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 'A truly piquant display of European unity' by Daily Telegraph - Haydn Orchestra in London

After 30 years of service to Hungarian Duke Esterhazy, Haydn visited London twice and composed the famous London Symphonies.  Even now Haydn is popular in England and this was the third appearance of the Haydn Orchestra conducted by Adam Fischer since the BBC Proms in 1993.  This concert was held at the Barbican Hall on 22 June as the part of the Festival of Central European Culture.  For British who are also the member of EU, are already familiar with the culture of Central Europe. The festival had a problem of the presentation and focus but because of Haydn Orchestra, it became the climax.  Even the State President of Hungary attended their performance.
The programme started with Haydn's "Salve Regina in G-Minor". The performance with very few strings and the small British choir New Company was interesting enough but it was a pity that the soloists from the choir were weak.

The next Haydn Symphony No. 88 that was played at the last Haydntage, started With a very peculiar sweeping bowstroke. It sounded just like Central European real Haydn.
The final piece was the Symphony No.38 'Prague' by Mozart. Adam Fischer had conducted this many times including the last Mostly Mozart Festival, but it was the first performance for the Haydn Orchestra.  As usual, Adam conducted dynamically and took care of musical texture.  The orchestra communicated well and expressed the character of music.

They gave 2 encores; Overture to "Marriage of Figaro" and "La fedelta premiata"; and concluded the successful concert. The performance won the highest praise from many of the local newspaper Music critics. Geoffrey Norris of Daily Telegraph wrote, "A truly piquant display of European unity".  Hilary Finch in "The Times" wrote "Their dialect is as Central European as it comes.  To listen to their phrasing and articulation is the musical equivalent of hearing the heady lilt of rural Austrian compared with the standard German of so much mainstream music-making."

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Haydn Opera 'Il mondo della luna' at Utrecht

On the 29th of May 1998 the Opera 'Il mondo della luna' was performed in the Vredenburg Music Hall in Utrecht, the Netherlands. 'Il mondo della luna' was written by Franz Joseph Haydn in 1777, meant for performance in the opera house at Schloss Eszterhaza.

Originally this performance was planned to be part of  the Haydn Festival in Utrecht. Unfortunately the festival itself had to be canceled however, the Dutch Haydn Society decided to perform "Il Mondo dela Luna" concertante.

When original conductor Frans Brueggen had withdraw from the project because of his ilness,  they  were very pleased to find out that Adam Fischer, who conducted same Opera at the Haydntage 1997, was abailable.

This time the program was performed without scenary and costumes, but some very good singers like Julian Hartman, Valery Serkin and Xenia Meijer sang the vocal parts. Adam Fischer, who directed the Dutch Radio Kamerorkest, must have had a lot of pleasure in his work. It is clear he knows a lot of this Opera because you often could see his mouth sing the vocal lines together with the very talented singers.

At the end of the Opera the audience showed their joy and respect in long and warm applause. Adam Fischer is one of the greatest conductors of today where it comes to Haydn Operas. A complete digital recording of this Opera can soon be heard through the Internet at http://klassiek.tros.com/concertnet/concert980529.html . (Mark Stam).

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Exciting Mahler “Tragic” Symphony

February 16. and 17 were the last holidays in Japan.  Adam who takes an interest in everything, woke up very early and went to Shinjuku station to see the famous Japanese morning rush-hour.  Since many companies uses the "Flexible Time" system these days , each train was not packed like before.  However,  Adam was very impressed at the many passengers waiting in line in order and getting in and out of the train very smoothly.  He said "It is very amazing. Hungarians can never behave like that.  I am impressed by the wisdom and the obedience of the Japanese."

The rehearsal of the Mahler started on the18th. Symphony No. 6 was written in the classical form of four movements style but often said that it is the best symphony of Mahler.  According to Adam, the more absorbed in the work, the more terrifying images, such as a terrible disease, many dead bodies, come up in his mind.. It seems like Mahler's instability took hold of Adam and made him very nervous.

