Conductor Iván Fischer “turns his back on the established rules of the classical music business—and reinvents the orchestra,” writes Sebastian Handke in the December issue of Lufthansa magazine. “A perfectly normal orchestra? That was not what he wanted.… The young Iván Fischer found the notion radically impossible, was already fed up with his international career almost before it had begun. Aloof, austere and proud was how he came across to the established orchestras.… And so he formed an orchestra of his own. Nearly 35 years later, the Budapest Festival Orchestra counts among the best in the world.” Fischer is also chief conductor of Berlin’s Konzerthaus Orchestra, and guest-conducts internationally. Fisher says: “Many people think there can be no greater aspiration for conductors than to wave their hands around in front of a first-rate orchestra. That does not motivate me at all. I would like to invent the orchestra of the future. And most importantly, I don’t want to repeat myself.… There has to be uniformity in the way an orchestra plays, of course…. But still, everything must come from within the musician, from his or her emotions. I think this is a very interesting paradox.”
Posted December 22, 2017
