From Hungary with love: Fischer and the BFO glow in Brahms

Iván Fischer conducts the Budapest Festival Orchestra

The Budapest Festival Orchestra sing their encore

Iván Fischer, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider and the Budapest Festival Orchestra

By Mark Pullinger, 16 October 2024

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“it’s the spirit of their playing that was most touching, a sheer love of music-making”

Reviewed at Konzerthaus: Großer Saal, Vienna on 15 October 2024

Brahms, Hungarian Dance no. 17 in F sharp minor (arr. Dvořák)

Brahms, Violin Concerto in D major, Op.77

Ponce, Estrellita (arr. Heifetz)

Brahms, Hungarian Dance no. 3 in F major

Brahms, Symphony no. 3 in F major, Op.90

Brahms, Abendständchen (Evening Serenade), Op.42 no.1

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Violin

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Iván Fischer, Conductor

Clarity and communion in Budapest Festival Orchestra’s Mahler 3

Michelle Assay, 12th February

On the final leg of their North American tour, the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s Mahler proves a a transformative experience within the intimate setting of Toronto’s Koerner Hall.

*****

Budapest Festival Orchestra plays – and sings – at Carnegie Hall

Susan Stempleski, 6th February

Joined by violinist Maxim Vengerov, the Hungarian orchestra, under Music Director Iván Fischer, is in top form in a program of three highly contrasting pieces.

****1

Budapest Festival Orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie

Mengguang Huang, 11th November

Iván Fischer and Alina Ibragimova transform familiar works into a vivid experience. From Beethoven’s Violin Concerto to Strauss’ Josephs Legende, the orchestra dazzles with colour, energy and cinematic intensity.

****1

Unseduced: Don Giovanni opens the Budapest Festival Orchestra season

Orsolya Gyárfás, 9th September

Iván Fischer's reworking of his 2017 production of Don Giovanni is musically capable, but dramatically unconvincing.

***11

Bluebeard at the Proms with Iván Fischer and the BFO

Roy Westbrook, 6th August

The evening starts with life-affirming Beethoven – and then, the Budapest Festival Orchestra demonstrate just how good native Hungarians can be in Bartók’s chiller.

*****

Earth-shattering Mahler 2 from the Budapest FO at the Mahler Festival

Clare Varney, 11th May

As part of the Concertgebouw's ambitious Mahler Festival, Christiane Karg, Anna Lucia Richter and the Netherlands Radio Choir join the Budapest Festival Orchestra for the Resurrection Symphony.

*****

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

From Hungary with love: Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra glow in Brahms