The concert on the 20th was magnificent.  Both orchestra and audience concentrated to the music very much.  Starting the first movement with a little fast tempo, he finished the entire piece full of vigour and energy. Especially the first and fourth movements were wonderful and expressed the heavy battle and tragic death of the hero.  Two hammers in the final movement were very effective and reminded me of the scythe of the angel of death.  In such an exciting performance, the quiet violin solo by the concert master Tatsuya Yabe was very beautiful and pathetic.

The audience was holding its breath and listening attentively during the performance but gave a storm of satisfied applause at the end.

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Essence of Hungary, “Concerto for Orchestra”

On the 9th he was off again.  Since it has been four years since Adam was last in Japan, he looked for the souvenir for his family in the historic Asakusa area and Akihabara.

The next day started with  rehearsals for subscription concert series A. The program was Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Bartók's masterpiece "Concerto for Orchestra". The young German violinist Christian Tetzlaff played the solo. Tetzlaff had a specific bowing request for the orchestra and it was an intense rehearsal.

The performance was on 13 of Friday at Bunka-Kaikan.  Adam conducted a very passionate Beethoven and Tetzlaff responded with wonderful technique. The impressive Cadenza with timpani was the composer's piano transcription interpreted by Tetzlaff. Even the solo concert master of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Inrin Pan was very much impressed by the beautiful pianissimo of Tetzlaff.  In response to the ovation from the audience, Tetzlaff played two solo pieces of Bach. Adam  was listening  sitting on the stage with the orchestra.

After the intermission, Bartók is one of Adam's favorite composer. He recorded "Concerto for Orchestra" in 1989 but this performance was a little different from the CD. For a start, he located the trumpets at the back of the stage. Also, the fourth movement was faster and the harmony of each section and excellent solo players were perfect. It was a brilliant performance. Many fans were deeply moved and  waited for Adam to ask for his autograph outside the concert hall.  Adam himself was very satisfied as he left the hall.

Another concert was held the next day with the same program, in the old city Kamakura. Before the concert, Adam went sightseeing including the statue of Buddha and the seashore of Yuigahama.  The concert was even better than the day before so that Adam played Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 1 as an encore for the first time.

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Powerful Brass Section in Tchaikovsky

In the morning of 4. February, Adam Fischer arrived at Narita Airport and went straight to his Miyako Hotel.  After a short rest, he enjoyed the first Japanese dinner of his favorite noodle soup.

The next day was free.  In the evening, he went to the Orchard Hall to see the violinist of the Haydn Orchestra, Katlin Fenyö who was also in Japan with the Budapest Operetta Theater Orchestra.

The rehearsals started on 6. February.  Mrs. Mariko Tsujita of  the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra took Adam to the Bunka Kaikan, home of the Orchestra.  It was founded in 1965 by Tokyo Metropolis. Now it has became one of the best orchestras in Japan under the leadership of successive music directors: Tadashi Mori, Akeo Watanabe and Hiroshi Wakasugi.  This April, the famous conductor Gary Bertini became the fourth music director.  In the past, Adam Fischer was invited 3 times as guest conductor.  He gave many impressive performance including Bartók's "Bluebeared's Castle" in 1984.

The first concert was the Matinee at the Tokyo Metropolitan Artspace on 8 February.  It was a part of the Tokyo Citizen's Art Festival so that the program was of very popular pieces : Mozart "Don Giovanni" Overture, Schumann Piano Concerto (Piano, Kei Ito) and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5. Although Adam does not conduct Tchaikovsky very often,  his Symphony No. 5 was very powerful with strong brass section. It was a  pity that the brass section sometimes disturbed  the beautiful string section.

The encore was the "Marriage of Figaro" Overture with a big orchestra. There were some problems between each section but overall, it was enjoyable Sunday afternoon concert.

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Cosi fan Tutte In Zurich

Besides "Nina", Adam Fischer conducts a lot of operas at Zurich opera including "Linda di Chamounicx" with coloratura soprano, Edita Grverova.  Just after the Haydntage, there was a chance to see the performance of Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" on September 25.  The performance produced by famous opera producer, the late Mr. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle was very orthodox, 3 hours opera  without any cut.  However, it is very high quarlity production never disturbed the music.

