Ferenc Fricsay’s innovative choice of programme combines well-known “hits” with rarely performed works: Rossini’s The Journey to Reims, Richard Strauss’s Burleske, Honegger’s Concertino and Zimmermann’s Caboclo, the latter receiving its first airing physically.

Ferenc Fricsay was born in Budapest in 1914 and died in Basle in 1963, aged only forty-eight. He had an extraordinary feel for the specific requirements of recorded performances. Whenever he was involved in such projects he exercised meticulous care and showed immense technical know-how. The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic valued him highly as a guest conductor. The onset of his serious illness in the late 1950s prevented the completion of all the recordings that had been planned. Those that were produced, however, are considered to be milestones in terms of their musical aesthetic and their recording and sound quality.

- A live 1955 recording of Ferenc Fricsay conducting his core repertoire