| Biography |
Born in 1951 in Budapest, Iván Fischer initially studied piano, violin and cello. After composition studies in Budapest, he graduated from Hans Swarowsky's famous conducting class in Vienna where he also studied cello, and early music (studying and working as assistant to Nikolaus Harnoncourt). Iván Fischer's worldwide success as a conductor was launched in 1976 in London, where he won the Rupert Foundation competition. He was then invited to most British orchestras, most regularly to the BBC Symphony and to the London Symphony Orchestra with whom he conducted a world tour in 1982. His debut in the US took place with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1983. After a very succesful early international career, he returned to Hungary in 1983 to found the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Here he introduced new, intense rehearsal methods and an emphasis on chamber music and creative work for each orchestra musician. The sensational success of this new orchestra - which has since been repeatedly invited to the most prestigious music festivals such as Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne and the London Proms - established Iván Fischer's reputation as one of the world's most visionary and creative orchestral leaders. He signed an exclusive recording contract with Philips Classics in 1995 and his Bartók and Liszt recordings with Budapest Festival won a Gramophone award, Diapason d'Or de l'Année, 4 Cles de Telerama, the Arte, MUM and Erasmus prizes. Other recordings include works by Kodály, Dvorák and Iván Fischer's own orchestration of Brahms's 'Hungarian Dances', which combine improvisations from Gypsy musicians with a symphony orchestra. From 2004 he started a new partnership with Channel Classics.
Iván Fischer is a founder of the Hungarian Mahler Society, and the Patron of the British Kodály Academy. He received the Golden Medal Award from the President of the Republic of Hungary, and the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum for his services to help international cultural relations. The Hungarian Radio Choir was founded in 1950. Its chief choir leaders included Endre Székely (1950-1952), Árpád Darázs (1952-1955), Zoltán Vásárhelyi (1955-1958), Cecília Vajda and Imre Csenki (1958-1966). Later Ferenc Sapszon, and in 1991 Péter Erdei became its chief choir leaders. Since 1992, Kálmán Strausz has occupied this post. The repertoire of the Hungarian Radio Choir embraces the overall scale of classical choral music, including operas and oratorios, operettas and musical comedies. The works of classical and contemporary Hungarian composers - Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, György Ligeti, György Kurtág, Sándor Balassa, Zsolt Durkó, János Vajda - are much preferred in the Choir's repertoire, but it regularly also includes the pieces of internationally renowned composers. In recognition of its high-level artistic achievement, the Choir was awarded the Bartók-Pásztory Prize in 1985. Numerous radio and television recordings, and more than 80 records, bear witness to the art of the Choir. They are regular participants in such significant festivals as the Rossini Festival in Pesaro or the Salzburg Festive Days. They have appeared as guest performers in Italy, Austria, France, Switzerland, Germany and Israel. They are frequently invited to the opera performances of the Megaro Music Hall of Athens, where they performed in Mozart's Idomeneo, Verdi's Macbeth and Wagner's Lohengrin. They also reached success in Salzburg and the Scala of Milan. In October 1999, together with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, they appeared - as the envoy of Hungarian music - on the stages of Maastricht and Brussels, within the scope of the Europalia Hungaria '99 series of events. In September 2001, they performed, together with the Hungarian Radio Children's Choir, the Choral Symphony of Philip Glass at the Ludwigsburg Festival. They have already performed with almost all the internationally renowned conductors of the world.
Lisa Milne studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. She has won numerous awards and prizes, most notably the Maggie Teyte Prize, the John Christie Award and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award, as well as Honorary Doctorates of Music from the University of Aberdeen and The Robert Gordon University. She was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2005. She made her professional début on the opera stage with Scottish Opera where her roles with the company have included Semele, Adèle ('Die Fledermaus'), Adina ('L'Elisir d'Amore'), and four great Mozart roles, Zerlina, Susanna, Ilia and Despina. She has also appeared with the English National Opera (Alcina, Ännchen and Anne Trulove), Welsh National Opera (Servilia), Stuttgart Opera (Gretel), Royal Danish Opera (Ilia), Dallas Opera (Marzelline) and at the Göttingen Handel Festival as Atalanta in 'Serse'. At the Glyndebourne Festival she has sung the title role in Handel's 'Rodelinda', Marzelline in 'Fidelio', Micaëla in 'Carmen' and Pamina in 'Die Zauberflöte'. In the 2005/2006 season she sang Marzelline in performances in Japan of the Salzburg Festival production of 'Fidelio', conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Pamina, under the baton of James Levine. She repeated her acclaimed portrayal of the same role at the Glyndebourne Festival before returning to the Metropolitan Opera in the autumn as Susanna. This season she will again sing Marzelline at Glyndebourne as well as her first Countess in a new production of 'Le nozze di Figaro' at ENO. She made her London recital début at the Maggie Teyte Prizewinner's Concert at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and has given recitals at the Aix-en-Provence and City of London Festivals, and the Wigmore Hall. In 1998 she made her Edinburgh Festival debut in a joint recital with Sir Thomas Allen, and subsequent appearances include 'Saul', 'Messiah' and 'Idomeneo' with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and MacMillan's 'Parthenogenesis' with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. At the 2002 festival, she gave her hugely successful solo recital début. Recent concert engagements include the world premiere of Simon Holt's 'Sunrise Yellow Noise' with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and 'Ariadne auf Naxos' with the London Symphony Orchestra, both conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, Thea Musgrave's 'Songs for a Winter's Evening' and Handel's 'Samson' at the BBC Proms, and appearances at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh and Royal Albert Hall with José Carreras. Last year, she made her New York concert debut singing the Mozart Requiem as part of the Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival.