Liliana Nichteanu who succeeded the role of Lisetta of "Il Mondo dela Luna" sang Despina.  Also the star singers of Zurich Opera such as Iulia Isaev, Anton Scharinger, sang beautiful aria and duet of love.  Because of a cold, Adam Fischer was not the best condition but it was a very enjoyable performance even Mo-zart may be satisfied.

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Haydn Opera, Il Mondo della Luna

    As Kapellmeister to the Eszterhazy family, Haydn composed many operas for performance at the opera house at Eszterhaza, Fertod. However most of them were forgotten for a long time.  In order to revive them, the International Haydntage produced La fedelta premiata  in `94,  Orlando Paladino in `95 and Filemon und Bauchis in `96.  This year they performed the new production of  Il Mondo della Luna. Of course Adam Fischer is the music director.

 This work was first performed in 1777 on occasion of the wedding of Nicholaus II, the second son of Prince Nikolaus Eszterhazy.  Based on the story by Goldoni, normally it is played as an opera in three acts. However, after much research, Adam Fischer and the production team decided to cut the last act since it was  Goldoni only partly set by the composer.  Nevertheess,  there is much beautiful music in Act III, such as the duet and finale, and these are included as a  part of Act II.

Story: The rich old man Bonafede (Baritone) who is interested in astronomy, has two daughters, Clarice and Flaminia (both soprano) and he also loves his young maid Lisetta (Mezzo). Three young men, a fake astronomer Ecclitico (Tenor) who adores Clarice,  Ernesto (Countertenor) who loves Flaminia, and Cecco (Tenor), who wants to marry Lisetta, make a plan to trick Bonafede in order to marry their lovely ladies.  At first, Ecclitico shows the world of the moon by a mock telescope. Next, Bonafede is told that he can go to the world of the moon  with a magic potion, he takes a sleeping draught.  While he is sleeping, the three men and two daughters create a pretend world of the moon.  When Bonafede wakes up, Ecclitico shows him a strange world of the moon and  the dance of the stars to make him believe.  When Cecco appears with the costume of the king of the Moon, and ask for Lisetta as his queen, Bonafede unwillingly agrees.  Once they have the agreement to giving his property to daughters, when he declare the marriages, the three young men happily shout "The farce is over."  The opera ends with the three couples apologizing to an angry Bonafede who realizes that everything is fake.

     This Il Mondo dela Luna was co-production with Zurich Opera, which is now the main contract of Adam Fischer.  In advance of Eisenstadt, they played at the Theater in Stadtgarten, Winterthur, five times from September 4.  The producer was Matthias Schonfeldt and Kersten Paulsen did the stage and costume design, who both were the team of Orlando in `95.  The orchestra was Winterthur City Orchestra in Winterthur and of course in Eisenstadt, the Haydn Orchestra.

     According to the story, Il Mondo della Luna must feature an imitation world of the moon.  It is difficult to make a gorgeous stage set, however, if it is too cheap, it would be a hollow story. The production team solved this tough problem with a very creative idea of using paper. Covering the stage with white paper and singers painting during the play, create the fantastic world of moon with a taste of imitation.  However, some of audience did not like this idea as that paper makes a lot of noise.
 In the aspect of music, of course, the conductor Adam Fischer was worth mentioning.  Very fantastic music describes the world of the moon and in the finale, very effective fortissimo of trumpets shows the anger of Bonafede.  After the performance, many in the audience said "This Il Mondo della Luna proved the fact that Haydn is as good an opera composer as Mozart and Adam Fischer contributed a lot."

     We can not ignore the wonderful stars of Zurich opera. Isabel Ray of Flaminia sang very powerfully, and Elisabeth Magnuson as Clarice performed with very beautiful coloratura. And the voice and the funny act of the Mezzo-soprano Liliana Nichiteanu as Lisetta won big applause. Also, Countertenor Nicholas Hariades sang beautifully expressing the felling of young man in love and attracted the audience.

     Not only the creative production and wonderful music, on the premier at Eisenstadt, a total eclipse of the full moon was observed in the clear night sky during the intermission and the audience applauded the astronomy show too.

