Iván Fischer wins the Oscar of conductors
27 May 2024
The Music Director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra received the 2011 Conductor Award of the British Royal Philharmonic Society. From the conductors of the most successful concerts performed in the United Kingdom last year, the Hungarian conductor was chosen over Semyon Bychkov and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The most prestigious British classical music award was presented on the evening of May 10th at one of London’s most elegant hotels, the Dorchester Hotel near Hyde Park. Founded in 1813, the Royal Philharmonic Society presents the award in 13 categories each year; it is the highest recognition for classical music in the UK, comparable in significance to the Oscars or the Grammy Awards. One of this year’s winners is the Takács Quartet, operating in the United States since the 1980s and still featuring two Hungarian members, in recognition of its highly acclaimed complete cycle of Beethoven String Quartets in London’s Southbank Centre. According to the jury, the concerts were ‘among the great musical events of recent years’.
Conductor Iván Fischer received his award also for the performances he gave of Beethoven symphonies with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. They are the resident orchestra of London’s largest cultural centre, the Southbank Centre, with Iván Fischer as one of their regular guest conductors. As commented by the jury of the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards, these performances ‘are seared onto the memories of all those present... (Iván Fischer’s) inspired originality, penetrating intelligence and intensely questing spirit have left an indelible mark on the ensemble, and the wider musical community’.
11.5.2011
