abstract:The Budapest Festival Orchestra (Hungarian: Budapesti Fesztiválzenekar) was formed in 1983 by Iván Fischer and Zoltán Kocsis, with musicians "drawn from the cream of Hungary's younger players", as The Times put it. Its aim was to make the orchestra's concerts into significant events in Hungary's musical life, and to give Budapest a new symphony orchestra of international standing.
The reader learns, for example, that most players in the BudapestFestivalOrchestra do not really mind when Ivan Fischer lays down the law, but that the players of the robustly democratic Concertgebouw Orchestra most certainly do.