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Festcantata Applausus

    On September 17, between the two performances of the Opera, there was aconcert featuring the festcantata, Applausus.

This piece is and very rare for the con-cert or CD recording, but it is a very wonderful music containing difficult Cadenzas for the solo singers and beautiful solos of orchestra instruments.

Unfortunately it was impossible to remove all stage set of Opera and from an acoustic point of view, it was not perfect. Also, because of Opera, the Haydn Orchestra could not do enough rehearsal at the Haydnsaal.

Although it was not the ideal condition for the performers, Adam Fischer and the Orchestra did their best.  Five singers including frequent visitors to the  Haydntage, Soprano Ibolya Verabics and Tenor Helmut Wildhaber performed amazing Cadenzas. The audience was very satisfied and applauded even between the movements. Also, the wonderful solo by Harpsichord player Judit Péteri and concert master Wolfgang Redik won a storm of applause.  It was a very successful Applausus.

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New Composition Four toys for small orchestra and Toy Symphony

     The finale of the Haydntage was the Sunday matinee concert with the programme of the world premier performance of the wining piece of the composition competition and the Toy symphony with children of Eisenstadt.
 
    The concert started with Cimarosa's Il Matrimonio Segreto overture, which the orchestra had played at Grafennegg. Next was the new composition Four toys for small orchestra by S. Thomas, which was selected from 77 pieces.  It consists of four movements with the difficult solos of orchestra instruments.  It is very contemporary music sometimes rhythm changes every measures.  Compared to the classical period music of Haydn, it was a little different but a very impressive performance by the Haydn Orchestra.

Even adult was very satisfied by the Toy Symphony featuring children of Eisenstadt Music school.  Accompanied by a small string orchestra, children played recorders, bird whistles small drums etc.  They were so good that Adam Fischer re-quested them to play next year in the oratorio The Seasons.

    After the intermission, the Haydn Orchestra played Symphony No. 88 from Paris symphonies. This is one of Mr. Fischer's favourite and often played as an encore. This performance was very dynamic and different from even from his own CD recorded a few years ago.

     The encore was the 4th movement of Symphony No. 86 and as usual the adagio from the Farewell Symphony, celebrating the finale of the music festival.

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Mostly Mozart Festival in New York

Annual Mostly Mozart Festival is the highlight of Classical Mu-sic scene in New York.  Adam Fischer was invited the festival and had two performances on August 8 and 9.  The festival fo-cuses on Mozart and the composers of his period.  It is take place 3 weeks every year and attracts the world tourists.  This is the third appearance of Adam Fischer, following the USA debut concert of Haydn Orchestra in 1994.

The performances were on the first weekend and part of the special series of  "Mozart and Prague".  Although Mozart trav-eled all over Europe but there is no other city which welcomed Mozart than Prague did.  Even "Magic Flute", which did not succeed in Vienna first time, won the storm of applause.  In his days, Mozart visited Prague three times.

Pieces related Prague occupied the program of Adam's con-certs . On August 8,  following  "Don Giovanni" Overture, were Mozart Aria "Bella mia fiamma...Resta, o cara" and Piano con-certo No. 20.  After the intermission, the aria "Ah, lo previdi... Ah, t'invola agl'occhi  miei." and Symphony No. 38 "Prague".  First half of the next day was, "La cremenzo di Tito" Overture,  Dussek's "Concerto for tow pianos".

The last half was the same program as the day before.  Since Soprano Amanda Roocroft had canceled, Sheri Greenawald took her place.  And the solo piano was Ivan Moravec,  Anthony and Joseph Paratre played duo piano.

Different from regular concert, Orchestra must have play most of the day during the festival and there is not enough time for a rehearsal for two performances, however Adam Fischer con-trolled the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra very well.  Alhough the Orchestra was surprised by the quick tempo of fourth move-ment of Symphony, it was a wonderful performance.

