János Ferencsik was a Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

.

Ferencsik was born in Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

; he actively played music even as a very young boy. He took violin lessons and taught himself to play the organ

Organ (music)

The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Budapest, where his major subjects were organ performance and composition. He joined the Budapest State Opera at the age of twenty, where he was engaged as a rehearsal coach. In this capacity he took part in the Bayreuth Festival in 1930 and 1931. In Bayreuth, he assisted Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...

, an experience which was to be of decisive importance for the remainder of his career.

Ferencsik's international career began in 1937. By the end of the 1930s, he was one of the Hungarian Opera's leading conductors. His artistic career came to fuil fruition after 1945. He was appointed General Music Director of the Budapest Opera, Principal Conductor of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra in Budapest and, from 1960 until 1967, Conductor Chairman of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra

Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra

The Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra is Hungary's oldest functioning orchestra, being founded in 1853 by Ferenc Erkel under the auspices of the Budapest Philharmonic Society...

. From 1948 until 1950, Ferencsik was principal guest conductor of the Vienna State Opera

Vienna State Opera

The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...

. He toured widely abroad, conducting on every continent with the exception of Africa.

Ferencsik was a friend of Hungarian composers Laszlo Lajtha

László Lajtha

László Lajtha was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and conductor.-Career:Born to Ida Wiesel, a Transsylvanian-Hungarian with some Saxon-German ancestry as the name Wiesel indicates and Pál Lajtha, an owner of a leather factory...

, Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók

Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...

 and Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....

 and was known for his interpretations of their works. Among his many recordings are two of Kodály's Székelyfonó

Székelyfonó

Székelyfonó is a one-act theatre piece with music by Zoltán Kodály from Hungarian folk songs. The work is described as ‘Daljáték egy felvonásban’, folk songs in one act...

.

Source

Liner note with recording of Beethoven's Symphonies Nos 1 and 7, Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra, on LaserLight 15 904.

Notable quotations

• "In art and love, one must not lie!"
• "It is possible to make love even with women but it is only worth loving men."

External links

• [ Biography]
• Obituary
• František Sláma (musician)
  František Sláma (musician)
  František Sláma was a significant Czech chamber music performer. He was the first Czech cellist who focused on Early music.-Biography:...
  
  Archive. More on the history of the Czech Philharmonic between the 1940s and the 1980s: Conductors