The Hungarian conductor Ferenc Fricsay was considered to be the man for modernism when, in 1948, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the RIAS Symphony...

The Hungarian conductor Ferenc Fricsay was considered to be the man for modernism when, in 1948, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the RIAS Symphony Orchestra that had just recently been founded. Thus it was only logical for him to focus on the latest works by Richard Strauss: the Oboe concerto and the Duet concertino for clarinet, bassoon and strings, both of which the composer created after World War II. Despite their retrospective musical language, these pieces at that time belonged to the most topical works of contemporary music production. Also, the small instrumentation presented the opportunity for Fricsay to train the soloistic potential of his musicians. The remarkable level that Fricsay, in such a short time, was able to guide his young orchestra to is also to be heard in the recordings of Till Eulenspiegel and the Burleske where Fricsay's unsentimental, anti-romantic interpre­tation is astonishing. This production is part of the series “Legendary Recordings" and bears the quality feature “1st Master Release.” This term stands for the excellent quality of archival productions at audite.