Adam Fischer conducts Mozart and Haydn

“Haydn’s music has accompanied me since I was four years old,” Adam Fischer says. At that time he attended a concert with his father at which the “Surprise” Symphony, with the timpani beat, was performed. He was looking forward to the timpani beat so much and was bitterly disappointed because it was not as loud as he expected. When he complained to the conductor about it afterwards, he advised the boy: “Become a conductor yourself, then you can decide how loud the beat should be.” Adam Fischer, who comes from a Hungarian family of conductors, took this advice to heart. He studied in his native city of Budapest and with Hans Swarowsky at the University of Music in Vienna. He made his international breakthrough in 1978 with his performance of Fidelio at the Bavarian Staatsoper. He was general music director in Freiburg, Kassel, Mannheim and at the Budapest Opera and was named honorary conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper. In 1987 – before the fall of the Iron Curtain – he founded the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra with musicians from both countries, setting new standards for Haydn interpretations. As the long-time chief conductor of the Danish Chamber Orchestra, he is also acclaimed for his interpretations of Mozart and Beethoven symphonies. The conductor is convinced that “a symphony must be played like an opera; this range of emotions should also be expressed in a symphony.”