Today, the National Philharmonic Orchestra begins its American tour. 

The coincidence is almost ghostly: the two leading Hungarian symphony orchestras are practically swapping places in America. The Festival Orchestra performed in the States in the first half of January, while today, the National Philharmonic Orchestra set off on its trip, where after eighteen years, the ensemble will again tour the USA, giving 39 concerts from New York to Los Angeles. This was not all we quizzed orchestra manager Géza Kovács about.
 
– The earlier incarnation of the National Philharmonic Orchestra, the State Symphony Orchestra, last travelled to America in 1985. Why did you have to wait so long for this latest tour?

– In the early nineteen eighties, the State Symphony Orchestra gave highly successful concerts in America with János Ferencsik, and they were invited to return. By the time of the 1985 tour, Ferencsik was no longer among us, and Ádám Fischer conducted in his place. The plan was for the orchestra to return to America once more at the end of the nineteen eighties, but a dispute broke out around the new music director, who was unknown in America, Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi, and for this reason, the idea was shelved. Following the political changes, the orchestra underwent some pretty substantial artistic and financial crises. Finally in 1999, I managed to agree a tour with America's largest concert agency, Columbia Artists. During the two months we will be there, we will appear not only in the most important concert venues, but – and there is substantial tradition for this over there – we will give numerous concerts to audiences of 1800-2000 in the foyer's of universities and “urban cultural centres” just as the New York, Chicago and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras frequently do.

– The same concert agency brought over both the Festival Orchestra over and yourselves. Is this just a coincidence?

– Entirely! Furthermore, two deputy presidents within Columbia Artists were involved in a dispute over this. Naturally, we will perform in identical cities, but in a different concert series and with a very different program. In all, the National Philharmonic Orchestra is bringing seven different concert programs, and besides the Bartók, Liszt and Kodály works which are obligatory for us, there will be a few curiosities, such as Dvorak's third symphony, Zoltán Kocsis's Debussy orchestrations – and also in a few places, we will give Viennese evenings, primarily consisting of  Strauss works – in truth, we are not compromising our standards, but – if you like – this is part and parcel of our job. During this two months, we will practically travel the whole of the United States, from Florida to Chicago, from Los Angeles to New York, from Las Vegas to Boston. For us, this concert tour is exceptionally important, because in this profession, there are certain shrines which have to be visited. Any orchestra that does not perform at the Concertgebouw, the Musikverein or in some leading London concert hall, or else does not appear on the American market, might just as well not exist. We can now show to the world the new National Philharmonic Orchestra, of which we can be justly be proud, and which has been boosted by the audience and critical reaction abroad in recent years and months. We can say that we are now reaping the harvest, that what we initially dreamed of with Zoltán Kocsis has now been realised. To achieve this, of course, we had to endure much blood, sweat and tears, but I can say with no immodesty that now, the orchestra has achieved an unprecedentedly high standard.

– Is this why you decided after ten years of silence – excepting the 1998 Liszt album – that it is worthwhile for the orchestra to make CDs again?

– Yes, a few years ago, Zoltán Kocsis judged that it was wise for us to again start recording CDs. When I took up my post with the orchestra in 1995, naturally I went to record companies – to Hungaroton, Numbus in England and Pony Canyoni in Japan – with whom the orchestra had previously worked. I had some very unpleasant conversations, sometimes highly embarrassing ones, because all the companies were forced to terminate their relationship with us because of the then prevailing artistic standard of the ensemble. We are now compensating for this shameful absence, and to no small degree! At the Spring Festival, we will premiere our CD recorded for Hungaroton, on which the orchestra performs Debussy and Ravel compositions, some in Zoltán Kocsis's orchestrations. This CD is certainly a unique item and could be a world hit. In late summer, Hungaroton will also release an all-Bartók CD, with Dance Suite, Hungarian Peasant Songs and the Concerto for Orchestra. Hungarian Radio has recorded all our concerts for the past three years, and we have selected from our most successful recordings of the last season a double CD, to be published by BMC. It is full of unusual works, including Schoenberg's Pelles ét Mélisande, Rachmaninov's First Symphony and Dohnányi's Festival Overture. And it is no secret that we are still in negotiations with Warner Music concerning another Bartók CD. Over a year ago, the orchestra recorded three works by Bartók that were originally for solo piano and which Zoltán Kocsis transcribed, however we have still not received permission from Péter Bartók, one of the two guardians of the composer's estate, for their release.