In the backstage, there was a slight problem in Dussek's Dou-ble Concert.  Dussek is the composer and pianist of Mozart Pe-riod.  He was so talented that even Haydn had praised him, but his works are forgotten after his death and nowadays rarely played.  Since his wife was a friend of Mozart when he was in Prague, Festival management chose this piece.  The problem was that  it was very difficult to get the music and scores and the ones sent from Prague just before the performance was hand-written with many mistakes.  As the result, that took extra time of the short rehearsal.   Of course the real performance was satisfactory but Adam and the orchestra had difficult time to play with un-readable music.

Both of the concerts was very successful and orchestra was very happy.  According to Adam  the festival boards has the idea to exchange the performance between Haydntage.  As a fan, we wish the idea comes true as soon as possible.

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Gustav Mahler Birthday Concert in Kassel

Famous composer Gustav Mahler had worked at Kassel, Germany in 1883-1885.  Kassel is the city where Adam Fischer worked as the  music director of Kassel State Theater (1987-92).  Since Mahler is very important composer to Adam,  he stated Gustav Mahler Fest in Kassel.

Every two years he goes back there to conduct Mahler's symphony. The concert was took place on July 7, 1997 at Stadthalle Kassel to celebrate the birthday of Mahler which is July 8, 1960.  This year's program was the Symphony No. 9.  Adam Fischer had played the symphony in February `97 with Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra.  Also, before he resigned Kassel state theater,  he performed Mahler 9th with Kassel State Theater Orchestra on March, 1992.

Kassel State Theater Orchestra is the opera orchestra who belongs State theater.  They are very good at the opera music but Mahler's symphony is quite a challenge for them. It is a little pity that the string section orchestra did not have enough strength to express Mahler's dynamics in fourth movement. However audience in Kassel was very satisfied and gave the storm of applause to Adam Fischer and the orchestra.

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Unique Production, Zurich Opera Die Entfürung aus dem Serail

Different from huge MET, at the middle size opera house with 1200 capacity, Opernhaus Zurich, Adam Fischer performed Mozart Die Entrürig aus dem Serail on June 21,25 and 28.  He had conducted the same production last November and it was revived with different singers.

Overall, it was very enjoyable performance. In order to bound up with the stage, the orchestra pit was set at the high position.  There was some surprise that in the Act II, four solo quartet (violin, cello, flute and oboe) suddenly went up to the stage and accompanied the famous aria of Constanze.

The beautiful coloratura of Elizabeth Magnuson (Constanze) enchanted the audience. And four Turkish musicians who ap-peared from time to time were very humorous and effective.

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Dramatic performance, MET Aida

There was not so much snow as last year, still it was very cold in New York in February, there was the series of  performances of the MET Aida conducted by Adam Fischer.  As we reported in the last issue, it is know as a huge production, but the MET orchestra lead by Adam was equally dramatic.  For instance, in the trio of Aida, Radames and Amneris of Act I, a little louder timpani was very effective to show the tense triangle love affair. Also, In the Act IV when Radames going out the state, orchestra played very fast showing Amneris's hysteric temper. On the other hand when Amneris exiting the stage cursing the priests, slow dramatic music expressed the sorrow of Amneris and was a very effective climax to the final act.

Although it was unusual that 3 different Aidas and Amnerises sang the performances, all singers were tolerable except that the American Tenor Michael Sylvester was very nervous at the most of the performances.  The best singers selected by Adam Fischer were ; Carolyn James as Aida, (not only singing but she acted well.) the best American mezzo, Dolora Zajick for her signature roll Amneris, veteran Sherrill Milnes for Amonasro, and Eric Halfvason for Ramfis.  Unfortunately, there was no performance with all this cast.

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International Haydntage '96 - Haydn Orchestra Concerts

The Internationale Haydntage, which is annually taken place on September, already went through 8 anniversary this year. Many fan club members regularly attend the festival and we enjoyed the meeting of once in a year. This issue of Barátom reports the activity of Adam Fischer and Haydn Orchestra during the Haydntage. Haydn Orchestra Concerts This year, Mr. Fischer and the Haydn Orchestra gave 3 concert at the main concert hall, the Haydnsaal in the Eszterházy Castle.

