Founded in 1983 by Iván Fischer and Zoltán Kocsis, the Budapest Festival Orchestra has quickly cemented itself as one of the best formations in the world thanks to an exceptional ensemble of soloists, its cohesion and a particular warmth in its string sections. Numerous recordings have come to confirm their reputation of holding a extremely vast repertoire which dominates the works of Bartók, Kodály and Dvořák. It must now fight for its existence in the midst of considerable cuts imposed by the Hungarian government whose political ideas are opposed to those of the conductor and his musicians.
Recorded in 2017 at the Palais des Arts in Budapest after a series of concerts, this new version of The Song of the Earth by Gustav Mahler gets off to a striking start with an almost telluric force. The power and fragility of the tenor Robert Dean Smith is paradoxically moving when faced with the amplitude of the timbre and eloquent, authentic voice of the alto Gerhild Romberger, who's singing is accurate and homogenous across all registers.
At the podium, Iván Fischer sends forth the best of his imagination and a sense of subtlety by literally sculpting each lied until the deeply moving Abschied (“Adieu”) finale in which the tormented harmony opens a door to nothingness, in an almost serial atmosphere where the air becomes scarce. A great interpretation. © François Hudry/Qobuz