Mezzosoprano (Alto) Birgit Remmert, who was born in Braunschweig, Germany, took up studying voice at the music school of her home town and continued her studies with Prof. Helmut Kretschmar. During and shortly after finishing her musical education she was awarded prizes in several renowned international music competitions. Her present voice coach is Prof. Renate Faltin. In the seasons 1992-98 Birgit Remmert was engaged as soloist at the opera house of Zurich, where she interpreted, among other roles, Orlofski in (die Fledermaus), Suzuki (Madame Butterfly), Mrs. Quickly (Falstaff) Zita (GIanni Schicchi), Ulrica (Un Ballo in Maschera) as well as the female title role of 'Samson et Dalila' and Farnace in 'Mitridate'. She fulfilled guest contracts singing Ulrica, Erda (Das Rheingold and Siegfried) and Mrs. Quickly at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in Hamburg and in Dresden. She had further guest appearances at the Salzburg Festival in 1993 (Nutrice in 'L'Incoronazione di Poppea'), Montpellier Festival in 1998 (title role of Othmar Schoeck's 'Penthesilea'), Bayreuth Festival 2000 and 2001 (Fricka in 'Rheingold' and 'Walküre'), and at the Salzburg Summer Festival 2004 in a new production of Purcell's 'King Arthur'. She gave her role debut as Ortrud/ Lohengrin at the Teatro Real Madrid at the beginning of 2005, followed by Gaea/'Daphne' at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. A large part of Birgit Remmert's calendar is taken up by her concert activities. She is used to giving numerous recitals in Europe and appears regularly in concerts with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. Most recently, she could be heard with Beethoven's 9. Symphony in the Konzerthaus Vienna under the baton of Christian Thielemann, Mahler's 3. Symphony in Sydney with Maestro Edo de Waart, Mahler's 2. Symphony in a concert in the Vatican in the Pope's presence, Das Lied von der Erde in Lille and Paris, Missa Solemnis at the occasion of the consecration of the restored Frauenkirche in Dresden, Missa Solemnis with Maestro Gielen in Luxembourg, Mainz, Berlin and Bremen, Beethoven's 9. Symphony in Berlin, Mahler's 3. Symphony in Vienna, Zurich, Missa Solemnis in Lyon, and Mahler's 2. Symphony in Cardiff. The impressive list of outstanding conductors with whom the artist has collaborated (Abbado, Ashkenazy, Bertini, Bychkov, Chailly, Dennis Russel Davies, Frühbeck de Burgos, Giulini, Haitink, Harnoncourt, Herrweghe, Nagano, Rilling, Sawallisch, Schreier, Sinopoli, Welser-Möst, de Waart, Zinman) can be extended by the name of Sir Simon Rattle after working with him for concerts and CD recordings of Mahler's 3. Symphony with the City of Birmingham Orchestra. Rattle also invited her for a tour with Mahler's 2. Symphony (Salzburg, Edinburgh, London, Berlin, Lucerne) with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Schönberg's Gurrelieder in Philadelphia and the New York Carnegie Hall, and for Mahler's 8. Symphony (Alto 1) at the BBC Proms 2002. |
| Quotes |
Les couleurs, que délivre l'orchestre de Budapest, sont d'une beauté exemplaire, qu'une prise de son en pur DSD vient renforcer avec naturel et précision. Fischer laisse alors le discours musical s'épanouir en respirations idoines, marquées au sceau de l'évidence. Cette vision "moderne" semble soudainement porteuse d'une originalité que beaucoup d'autres enregistrements ne possèdent hélas pas. Un Super Audio CD stéréo et multicanal incontournable qui ravira aussi bien les mélomanes que les amateurs de prise de son de démonstration. Opus Haute Définiton Der Interpretation Ivan Fischers merkt man nicht nur den Mahlerkenner sondern vor allem auch den Mahlerbegeisterten an. Minutiös werden die Anweisungen der Partitur umgesetzt, Fischer versucht, jeder einzelnen Mahlerschen Intention auf den Grund zu gehen. Das gelingt tatsächlich hervorragend, nicht zuletzt