The Concert on September 8 (Sun.) started with the Symphony No. 60 "Il Distratto". Very rare for a Haydn symphony this has 6 movements and is a very humorous piece that includes the tuning tone of the strings in the final movement. It is a relatively unknown piece but was very well received.

After the applause, most of orchestra left the stage. The next piece was the "Concerto for 2 `Lire organizzate' and Orchestra" with soloists Hansgeorg Schmeiser (Flute) and Peter Schreiber (Oboe) accompanied only by 6 strings, 2 horns and a harpsichord played by Adam Fischer himself. Contrary to the usual practice, Adam sat conducting and playing harpsichord while the other players stood up. This piece has the famous melody from the slow movement of the Military Symphony but differs from the big symphony in being very much domestic type chamber music.

After the intermission, the orchestra became full size and played one of the famous London Symphonies, No. 96 "Miracle" very dynamically. The encore was the well-known piece the overture to "La Fedelta Premiata". Two horns hidden away at the back stage went to the back of the auditorium and played the very noble horn solo, to the audience's surprise.

The performance of September 12 (Thu.) was "Seven Last Word of our Savior from the Cross" dedicated Mr. Hübner (See Who's who section). This work was composed in 1785/86 at the request of the Church in SevSeviglieille. The archbishop read one of seven last words of Christ between each movement and during the following adagio, people meditate. At first Haydn wrote the introduction, following seven adagios and the finale in Presto that express the earthquake for the small orchestra. A few years later, Haydn himself arranged the piece for String Quartet, piano and four singers and chorus as an Oratorio, so four version exist today. The performance was the Oratorio version including an intermezzo played by wood wind. Ursula Fiedler (Soprano), Helmut Wildhaber (Tenor) who appears often in Eisenstadt performed wonderful solos. As Haydn himself said "It was not easy to continue seven Adagios, each of them is about 10 minutes, without tiring the audience.", Adam had a hardship to express the beauty of the work. As originally composed for small orchestra, Mr. Fischer himself was not satisfied with the performance, however, it won much applause especially because of the Vocal Ensemble Wien on the balcony who sang the word in a cappella.

The last concert on September 15 (Sun.) was two Symphonies of Haydn, No. 62 and No. 102, plus Sinfonia Concertante in B-Major. Peculiar to Mr. Fischer, all of them were very dynamic, dissimilar to typical Haydn, wonderful performance. In the Simfonia Concertante, the compressed orchestra in the background come with it only accompany function, during the excellent soloist quartet - Rainer Honeck (Violin), Franz Barthoromey (Cello), Harald Törth (Oboe) and Milan Turkovic (Bassoon) - were together in the dialogue step. The encore was Mozart "The Marriage of Figaro" Overture. It was best performance showing that the orchestra players, as well as the audience, had enjoyed that performance very much. The daily newspaper of Austria "Kurier" had written, "Based on many dramatic accents, very dynamic, most energetic and still far away from all clichés of Haydn's work, it was a dignified conclusion of the Festival."

Next year, they will have some performances including Haydn's Opera "Il Mondo della Luna".

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Festival de l'Epau '96 in Le Mans, France

The Festival de l'Epau, which celebrates its 14th anniversary this year, had held from May 4 - 12 at Le Mans, France. This Festival is focused in Chamber Music and small orchestras. The programs are some works of Classical and early Romantic composers like Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. This is the third time for Mr. Fischer and his Haydn Orchestra to play at this festival and they had 2 concerts on May 5 and 8.

The program of the first concert on May 5 was Haydn's masterpiece the Oratorio "The Creation". The soloists were Vanda Tabery (soprano), Helmut Wildhaber (tenor) who appears often in Eisenstadt, and Peter Koeves (bass). The local Chaur Resonnances du Mans were the the chorus. Harpsichord Player of the Haydn Orchestra, Judit Péteri said it was a fantastic performance. On May 8, they also played Mozarts "Magic Flute" Overture, Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter", Haydn Symphony No. 88 and Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra with Gary Hoffman. This festival is held annually and Mr. Fischer and the Haydn Orchestra are booked to go there next year. Details will be reported by Baratom when officially decided.

