Underrated Classical Musicians 2/23/20

For forty years, the conductor Adam Fischer has operated in the shadow of a spotlight focused on his ever-so-slightly younger brother, Ivan Fischer. 

I've encountered multiple musicians who have told me without reservation that Ivan Fischer is the greatest conductor they've ever worked with, and one of the very few deserving his reputation's entirety. In comparison to some colleagues, Ivan's reputation among the public could use a bit of a boost, but compared to Adam, Ivan's as famous as Dudamel combined with Gergiev. 

If recordings are to be believed, Adam wasn't very interesting before the 21st century. But the Fischer brothers are on either side of seventy, and while Ivan is as good as ever, and has toured the world virtually every year as a headliner for the last twenty or thirty (especially in my area...), Adam has the luxury of honing his craft relatively out of the spotlight. He's known as a fine opera conductor, particularly of Wagner, who runs a summer Wagner festival in Budapest, and whose head is frequently seen in the pit of all the world's best opera houses, but otherwise making very little splash. 

But that's all changed in just the last few years. He's long since been known for a not particularly interesting recording of the complete Haydn symphonies. But now comes all the Mozart symphonies, all the Mahler, all the Beethoven. One has to imagine his recordings will soon be more numerous than Ivan's, who was always very circumspect about setting any permanent record down that he hadn't rehearsed within an inch of its life first. 

The Mozart and Beethoven is unlike any you've ever heard, it's utterly bizarre, and it's also clearly the result of decades of extremely careful thought and preparation. Some people will hate it. I adore it. This is the work of a maestro who knows these pieces so well that he's earned the right to pull things in whatever direction he wants. Ivan was always a bit of a mad genius whose interpretations could lurch from incredibly traditional to bizarre in a manner of seconds, but Adam, the 'quiet one', shorter, less charismatic and domineering, is now revealed to be even madder, and just as brilliant, and who knows, maybe the next decade or two will prove him the more brilliant Fischer...