Five stars for Iván Fischer’s dazzling Budapest Festival Orchestra at the BBC Proms — review

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

One conductor-and-orchestra partnership that is never run-of-the-mill is Iván Fischer with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. This was their 16th concert at the BBC Proms since the orchestra was founded by Fischer in 1983 and they are always worth catching.

For their Proms debut in 1992 they chose Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Bartók’s only opera. A generation on and here was the best-known of all operas in the Hungarian language again, sounding as if these performers know every note of it inside out.

At 42 years together, Fischer and his musicians are going for the gold medal in orchestral partnerships, even compared to the most prestigious teams of the 20th century — George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra at 24 years, Herbert von Karajan at the Berlin Philharmonic 34 years, and only Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra still a nose in front at 44 years.

The advantage of working together for so long is the cultivation of a sound and style that are entirely distinctive. In the case of Fischer and the Hungarians that means a laser-sharp focus, exceptional clarity and rhythmic definition.

Those were the essentials of their performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Fischer had arranged the orchestra with double-basses prominent along the top level, while the heavy cannon of brass and percussion were buried on the platform floor. That allowed those energising bass lines that build up tension at the ends of the first and last movements to cut through. His control is rigorous and only a sense of abandon was missing, at least until the finale lifted off.

Bartók’s one-act opera made a more effective impact in the huge Royal Albert Hall than might have been predicted. By keeping the orchestra muted, sometimes down to a whisper, Fischer made sure his two singers could be heard without strain, a noble sacrifice on the part of any conductor in a work where the orchestral writing is so dazzlingly imaginative.

Two well-chosen, native Hungarian singers — Krisztián Cser, a true bass, and rich-voiced mezzo Dorottya Láng — sang Bluebeard and his wife Judith. The opera can come across primarily as an orchestral showpiece, but here the singers were always the focus, keeping the stage-by-stage breakdown of their relationship in this symbolist drama to the fore.

Each of the seven doors representing Bluebeard’s secrets opens on to a new orchestral vista of extraordinary sounds. Fischer balanced the instruments with extreme care, creating panoramas of delicacy and iridescence. The only disappointment came with the opening of the fifth door, which signifies Bluebeard’s domain. Bartók throws in an organ, on top of his already huge orchestra, but Fischer had brought his own portable instrument rather than using the gargantuan organ of the Royal Albert Hall — a whimper rather than a world-shattering roar.

★★★★★

bbc.co.uk/proms