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In a conversation with CRB's Brian McCreath, Iván Fischer describes the unique character and artistic philosophy of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, its affinity with music by Gustav Mahler, and the origins of his own deep relationship with the composer's symphonies. To listen, use the player and read the transcript below.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:

Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Iván Fischer, the co-founder and conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, visiting Boston. Mr. Fischer, I can't tell you how much of an honor it is to speak with you. Thank you for your time today.

Iván Fischer Thank you, I love to be here in Boston because the hall sounds very beautiful.

Brian McCreath It is a lovely hall, indeed, and we love it when other orchestras get to experience it. But we in Boston love to hear other orchestras in this hall. It's so illuminating to hear the voices of other musicians.

I want to ask you about Mahler's Third Symphony. As I understand it, the Budapest Festival Orchestra hasn't played this in 10 years. And I wonder how this piece sits with you and how you hear it in this time, as opposed to what feels like a very different world a decade ago. Does Mahler's Third feel like a different piece now from when you last performed it with the Budapest Festival Orchestra?

Iván Fischer We play a symphony by Mahler every year, so we cannot play the Third Symphony too often. When we do it, it's always a festive occasion, because it's a very festive symphony. If I compare it, what I hear from my own performances 10 or 20 years ago, or probably, I could add, 30, 40, or 50 years ago, it seems to me that it's getting better. It's not different, I think. I just understand certain things more than what I understood a few decades ago.

Brian McCreath Is that in terms of the structure of the piece or the relationship of one part to another? Or is it in the textures of the instrumentation or the texts, even, that are sung in this piece? What is it that is becoming clearer to you over time?

Iván Fischer Mahler's music can be described best to me as images. They always represent something that Mahler himself heard, and one can get closer and closer to that image. I can give you an example. The beginning of the fourth movement is like a giant bell, which sounds, vibrates long after being hit. And it should come almost from under the earth, or under the consciousness, somehow very far away, or rather very deep from inside. Now, that kind of sound is something I hear better now than what I heard 10 or 20 years ago.

Brian McCreath I see. Yeah, yeah. The Budapest Festival Orchestra has always been an unconventional orchestra. You have referred to it almost as a laboratory at times to do things differently from the way other orchestras operate, in terms of the structure of the musicians' employment, in terms the creative impulses, the projects the orchestra takes on. When it comes to Mahler's Third Symphony, or maybe any Mahler symphony, how does that spirit inform this kind of a piece and performance.

Iván Fischer Maybe Mahler is not even the best example. Music had very different purposes and I don't think necessarily that our usual structure, the way our concert ritual or our employment system in orchestras or elsewhere, it's not necessarily good for the compositions. Let me give you an example. Haydn wrote string quartets, which we often hear in a quite large hall being played by professional, very well-prepared chamber musicians. But the original pieces were not at all written for that. They were written for a weekend Sunday afternoon entertainment, somewhere in an aristocratic home. People sat together. They put the music on a music stand and played the new string quartet by Haydn through by sight reading it, and having a lot of fun and pleasure. It elevated their soul. But the idea was that it's for an unprepared, unrehearsed, and audience-less performance. Now, we force these things into our ritual. So, I don't think that what we do in Budapest, when we change a lot of the rules, is actually unconventional. One can call it unconventional. But I think what we are doing is trying to get closer to the real meaning of the compositions.

Brian McCreath Fascinating. With regard to the way the orchestra operates, I wonder if you can describe, for those of us who haven't spent any, or very much time anyway, in Budapest, what is the relationship of the Budapest Festival Orchestra to its home city and the cultural life in Budapest?

Iván Fischer We feel responsible for the city, for the cultural well-being of the people who surround us. I look at it in generations. We have a concert form for the three to eight-year-old, then we have other concert form for the teenagers, other concert form for the students, and young people in their 20s, 30s. And we have what is more familiar everywhere in the world, the usual concerts where subscribers come, and we don't think it's a problem, but it doesn't necessarily serve the other generations.

Brian McCreath As a cultural institution within Budapest, you're talking about serving different audiences with different kinds of concerts. How then does the wider population of Budapest perceive the Budapest Festival Orchestra, as an essential part of what it is to live in Budapest?

Iván Fischer We have a few concert forms for the larger audiences. One is one big public open-air concert we give to the citizens of Budapest. It's free of charge,and we usually get between 10,000 and 50,000 listeners. And people love it, and many of them have never been to concert halls, but some of them start to buy tickets. And there are other concert forms. For example, what we call "Dancing on the Square" is where we prepare young kids, usually aged 8 to 16. They learn a choreography in their hometown, in their schools, come together and a few hundred of them dance the same choreography in front of the orchestra. It's a very popular concert form for those who don't usually attend concerts.

Brian McCreath That's a really brilliant idea. I love that. If we get back to Mahler, you said that the Budapest Festival Orchestra generally does one Mahler symphony per year. What is it about the connection of this orchestra to Mahler? Is that a function of your own personal connection to Mahler? Is there more to it than that? Mahler's own history in Budapest, perhaps? I don't know. What is it about this orchestra and Mahler that forms such a special relationship?

Iván Fischer Not all composers, but some composers are strongly linked to their environment where they grew up. In the case of Mahler, it is very important to be somewhat familiar with the folklore of that area, also the habits and certain traditions. Mahler quotes a lot, and these quotations can be the things he heard in his childhood or later from military bands to Yiddish folk songs or cowbells in the fields. These were the musical impressions he had as a child and he composed them into the symphonies. For us who also live in the old Habsburg Empire, which was Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and the surrounding countries, it is a little easier to be familiar with the roots and the folklore and the habits of the region.

Brian McCreath Interesting. One more question, if I just can ask on a very personal level, do you remember the first sorts of experiences you had with Mahler's music and why it took hold within you?

Iván Fischer I studied in Vienna in the 70s, and Leonard Bernstein came to Vienna to conduct Mahler. He recorded for film and audio recording and performed all the symphonies. And as conducting students, we went to the rehearsals. And I still remember many, many details of those rehearsals, the difficulties also Bernstein had with the orchestra, the pleasure, there were good and bad things. It wasn't easy, but eye-opening because he understood Mahler's music very deeply, and he convinced Vienna to love Mahler.

Brian McCreath And convinced you to love Mahler.

Iván Fischer Well, it was for me an incredibly touching occasion to feel the environment. This was the old Vienna, which somehow rejected Mahler's art, and this person, coming from the United States with his Jewish origin and his ingenious sight and understanding of culture, and he broke the ice in Vienna. This was a very touching experience.

Brian McCreath Iván Fischer, it is so good to have you here in Boston. It's so good to have your orchestra here, too. I'm so looking forward to the concert. Thank you for your time today, I appreciate it.

Iván Fischer Thank you.