wegen des sehr guten Orchesters, des Budapest Festival Orchestras. Im vierten Satz gefällt besonders Birgit Remmert mit einem geheimnisvoll mystischen Urlicht, voller Wärme in der Tongebung, eindringlich und zugleich angenehm unaufdringlich. Der in der Form so komplexe Schlusssatz – man beachte allein die Dauer einer guten halben Stunde – ist in sich geschlossen, ein steter roter Faden leitet den Hörer bis zur in Töne gesetzten Auferstehung. Wie Fischer große Spannungsbögen zieht, einen ständigen Fluss in der Musik schafft, ist wahrhaftes Hörvergnügen. Diese Aufnahme ist in jeder Hinsicht eine ernstzunehmende Erweiterung im Kanon der Mahlereinspielungen. Klassik.com
(...) On their latest Channel Classics CD they recorded Mahler's monumental Symphony No.2. "Resurrection", with the soprano Lisa Milne and the alto Birgit Remmert as soloists, and the Hungarian Radio Choir. It's a meticulously elaborated performance which follows in every detail the composer's instructions, but is, at the same time, grandiose, energetic and vigorous. In addition to a profound knowledge of the score, Fischer's conducting reflects a personal commitment, fire and enthusiasm. The dialogue between the groups of instruments, the melancholy of the lower strings, the resolution and relentlessness of the brass is thrilling and captivating. It's important to point out that the recording was done in the Palace of Arts of. Budapest, in the brilliant acoustics of the National Concert Hall. The recording engineer is Hein Dekker with whom Iván Fischer has been working for several decades. The brand-new hall and Fischer's partnership with his long-standing collaborator have yielded great value and a Mahler performance of highest international standards. Magyar Hírlap (Hungary)
(…) Fischer spoort zijn orkest aan tot helderheid, veerkracht en een markante ritmiek. Uit de wijze waarop deze dirigent de stilte een plaats durft te geven in het betoog, spreekt groot gezag. (…) Telegraaf
(…) In some ways the second movement is my favorite on this CD. Fischer gets the tempo just right – moving along, but not hurried – and creates a sound which is charming, beautiful and nostalgic without collapsing into sentimentality. Or maybe it’s the third movement I like best. Fischer and the BFZ create a scherzo which is spooky and grotesque, obvious right from the outset in the “unmusical” bent notes in the clarinet, nicely contrasted by the smooth-as-glass flowing 16th note melody in the violins. With heavy emphasis on the downbeats, this reading creates a real country-dance flavor with sassy swing, a round dance for scurrying spirits and hobgoblins bumping and grunting in the night. (...) The Budapest Sun Hat's Off - A Winner for the 21st Century This is an absolutely fabulous performance of Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony For those of you lucky enough to have heard this same conductor and orchestra in Rachmaninov's Second Symphony, you will find an equal poise and sensitivity here, beautiful and moving in extraordinary sound - such as one finds particularly in SACD recordings, and if the final movement doesn't lift you to the proverbial heavens, you'd better get your ears checked! Hannibal L.A.
Fischer et son Budapest Festival Orchestra se sont taillé une place de choix dans le paysage symphonique européen. Après un superbe enregistrement de la "Symphonie n°6". Ils reviennent à Mahler et signent une version tout aussi prenante de la n°2 "Résurrection". Le choeur de la radio hongroise et les voix solistes de Birgit Remmert et Lisa Milne se joignent à la réussite Le Soir (La Belgique)
Iván Fischer’s acuteness and insistence on precise detail is remarkable!! (…) Fischer’s sure control of the orchestra and the music means that these huge structures hang together at every point. Classic FM
Excellently played and finely recorded International Record Review (...)