– Changing topics: according to the plans, in Spring 2004 you will take possession of a new headquarters, as part of the cultural building complex alongside the National Theatre. In the meantime, the Vörösmárty Square office block, where we are now speaking, is due to be pulled down within a year.

– It is truly a rather unusual situation, luckily, the board of the Foundation for Artistic and Liberal Arts has agreed to allow us to temporarily move into one of the historic wings of the Vigado. We are delighted by the cultural centre, but not unreservedly. We are overjoyed that in all likelihood, a fantastic concert hall will be built there, something guaranteed by both the designer Gábor Zoboki and the New York Artec firm who are responsible for the acoustics. The orchestra can work here in comfortable circumstances, although space for the eighty strong chorus and the management is expected to be tight. In addition, we operate a public music score library with 13 thousand volumes, and the suitable stationing of this demands very great care. The programs of the National Concert Hall will presumably be organised by an independent management, but those responsible long ago failed to set this up, unfortunately. In our profession, artists' calendars are often filled three to five years in advance, you see. If anyone wants to introduce this concert hall on the edge of the city into Budapest's mainstream musical life, then in its first season, they must organise a succession of big names. One thing is for certain, that if in September 2004, in other words, in eighteen months time, the concert hall opens, then whoever is responsible is going to encounter problems finding people to invite, because the stars will long ago have accepted other engagements.

– I have been led to believe that recently, you had several talks with Tamás Jordán, the new director of the National Theatre. What can you tell us about this?

– We sketched the outline of how we might be good neighbours. For many years, Zoltán Kocsis has had productions in which he brought together in a unique fashion musical and literary works, and these evenings breathed not just the atmosphere of a peacetime artistic salon, but threw each era into relief and made it tangible. It would be interesting to continue these with the cooperation of the National Theatre. Once the largely acoustic transformations of the National Theatre initiated by Tamás Jordán are accomplished, then perhaps we can also perform at the National.

– What we have been talking about has been a kind of continuous success story. What is more, after this current two month tour, you will go to Japan in June for three weeks and in Autumn, to England for a fortnight. You are recording – apparently in spring – the National Anthem, the Szózat [effectively, the second national anthem], as well as the anthem of the European Union, Beethoven's Ode to Joy, using contemporary techniques and perhaps directed by János Darvas. Your presence on Hungarian Television is otherwise continuous. As you said, you are reaping the harvest. But from a legal standpoint, looking back the organisational transformation looks anything but settled. For example, you have lost a number of court cases concerning dismissals of former employees.

– When I arrived at the orchestra in 1995, the orchestras was stagnating as part of a fading and conceptionless Philharmonia organisation, amid exceptionally poor financial and artistic management circumstances. Between 1995 and 2000, I spent a hellishly difficult period, because these unavoidable processes provoked extremely great dissatisfaction among the musicians. It would have been impermissible to have allowed the orchestra to remain in that state – to quote Kocsis's words – it was like the ex-landed gentry. As if we were thinking, “we will always have our immense estates”, even though years ago, we lost them playing cards, and yet in the casino, we were continually whistling to the waiter and ordering the most expensive champagne. Zoltán Kocsis's arrival here in October 1997 gradually wrecked this mood. He was truly implacable. He set to work with a terrifying elan, and conflict followed conflict. We had to fight on every front. The trade unions set the musicians against us, they reported us to every available forum and body. Meanwhile we were fighting with the ministry to get sufficient money, and went to serious efforts to somehow acquire a sponsor. In 2000 we received an immense injection of capital, and afterwards, our situation radically changed, although – and documents prove this – we now see that the ministerial decree, on the basis of which we dismissed 26 musicians, was legally precarious. Luckily, we succeeded in reaching a mutual agreement with the decisive majority of musicians, but six of them launched legal proceedings against us, and we actually lost a number of cases, despite being represented by one of the country's finest employment lawyers. This has imposed no small expense on us, but I feel that every former musician is receiving the largest sum to which they are legally entitled. Because the manner by which they dismissed was undignified, even if artistically, for most of them, it was absolutely justified. For me, it was of symbolic value that the ministry admitted that the situation did not arise through our fault, and underwrote a certain proportion of the legal costs. I believe that the mistakes we committed have partially been rectified, while the true fruits of the transformation can be enjoyed by everyone. Artistically speaking, the facts prove it is truly a success story.
 
Béla Szilárd Jávorszky
(Népszabadság, January 15th 2003)