Hungarian conductor Ivan Fischer just seems to be getting better and better, and the commercial success of this Channel Classics release gives encouraging indications that in a musical world that tends to pursue the latest phenomenon, there is still room for a well-considered performance from a veteran. Fischer has conducted Mendelssohn's Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night's Dream before with various ensembles, but here, with his hand-shaped Budapest Festival Orchestra that he has led for years, he produces a version ...
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Hungarian conductor Ivan Fischer just seems to be getting better and better, and the commercial success of this Channel Classics release gives encouraging indications that in a musical world that tends to pursue the latest phenomenon, there is still room for a well-considered performance from a veteran. Fischer has conducted Mendelssohn's Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night's Dream before with various ensembles, but here, with his hand-shaped Budapest Festival Orchestra that he has led for years, he produces a version that is just about nonpareil. Fischer's tempos are quick, yet there isn't a phrase that coasts along on momentum: each one has something to say. The famed Wedding March has not a hint of triteness, and the overture lives up to Fischer's bold claim that the players were making the music "for the fairies." Sample the Dance of the Clowns for a taste of Fischer's sense of humor in general and for his ability to make small passages vivid, like the consequent phrase of the opening material....
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