The crowning glory is, as it should be, the finale – and it is here that Fischer, his performers and his engineers, really excel. The ‘special effects’ of Mahler’s elaborate Judgement Day fresco have rarely been so magically realised. The offstage horns are so breathtakingly remote as to suggest the world of the living left far behind. Moments of quite extraordinary stasis precede the sounding of the Dies Irae and the hushed entry of the chorus. And come the peroration (resplendent with fabulous horns), Fischer knows that it is with that final crescendo of the chorus and only then that the heavens really pen. Impressive!! Gramophone
(...). This 2005 recording by Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra is a grand rendition with a forceful interpretation, gorgeous sound, and thrilling climaxes that many will find awe-inspiring (...) (...), just in terms of its audio quality, this double SACD is a collector's dream, with nearly ideal timbres and splendid resonance in 5.0 surround sound and DSD recording; so if you are looking for a "Resurrection" that sounds like the end of the world, this package may fill the bill. Allmusicguide
(…) Meteen bij de openingsmaten, met die dreigende en onverbiddelijke figuren in de celli, spits je de oren, omdat Fischer met microdynamische accenten vanuit de stilte een spanning weet te generen doe niet vanzelfspreekt. (...) (...) Het orkest speelt prachtig en ook het Hongaars Radiokoor is op zijn taak berekend. Parool
(…) une des versions les plus abouties de l'oeuvre. Les couleurs, que délivre l'orchestre de Budapest, sont d'une beauté exemplaire, qu'une prise de son en pur DSD vient renforcer avec naturel et précision. Fischer laisse alors le discours musical s'épanouir en respirations idoines, marquées au sceau de l'évidence. Cette vision "moderne" semble soudainement porteuse d'une originalité que beaucoup d'autres enregistrements ne possèdent hélas pas. Un Super Audio CD stéréo et multicanal incontournable qui ravira aussi bien les mélomanes que les amateurs de prise de son de démonstration. www. Parutions.com
(…) the whole symphony, usually considered disjointed, comes over as exceptionally cogent, with not a duff passage or wasted note to be heard. Highly recommended. The Guardian
Jared Sacks really has got the measure of recording in the new Budapest palace of Arts and, as I have indicated, the sound quality on these two SACDs is absolutely superb. The bass instruments are reproduced with much more impact than in the earlier recording, yet the overall sound has even greater transparency. The orchestra is seated as for MTT with the violins split left and right, basses on the left etc. as Mahler would have expected. This arrangement always seems to reveal a wealth of inner detail and that is certainly the case here. Throughout, the Budapest Festival Orchestra play with the utmost virtuosity for its founder and I cannot recommend this version too highly. This is a great achievement for all concerned. Amazone.com
Ivan Fischer revealed himself to be a most thoughtful Mahler conductor. Fischer starts the symphony with a superb sense of things to come. Not overplayed, but full of underlying tension, with the balance maintained in the serene Landler movement, and the scherzo, a speeded up version of the Landler in the darker tones of the minor, leads us perfectly into the horrors of the fourth movement. The symphony finishes in a blaze of exultation that, again, benefits from a balancing understatement. The playing and singing is, on its own terms, quite superb, making the whole experience intensely satisfying. However, not everyone is going to like Fischer's approach; some will think it less than apocalyptic, but those who admire the Mahler of Michael Gielen and Rafael Kubelik, rather than that of the more extrovert conductors, need not hesitate. The recording, made in the new Palace of Arts in Budapest, is wonderfully convincing in stereo – in Super Audio Surround it could be sensational. (Four and a half stars), Dominion Post Wellington, New Zealand.
Heartfelt, but never over-the-top!! (…) Mezzo-soprano Birgit Remmert makes lovely work of ‘Urlicht’ and the contributions of the choir, from velvet first entrance to final peroration are near-perfect. Choral Journal
Naast het innemende dirigeerwerk van Fischer valt ook de kwaliteit van orkest, koor en solisten op. Het koor weet, in een werk waarin de componist zelf mit höchster Kraft als indicatie aan de partituur toevoegde, zich te beheersen en een grandioze klank neer te zetten die volledig overtuigd en nooit over de schreef gaat. Voor het orkest geldt dezelfde opmerking. Het uiterst verfijnde en kwalitatief homogene orkest laat zich op geen enkele zwakheid betrappen. Zowel razende tutti, introverte soli als harmonische en melodische passages worden met stralend meesterschap van elke orkestgroep gebracht. Fischers uitvoering van Mahlers tweede symfonie is tegelijk emotioneel, doordacht, bevattelijk, meeslepend; ze is, kortom, meesterlijk. Samen met de hoogwaardige opnamekwaliteit zorgt dit voor een opname van wereldformaat. Op muzikaal vlak is deze opname een aanrader voor elke rechtgeaarde muziekliefhebber. Kwadratuur
(…) From its quiet moments on painful beauty, to the life-affirming finale, this is a wonderfully personal journey Classic FM
(…) Even the most complex fortissimo emerges with every strand intact all wrapped (but never congested) in a warm concert-hall ambience. (…) Dallas Morning News
(…) A beautiful performance - majestic but intimate, sweeping but tender, carefully planned and brilliantly executed… This is one of the best recordings of the 'Resurrection' Symphony ever made worthy to stand with the very different performances by Otto Klemperer and Leonard Bernstein. (…) The Washington Post
(…) Mahler's alternately terrifying and ecstatic visions come fiercely projected in surround sound… My whole listening space lit up, a spasm of acoustical revelation. (…) put this high on the must-have list. (…) Audiophile Audition
(…) It pulls you in and on with urgency. (…) (…) so well recorded and performed, and so infused with passion, that is easily becomes one of my favourites. (…) Stereophile
There are many great Mahler seconds available but this is the best I've heard on SACD. Truly inspired and not to be missed! Hifi+ |
