Prom 54: Iván Fischer & Budapest Festival Orchestra (I) – 22.08.18

[teamsaint]

Fischer did a similar choral encore when he did Brahms 3 and 4 back in 2014 .

[Simon B]

The Mahler 4 provided the most beautiful sound I can remember hearing from an orchestra in years, despite being sat in a stalls seat which did provide an odd balance at times (concerto for triangle).

I got the feeling some may have felt the performance just a little over-interpreted (not me - aside from the slightly odd decision to have the 1st horn stage-front for mvt II). For sheer sonic beauty and nuance though - quite something.

Another winner in a season of excellent performances, albeit of somewhat dull programming across the season as a whole.

Oh, and a soprano like Anna Lucia Richter in this piece every time please. Clarity and lightness, purity of tone, limited vibrato, perfect intonation...

[Nick Armstrong]

It doesn't get much better than that does it?

A Mahler 4th of miraculous tonal beauty, chamber-musical clarity and delicacy, so interpretively without affectation, it almost seems to have played itself (rubato, especially as natural as Ivan Fischer's tonight, is for me an essential part of Mahler performance style) … and a genuinely childlike sound, and assumption, from the soprano.

No music on Earth can be compared with Ours… sang Anna Lucia Richter, but the whole Budapest Festival Orchestra had been revealing such epiphanies to us, delighting our senses for almost an hour, the final fading thrum on harp and strings both dark and golden, those angelic voices offering a warm yet ethereal serenity.

Now listened to and preserved for regular returns - nothing to add to what you (and more recently Simon B) say about this performance.

And thank heavens for an ideal soprano....

At last! It is possible to find a soprano who sounds wonderful both in the hall and via the microphones!

(This is probably the wrong place for a about the spectacularly awful Four Last Songs solo singing the other evening... but hey: )

[jonfan]

Miraculous indeed. I have the CD of the Mahler by these players and orchestra. I thought that was superb until I heard this. A live concert with the right hall and audience takes the music making to a new level.

[Nick Armstrong]

Just listened a second time to the Mahler 4. What struck me this time was the excellence and individuality of the wind playing. What an orchestra!

Can't wait to get to grips with tonight's Brahms 1...

[BBMmk2]

Just listened a second time to the Mahler 4. What struck me this time was the excellence and individuality of the wind playing. What an orchestra!

Can't wait to get to grips with tonight's Brahms 1...

Yes, Cali. I thought that too. Quite individual indeed!