. It was to prove to be his final performance of the piece. I don't think it's fanciful to feel in this intensely dramatic and immediate reading that the conductor fully realized his own mortality. At any rate it's an interpretation of tragic force and lyrical beauty that eclipses most of its rivals. Fricsay was here working with a choir and orchestra entirely devoted to him and, as in the Shaw performance on Telarc/Conifer such familiarity pays huge dividends in terms of unified thought. Then, the circumstances of a live occasion seem to infect everyone concerned with a feeling of urgency.

This famous Don Giovanni was first broadcast in September 1961 to mark the opening of the Deutsche Opera in west Berlin, though it was, in fact, recorded at an open dress rehearsal the day before its official first night. It's full of political resonances. The Berlin Wall had been constructed only weeks before, and you can sense a jitteriness in the air. The opera is directed by the veteran Carl Ebert, best known for his pioneering work at Glyndebourne during his years of exile from Nazi Germany. The great, Hungarian-born Ferenc Fricsay, a dominant figure in Berlin's musical renewal, is in the pit. He conducts an impressive cast, all of whom had made their reputations in postwar Germany. The production shows its age, owing in part to Georges Wakhévitch's frilly period designs, though Ebert's direction is wonderfully unfussy and psychologically astute… Tim Ashley

This 1960 recording of the Great C Minor Mass is here released under the Deutsche Grammophon Originals umbrella, and is thoroughly deserving of the accolade. This is an account of the work which is completely uninfluenced by authentic practice–if you're already curling your lip, then please stop here–but which establishes its own terms of performance with such assurance that it's almost impossible to resist. The forces (both orchestral and choral) are large but by no means unwieldy, and directed with infectious and spirited enthusiasm by Fricsay. The effect is one of solidity and grandeur, but without any hint of pomposity: indeed, the jubilant choruses of the Gloria have an almost childlike glee about them.

The ECM debut of Ferenc Snétberger features the widely-acclaimed Hungarian guitarist in solo performance before a rapt audience at the Liszt Academy in Budapest . Snétberger’s richly improvisational eight-part suite - entitled “Budapest”- subtly draws upon influences from Brazilian music and flamenco, from jazz and classical tradition, as well as his own gypsy background. As an encore, he plays the Harold Arlen standard “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”.

Ferenc Farkas (1905–2000) was one of the longest-lived members of the wave of Hungarian nationalist composers which began with the rise of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály. A student of Ottorino Respighi in Rome, Farkas blended Respighi’s Latin melodiousness with the Magyar folk-heritage that Bartók and Kodály had made the central element of Hungarian music. His Old Hungarian Dances of the 17th Century have become a staple of the wind-quintet repertoire; the other five works on this disk display the same irrepressible joie de vivre.

Deutsche Grammophon unites all of its Fricsay recordings into 2 volumes, of which this is the first. FERENC FRICSAY – Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon Vol. 1 presents Fricsay's orchestral output in its entirety, covering symphonies, concertos, waltzes, overtures, ballets etc.

Deutsche Grammophon presents the second and final volume of Ferenc Fricsay’s complete recordings for the label. Vol. 2 gathers the totality of Fricsay’s œuvre with the human voice, covering all of his opera, orchestral song and choral recordings on 37 CDs.