The News Letter of Adam Fischer & Haydn Orchestra Fan Club
'Barátom' means 'My Friend' in Hungarian
February 1, 2000 - No. 26
Adam Fischer's Y2K and beyond
The year 2000 started spectacularly and the 21st century is approaching. Maestro Adam Fischer will be very active this year with 3 orchestras including The Haydn Orchestra, where he has the position of Music Director or Principal Conductor. This issue of Baratom reports on Adam Fischer's wonderful plans for Y2K and beyond.
National Theater Mannheim Debut Season.
Highlight of year 2000 is his inauguration as Opera Director of the National Theater Mannheim. Until the end of the 2004 season, Adam will conducts 30~35 performances including 2 new productions. At the same time, as the principal conductor of the National Theater Mannheim Orchestra, he will conduct 5~10 concerts.
The noteworthy debut season starts with Monteverdi's "Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda" and the new production of Bartok's "Bluebeard's Castle" on October 1. The combination of 17th Century Monteverdi and 20th Century Bartok sounds a little unusual, however, both operas are sung by only 2 singers and both have same theme. It is very interesting that how Adam performs these two operas 300 years apart as one performance. Immediately after the debut opera performance, Adam Fischer will appear in the orchestra subscription concerts with Haydn's oratorio "Die Schöpfung" on October 3 and Mahler's Symphony No. 7 on October 10.
The other new production of the debut season is "Don Giovanni" by Mozart. The director will be Matthias Schornfeldt, who worked with Adam on "Orlando Paradino" and "Il mondo dela Luna" in Eisenstadt. In addition, a big project is scheduled for November to December 2000. It is the revival of Wagner's Ring Cycle. In the past, Adam had conducted "Das Rheingold" and "Gotterdammerung" at the Vienna State Opera but this is the first time for him to play entire cycle. He will perform 4~5 cycles this year and it is a big challenge as a new repertoire.
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Ambitious Plans for 2001
The schedule after 2001 is not finalized yet, however, Adam has a lot of ambitious ideas. At first, he is planning a tour to his hometown Budapest on March 15~17, 2001. The performance will be "Tristan und Isode" and another orchestra concert is scheduled also. This tour will be the first foreign tour for the National Theater Mannheim.
Adam's idea for the two new productions of 2001 will be "Idomeneo" by Mozart and "Die Konigin von Saba" by the Hungarian composer Carl Goldmark. Ever since the first performance in 1875 at the Vienna Court Opera, famous conductors like, Mahler, Bruno Walter and Richard Strauss conducted "Die Konigin von Saba". However, after the Nazis prohibited its public performance in the 1930s, only very few concert performances were held and no real opera production was made. The recordings also are very few and Hungarian State Opera Chorus and Orchestra recording conducted by Adam Fischer is only one ever made. The singers are not decided at the moment but Adam wants to invite the famous Hungarian Oscar Award winning film director, Istvan Szabo ("Mefisto", "Meeting Venus" etc.) as the producer.
Another big event for 2001 is the Mozart Opera Festival. During the festival, the opera house performs Mozart operas intensively, including "Don Giovanni" and "Idomeneo" with Adam Fischer. It is scheduled in December every year after 2001.
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Danish Radio Sinfonietta
Adam Fischer became the Principal Conductor of Danish Radio Sinfonietta last year. This
year also, he will conduct 4 concerts in Copenhagen. In addition, he will make some radio
recording with this orchestra. They had recorded Mozart Symphony No. 40 for radio last
year. Since it is a wonderful performance, the orchestra may decide to release as CD.
As they did last year, the Danish Radio Sinfonietta will appear at the Budapest Spring
Festival this March and they have a lot of exciting plan this year. Since the relationship
between the orchestra and Adam is very good, Adam cooked his original soup for the
orchestra and enjoyed the party this January.
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Substantial Activities with the Haydn Orchestra
Don't forget the performances with the Haydn Orchestra. This year the Haydnfestspiele is launching a new concert series in Eisenstadt. "Oratorio 2000" is a series of 7 famous choral works including Haydn's 2 oratorios and Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana". The Haydn Orchestra will perform Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 on March 12, Haydn's Oratorio "Die Jahreszeiten" on May 6 both conducted by Adam Fischer, and Haydn's "Die Schöpfung" with guest conductor Peter Schreier.
