# Fricsay's Birthday - but really an excuse for me to ask a question



## Russell Chee (Dec 3, 2019)

Today is 9th August, which is apparently Ferenc Fricsay's birthday. Yay! Fricsay is a conductor whose interpretations of some stuff I love, though rather like Klemperer he seemed to change his interpretations enormously in the span of a few years. So I'd like to ask everyone a question - do you all prefer early (mono) Fricsay, or late (stereo) Fricsay? 

I'm pretty divided myself - to give an example, I much prefer his stereo Dvorak 9th to the mono, but I'd take the mono Tchaikovsky 6 over the stereo one any day (the timing of 7:46 in the third movement is just insane; I don't think I've ever heard it matched).

I've read suggestions that Fricsay slowed down so much in his last few years because of his awareness of his terminal illness - anyone know whether that's true? Even so, though, I'm astounded by some of the disparities - for instance, in 1958, he recorded what is my desert-island Beethoven 9th, which despite a slow-ish first movement (around 16:30) clocks in with one of the fastest pre-HIP finales, at just 23 minutes. Yet one or two years later, he was recording some of the most leaden, unmoving Beethoven - the Eroica, Fifth and Seventh all seem utterly drained of energy.

Anyway, what do you all think?


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I just want to know how to pronounce his name.


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## Russell Chee (Dec 3, 2019)

Google translate suggests "Ferenz Free-chai" :tiphat:


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

As far as I know it’s something like “Freet-shoy."


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

If you want to hear his name pronounced: https://forvo.com/word/ferenc_fricsay/

Great, great conductor. Left so many top-notch recordings, mono or not.


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## Ekim the Insubordinate (May 24, 2015)

Yeah, it is Hungarian. The letter "c" is pronounced like "ts" in English. "Cs" is pronounced like a hard "ch" like in the word chew. The "i" shouldn't be long like "eee" but rather short, like the "i" in the English word "it." Finally, the a and y each get individual sounds, but blended together very quickly - ah then ee. And don't forget the quick roll of the r on the tip of your tongue.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Thanks, everyone. I'm going to have to put that on a Post-It note and stick it on my Fricsay box set before I embarrass myself.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Don't worry about it. There are so many people who mis-speak so many names in the classical world. I know a rabid collector who says it "Frick - say". And Chailly is "Chay - lee". I think it was the radio station at Iowa State that used to publish a pronunciation guide for classical DJs, but I haven't seen it for quite some time. I play with one conductor who says Shostakovich correctly: Shos-TOCK-oh-vitch. Accent on the second syllable. It annoys so many players.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Back when I was a student in the late 1960s, I happened upon a Fricsay Beethoven seventh that was slowish, but I liked. I'd never heard of him before, so I asked about him to a music professor who happened by. Among other questions, I asked "Is he dead?" and was told "It's hard to tell."


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

I have collected many of his recordings and enjoy them all!


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

MarkW said:


> Back when I was a student in the late 1960s, I happened upon a Fricsay Beethoven seventh that was slowish, but I liked. I'd never heard of him before, so I asked about him to a music professor who happened by. Among other questions, I asked "Is he dead?" and was told "It's hard to tell."


Yes, in general, Fricsay recordings went from a spicy Paprikash to overcooked Goulash as he slowed down. Was it his illness that caused the evisceration? Was he thinking, if this Beethoven 9 never ends then I will remain alive? That is perhaps unanswerable.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I weaned on romance during college with his stereo Dvorak "New World" and Beethoven 7th symphonies. Today I listem to his Bartok, especially the Divertimento for String Orchestra.


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## Russell Chee (Dec 3, 2019)

david johnson said:


> I have collected many of his recordings and enjoy them all!


They changed so much, though! Just as an example - the Largo from his famed stereo Dvorak 9th comes it at 14 minutes; the same movement in his mono recording is under 11; the first movement from his Pathetique broadens from 17 to 21. That's why I was curious whether people had any particular preferences :lol:


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## Russell Chee (Dec 3, 2019)

Triplets said:


> Yes, in general, Fricsay recordings went from a spicy Paprikash to overcooked Goulash as he slowed down. Was it his illness that caused the evisceration? Was he thinking, if this Beethoven 9 never ends then I will remain alive? That is perhaps unanswerable.


His 9th was still OK, though! Hardly slower than the equivalent Klemperer or Furtwangler performance. It was in the other symphonies that he really slowed down - the 5th has an unbelievable (not in a good way) 9-minute first movement!


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

His name is pronounced "Throat Warbler Mangrove".

Actually, Ekim is 100% correct on this. Fritch-oy, near as dammit. Definitely not Fricks-ay!

No preference in terms of early/late, or mono/stereo here. His Bartók and his Kodaly really do stand out, but so does his Beethoven. A truly great conductor, one of the indisputable giants of the podium.

However, it is disappointing that he recorded two Bartók masterpieces - Bluebeard, and the Cantata profana - in German, not Hungarian. Why????? This counts these two recordings out for me.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

When I got my hands on Fricsay's Bartok Concerto for Orchestra it easily won a comparison against Reiner. I was immune to the Eroica until I heard his scherzo. I enjoy his recordings of obscure 20c composers where he seems the perfect interpreter. His Scheherazade is one of the few I listen to.


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## Geoff48 (Aug 15, 2020)

In my youth Fricsay used to be a mainstay of the Heliodor stereo transcription series. Relatively inexpensive which then to me was really important. But also rather good. He tended to be fast and fiery. Amongst those I borrowed were his Pathetique, still the finest for me. Then I remember his version of Rossini’s Stabat Mater, I never realised that religious music could be so much fun, and his highlights from Magic Flute though it was Rita Streich as Queen off the Night who stole that particular show. And I bought him with Annie Fischer in Beethoven’s 3rd Concerto mainly for the sound quality though I ended up with a pretty good version.
At that stage Fricsay was occasionally superficial but never dull. Later I borrowed his stereo Beethoven from the record library including his fifth, and that I did find dull and one of his few failures. 
I’m wondering how Fricsay would have developed firstly if he hadn’t developed Cancer and secondly if he had enjoyed a full life span. Would he have continued fiery or would increased maturity have slowed him down. One thing I am certain of, he would have been one of the leading conductors of the seventies and the eighties.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I really like Fricsay's Dvorak 9, his Kodaly, Stravinsky, Bartok and LVB 9th. However, not all was great, especially in Beethoven, for me. His Eroica I find rather sloppy and takes ages to get going, his 7th and 8th nicely detailed but lacking fire and his 5th just painfully slow. He's like every conductor in that respect, there's the very good, the average and the poor. It's a shame he died so young though. His recordings are always worth hearing.


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