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Haydn Orchestra in London

London's Royal Festival Hall was the setting for only the second ever visit to England of the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra with Adam Fischer. As part of a series of Great Orchestras of the World, many seats were sold to subscription holders, while many others in the audience had happy memories of hearing the orchestra in Eisenstadt. The concert opened with the overture to La fedelta premiata. Two pairs of horns were positioned in the auditorium and answered each other in the exciting central section. This was followed by a beautifully phrased and controlled performance of the "Farewell" Symphony. As the players gradually left the platform as their parts finished in the last movement the stage lighting dimmed, Maestro Fischer tiptoed off leaving just the first two violins, Rainer Honeck and Wolfgang Redik, playing as they too got up to go.

After the interval - when much of the audience gathered in a private room to drink Austrian wine and remember happy times in Eisenstadt - the orchestra almost doubled in size and was joined by the soprano Patricia Rozario for a performance of Mahler's 4th Symphony. One is not used to hearing the orchestra play Mahler but reading Adam Fischer's interesting comments in the programme (to be printed in the next newsletter) made one aware that for the first time one was hearing the dynamics of the piece as the composer had indicated in the score. The soprano sat in the orchestra from the start, enabling them to go from the third to the last movement without a break.

The London newspaper critics were enthusiastic about the concert.:"Fischer attends to the minutest detail with loving care that is exquisitely musical...a delight met by the most quietly attentive audience I've witnessed for some time." - The Independent (Article courtesy of Mr. Robert Avery)

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Second Report from Metropolitan Opera

As you know, Mr. Fischer had the second half of the performance series of the MET's "Il Barbiere di Seviglia" in January and February, '96. Despite some accidents, it was very successful production with full-house ticket sales.

This time Mr. Fischer had left Germany on January 8. Unfortunately, because of a record snow storm that attacked the East Coast of USA, all airports in New York were shut down. His airplane had circled without knowing where it could land, then finally arrived at Chicago. Mr. Fischer reached New York two days later and started the rehearsal.

There were excitements on the opening day of January 17. At first Mark Oswald of Figaro canceled at the last minute and Italian Baritone Earle Patriarco took over. Then, when the stage started moving between first and second scene, substantial chunk of Bartolo's house collapsed and halt the performance fifteen minutes. Nobody was injured, however it reminded of the abortive opening of "The Makropulos Case" few days before, that the tenor had heart attack during the aria and fallen from a few feet above then died.

The radio on air of January 27 was wonderful. Swenson sang with very beautiful and gorgeous coloratura. Small but very active Mark Oswald received lots of applause. Raúl Gimenéz who was making his debut played the guitar very respectably himself. On air it seemed a little different from the performance I heard since the mIcrophone was set very close to the stage, however, it was very lively spectacular performance that many people wanted to see. If you missed the broadcast, I have made a recording.

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Concert at Linz with Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra

Dr. Weissgerber, a Fan Club member from Munich in Germany, has sent us a report of the concert by Adam Fischer and Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra held on December 17, 96 at Linz, capital of the province of Upper Austria.

The program was Bartók "Cantata profana", Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2, Kodály "Psalmus Hungaricus". The atmosphere at the Brucknerhaus was wonderful, I was there for the first time, and did not know it before. The pianist Tzimon Barto who played the Piano concerto was excellent, for me much better than normal. The highlight for me though was the Kodály. I will try to get the record, even if it is not by Adam, because I would like to hear it often.

Last but not least, Adam was as usual marvelous. In spite of his time in America and his several trips to Zürich during his USA time, he was full of energy and the joy of conducting so that it was a pleasure to hear his orchestra and to see him. I asked him, how he can do it; to go to USA for work, back to Zürich for one evening and back to the USA without collapsing. I would need a week to recover. He answered "I would be afraid of missing something if I did not travel so much."