Prior to the performance in Eisenstadt, Adam Fischer and the Haydn Orchestra will appear at the Budapest Spring Festival (March 31) and Vienna Konzerthaus (April 1) with Haydn's "Die Jahreszeiten". Surprisingly, it has been more than 10 years since the last appearance of the Haydn Orchestra in Budapest. Except for private charity concerts, the performance in the Konzerthaus is their official debut in Vienna. The fan club member, Sayuri Oshima will play the triangle.
The Internationale Haydntage are scheduled September 7~17, 2000. Adam and Haydn Orchestra will play 4 performances of Opera "L'incontro improvviso" and final matinee on 17th. This matinee might be broadcasted to Japan by NHK. Full programme and travel arrangements including hotel accommodation, good tickets for all concerts and visits to Eszterhaza, Haydn's birthplace at Rohrau, Vienna etc are available from Habsburg Heritage Cultural Tours, 158 Rosendale Road, London SE21 8LG, UK. Tel:+44 2087610444 Fax +442087666151 info@habsburg.co.uk
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Guest Conducting with Other Orchestras
Although Adam Fischer is very busy in Mannheim and Eisenstadt after September, he has many guest appearances between January and June. In February and March, he conducts "Die Fledermaus" at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. In Zurich, he will accompany Cecilia Bartoli in "La Cenerentola" and "L'anima del philosofo". In concert, he will play Prokovjev's "Romeo and Juliet" Suite with the Orchestra Nationale de Belgique and Mahler's Symphony No 6 with the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra. In May Adam travels to the USA and appears the concert series of Los Angeles Philharmonic.
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Haydn Symphonies Recording Status and New CD
As you know, Adam Fischer and Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra are in the middle of the project of entire Haydn Symphonies Recording. Many other record companies started to do the same but gave up. That indicates the difficulty of the project. Recently, Nimbus Record officially decided to complete the entire recordings and notified Adam Fischer and the orchestra.
Currently, Nimbus Record had released
Volume 1,3,4,6,7 and 8. Symphonies No. 70~81 are already recorded and being editing at the
moment. According to Mr. Dominic Fyfe, the Producer of Nimbus Record, it will be on sale
in October. Also available in advance at the International Haydntage in September.
The Haydn orchestra will record Symphonies No. 30~39 this year, and the completion will be
next summer. That includes Symphony A and B. The Volume 2 release will be later 2001 and a
special edition of the complete cycle will be launched in 2002.
This January, Nimbus Record had released a new CD by the Haydn Orchestra. It is the selection of popular symphonies, such as, "Farewell", "The Bear", "Surprise" etc. Although all recordings are from the same source as Volume 1~8, this 2 CD set contains the essence of wonderful Haydn symphonies and is very good for Haydn 'beginners'. Prior to the official release, this new CD was already available at Esterhazy Castle in Eisenstadt and very popular with tourists.
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New Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra!?
Recently, the name "Neue Osterreichisch Ungarische Haydn Philharmonie" ("New Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra") is used in some concert programs and the home page of Haydnfestspiele. As a matter of fact, the Haydn Orchestra had changed the board of directors and management in 1998, in order to have more frequent activities. Therefore, at the moment they are using the different name for legal reasons. However, the members of the orchestra are same. Please do not confuse.
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German, Hungarian Mini Lesson
From this issue, the useful conversations for shopping.
Where is the nearliest ....?
 | Wo ist der/die/das nächste...? (German) |
| Hol a leglközelebbi ...? (Hungarian) |
Bakery
| die Bäckerei (German) |
| pékség (Hungarian) |
Bank
| die Bank (German) |
| bank (Hungarian) |
Drugstore
| die Apothke (German) |
| gyögyszertár (Hungarian) |
Department Store
| das Kaufhaus (German) |
| áruház (Hungarian) |
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Editorial Note
In this issue we reported a lot of news for this year. Especially, the National Theater Mannheim will be the focal point of Adam Fischer's activities for next few years. Adam himself says, "I want to make the Mannheim orchestra the world best orchestra in 21st century." Please support his activities.
In the next issue we will report "Die Jahreszeiten" concerts in
Budapest and Vienna, as well as the Opera "La Cenerentola" in Zurich.
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