Ferenc Fricsay (9 August 1914 – 20 February 1963) was a Hungarian conductor. From 1960 until his death, he was an Austrian citizen.
Fricsay was born in Budapest in 1914 and studied music under Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Leo Weiner. Fricsay had a meteoric rise to fame, making his first appearance as a conductor at age 15. He became music director of the then newly formed RIAS Symphony Orchestra in Germany in 1949. He was musical director of the Houston Symphony in 1954. He spent much of his time from the 1950s onward in Germany as music director of the Bavarian State Opera (1956–1958) and as conductor of the RIAS Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic.
From the 1950s until his death, he recorded for the Deutsche Grammophon record label. Fricsay gave his last concert on 7 December 1961 in London where he conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. He suffered from repeated illnesses throughout his life and finally succumbed to cancer on 20 February 1963 at the age of 48 in Basel, Switzerland.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Symphony no 6 in B minor, Op. 74 "Pathétique"
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Ferenc Fricsay
Rec.: 1953
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