Ferenc Fricsay conducts Béla Bartok

The Early RIAS Recordings live & studio, 1950-53

Tibor Varga (violin), Andor Foldes (piano), Géza Anda (piano), Louis Kentner (piano), Helmut Krebs (tenor) & Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone)

RIAS-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor & Chor der St. Hedwigskathedrale, Ferenc Fricsay

Release Date: 28th Feb 2011
Catalogue No: AUDITE21407
Label: Audite
Length: 3 hours 33 minutes

Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, Sz 112

Work length37:19

$10.00

$12.85

Tibor Varga
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Ferenc Fricsay

I. Allegro non troppo

Track length15:14

$4.00

$5.15

II. Andante tranquillo

Track length10:17

$3.00

$3.85

III. Allegro molto

Track length11:48

$3.00

$3.85

Bartók: Two Portraits Op. 5

Work length13:36

$4.00

$5.15

Rudolf Schulz
Ferenc Fricsay

No. 1, Egy idealis [One Ideal]

Track length10:56

$3.00

$3.85

No. 2, Egy torz [One Grotesque]

Track length2:40

$1.00

$1.30

Bartók: Cantata profana, BB 100, "a kilenc csodaszarvas"

Work length18:43

$5.00

$6.50

Helmut Krebs, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
RIAS Kammerchor, Chor der St. Hedwigs-Kathedrale, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Ferenc Fricsay

I. Volt egy oreg apo (Once there was an old man): Molto moderato [the 9 Enchanted Stags]

Track length7:25

$2.00

$2.60

II. Az erdoket jarta, hej-haj! (Through forest aroving, hey-yah!): Andante [the 9 Enchanted Stags]

Track length8:13

$2.00

$2.60

III. Volt egy oreg apo (Once there was an old man): Moderato [the 9 Enchanted Stags]

Track length3:05

$1.00

$1.30

Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, BB 114, Sz. 106

Work length29:42

$8.00

$10.40

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Ferenc Fricsay

I. Andante tranquillo

Track length7:36

$2.00

$2.60

II. Allegro

Track length7:30

$2.00

$2.60

III. Adagio

Track length7:36

$2.00

$2.60

IV. Allegro molto

Track length7:00

$2.00

$2.60

Bartók: Dance Suite, BB 86, Sz. 77

Work length16:18

$6.00

$7.80

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Ferenc Fricsay

I. Moderato

Track length3:24

$1.00

$1.30

II. Allegro molto

Track length2:04

$1.00

$1.30

III. Allegro vivace

Track length2:55

$1.00

$1.30

IV. Molto tranquillo

Track length2:31

$1.00

$1.30

V. Commodo

Track length1:25

$1.00

$1.30

VI. Finale. Allegro

Track length3:59

$1.00

$1.30

Bartók: Divertimento for Strings, Sz. 113

Work length28:01

$7.00

$9.05

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Ferenc Fricsay

I. Allegro non troppo

Track length9:39

$2.00

$2.60

II. Molto adagio

Track length10:56

$3.00

$3.85

III. Allegro assai

Track length7:26

$2.00

$2.60

Bartók: Rhapsody for piano & orchestra, Op. 1, BB36b, Sz. 27

Work length19:47

$4.00

$5.15

Andor Foldes
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Ferenc Fricsay

Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2, BB 101, Sz. 95

Work length26:30

$6.00

$7.75

Géza Anda
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Ferenc Fricsay

I. Allegro

Track length9:20

$2.00

$2.60

II. Adagio - Presto - Adagio

Track length11:11

$3.00

$3.85

III. Allegro molto

Track length5:59

$1.00

$1.30

Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3, BB 127, Sz. 119

Work length23:22

$4.00

$5.20

Louis Kentner
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Ferenc Fricsay

I. Allegretto

Track length6:48

$1.00

$1.30

II. Adagio religioso - Poco più mosso - Tempo I

Track length9:57

$2.00

$2.60

III. Allegro vivace

Track length6:37

$1.00

$1.30

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This anthology of Ferenc Fricsay’s Bartók recordings for the RIAS Berlin documents, in a three CD series, a summit meeting of famous Hungarian soloists: the pianists Géza Anda, Andor Foldes, Louis Kentner and the violinist Tibor Varga. Fricsay’s time-tested and congenial vocal soloist, once again, is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

The project of a representative, possibly even complete, recording of Bartók’s oeuvre formed a part of Fricsay’s work from the beginning of his time in Berlin. These RIAS recordings feature almost exclusively Hungarian artists for the solo parts: a novelty at the time. In Fricsay’s view, Hungarian soloists were best suited to realising his precise concept of the close relationship between, on the one hand, Hungarian language and culture and, on the other, interpreting Hungarian music authentically. The only exception is Fischer-Dieskau, whom Fricsay much admired. This compilation from 1951 until 1953 includes all surviving Bartók recordings from the RIAS archives with Fricsay. It begins with opus 1, the Rhapsody for piano and orchestra (1904) and conceived in an entirely Hungarian idiom, and goes via the expressionist, agitated Deux Portraits Op 5 (1907-08) and the powerfully optimistic Dance Suite (1921) up to the masterworks of the 1930s: the neo-baroque influenced Second Piano Concerto (1930-31), the archaic, fairytale-like and darkly coloured Cantata Profana (1932), the splendid Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1935), the lucid Second Violin Concerto (1937-38) and the mysterious Divertimento of 1939 with which Bartók marked the beginning of his inner farewell to Europe. Even today, more than 60 years after these recordings were made, Fricsay’s intensity is perceptible for the listener as an existential experience – both in the impetus and the positive power of the rhythm, and also in the mysteriously resigned and ironically contorted moments in this music which is so rich in nuances. This was made possible by the cooperation with other world-famous alumni of the Budapest Music Academy where Fricsay had himself studied: the pianists Géza Anda, Andor Foldes and Louis Kentner, as well as the violinist Tibor Varga. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau joined Fricsay as a soloist in the opera Bluebeard’s Castle and the Cantata Profana. His singing (albeit in German) congenially corresponded to Fricsay’s ideal of dramatically thrilling and passionately precise Bartók interpretation.

Ferenc Fricsay conducts Béla Bartok

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