Ferenc Farkas :: Artists Decorating Essays

Ferenc Farkas Ferenc Farkas was born in Nagykanizsa, Hungary, in declination 1905. He studied writing with Albert Siks and Le Weiner at the capital of Hungary Academy of Music and continued his studies with Ottorino Respighi at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Ferenc Farkas was Professor of musical composition at the Conservatory of Kolozsvr from 1941 to 1944 and also served as its director during his withstand year there. In 1949 Farkas was appointed Professor of Composition at the capital of Hungary Academy of Music, a post which he held until his retirement in 1975. His pupils include Attila Bozay, Axolt Durk, Gyrgy Kurtg, Gyrgy Ligeti, Emil Petrovics, Sndor Szokolay and many other prominent Magyar composers.In 1950, Ferenc Farkas was awarded the highest Hungarian government decoration for artistic merit, the Kossuth Prize. In 1979, he was given the herdsman Prize by the F.V.Stiftung in Hamburg. This interview was conducted in the spring of 1991. Gal First of all, I w ould like to congratulate you on your eighty-fifth birthday which you celebrated last December and wish you continuing unsloped health and happiness. When did you first begin to compose for harp? Farkas In my archean compositions for orchestra, I always gave the harp part an important region. My first composition for harp solo, however, was Concertino, written in 1937 for the Budapest Municipal Orchestra and Mrs. Anna Molnr. Gal Was Concertino performed outside of Hungary? Farkas Soon after the first performance in Budapest, a second performance was given by Mireille Flour in Brussels, followed by performances in London by Maria Korchinska, in Rome by Ada Sassoli, and in Frankfurt by genus Rosa Stein. Later in Hungary, the work was performed again by Liana Pasquali. Concertino was recorded in Germany by Rosa Stein and in Belgium by Mireille Flour. Gal What are your feelings slightly writing for the harp? Farkas In 1937 I tried to utilize what I felt was the most generally neglec ted characteristic of the harp - the melodic line. I avoided the arpeggio and glissando as much as possible. In 1956, however, with the uphold of Professor Mikls Rkai at the Budapest Conservatory, I rewrote Concertino. I wrote what I consider to be a more successful role for the harp and included the previously avoided glissandi and arpeggi, added cadenzas, and thinned out the orchestral background in the first and third movements. The new version was then play in Hungary by Hdy Lubik and several times in Germany by Gyula Dall.