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"Il Babiere di Seviglia" in MET

Mr. Fischer had six performances at America's sanctuary of the Opera, Metropolitan Opera on November. He conducted Rossini's "Il Babiere di Seviglia" that is an important repertory of MET. It is very popular production with effective revolving stage set by Robin Wagner and costumes designed by Patricia Zipprodt. Jennifer Larmore, who made MET debut last season with the same role, played a fresh active Rosina. It was very funny that the act with Dr. Bartolo played by Italian Baritone Claudio Desderi, who made MET debut with this production. Almaviva played Ramon Vargas sang very beautifully especially Canzone for Rosina was very sweet. Robert Frontali who appeared as Figaro in Vienna State Opera too, enchanted the audience not only by the Aria but by Duets with Rosina or Almaviva. Also a small role, the housekeeper Berta played by young Mezzo Sopran Stephanie Blithe was impressive. Mr. Fischer and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra played very well and harmonized the production. Markedly at the scene of storm, even detail note synchronized to the thunder, lightning or rain. It was very effective performance.

With the help of individual title system "MET Titles" appeared this season, audience laughed so much even in Recitative. It was very successful such that the Weekend Performance was almost full house. Even Monday was more than 80%.

Singers had changed on January '96. Raúl Giménez made his MET debut with Almaviva. Ruth Ann Swenson as Rogina, Mark Oswald as Figaro, and John Del Carlo as Dr.Bartolo. Also, on January 27 it was on the air to USA and Europe as the 1100th memorial broadcasting of the radio program "Metropolitan Opera Live".

Photo, Metropolitan Opera

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Hungarian States Symphony's Far East Tour

From the middle of November '95 to the beginning of December, Hungarian States Symphony Orchestra, which some members of Haydn Orchestra belongs, made their Far East tour including Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Accompanied by Ikuyo Nakamichi and Dezs* Ránki, they played Liszt "Les Préludes", Grieg Piano Concert, Brahms Symphony No. 1 and Mahler Symphony No. 3 etc. General Music Director Ken'ichro Kobayashi conducted most of the concerts and won the storm of applause at many cities. This tour emphasized the good relationship between Kobayashi and orchestra. On the other hand, it was very hard schedule and the controvertible programs such as Hungarian Conductor Ervin Lucács conducted the same piece as the day before conducted by Kobayashi.

After that the orchestra joined Mr. Fischer who finished the first half of MET performance and had concerts at Linz (Dec. 17) and Vienna (Dec. 18) in Austria. Detail report or these concerts will appear in next issue.

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Zürich Opera "L'anima del Filosofo"

When Mr. Fischer was in Atlanta, he got urgent message. It was the request to conduct Vienna/Zürich coproduction, Haydn Opera "L'anima del filosofo". The original conductor Harnoncourt got sick when the premier in Zürich had approached in three weeks. As Zürich Opera asked him strongly since nobody besides Mr. Fischer who is known as a Haydn Specialist could do it in a short period. Then, he changed his schedule and flew to Zürich directory from Atlanta. There was not enough time and in addition, some performances overlaps the rehearsal of MET. So, he was very busy to fly between New York and Zürich many times. Especially at the next day of the last performance in Zürich, he must conduct at MET. So he flew back to New York by Concorde. Mr. Fischer said "This opera is not famous and even I did not know well. It was hard to make my own music since the rehearsal was very short and I could not change what Harnoncourt started. However, it was very successful performance."

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Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Concert

As we informed on No. 8 "Barátom", prior to MET, Mr. Fischer had conducted Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) three days from September 28, '95. ASO is one of the best orchestras in USA, particularly two Symphonic Poems; Liszt "Les Préludes" and R. Strauss "Don Juan"; were magnificent performances.

Bartók piano concert No. 2 is very difficult piece, however ASO and soloist, American Pianist Garrik Ohlsson synchronized very much and was filled with a tense atomosphere. Also, compare to Haydn Orchestra whose Haydn is as "Papa Haydn loves lots of jokes", ASO played very elegant Symphony No. 103 "Drumroll". It sounded like "Maestro Haydn in a portrait". Timpani played wonderful in these pieces and said "It was very tough since Bartók and Haydn are very difficult. Specially, solo part of Haydn was more difficult than Bartók. But I enjoyed playing and tried differently each time." And Mr. Fischer looked satisfied with his word.

The concert review of local newspaper was not bad and many ASO members told him "Come back soon". Then Mr. Fischer left Atlanta.

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