Free Sounds: Iván Fisher

VPRO Free Sounds travelled to Budapest, city of birth of the director and composer Iván Fischer who, with his Budapest Festival Orchestra, is working on the registration of Gustav Mahler's intractable 7th Symphony.

The 7th Symphony, which some directors would rather avoid than perform, is a challenge to Iván Fischer: he wants the audience to experience this eclectic and comprehensive work in which many musical styles come together. He inspires and motivates the members of his orchestra in a lively and vivid way. Melchior Huurdeman followed Iván Fischer (1952) not just in the concert hall. Fischer also took him back to the places of his early childhood. He grew up on the Andrassy Ud, directly opposite the famous opera where Gustav Mahler had worked as artistic director since 1888. From the age of 8, Iván closely followed the opera world, while his own world was immersed in music. His father translated operas into Hungarian. In this special episode, VPRO Free Sounds will also focus on Fischer's compositions of recent years, in which the interbellum period plays an important role.