RECOVERING  A  LEGACY  (released 1999)
                                                                                            by Björn Westberg 

Björn Westbergs father and grandfather played the violin, so he received a varied musical education. Björn Westberg (born 1942) is a librarian by profession, has been many decades contributor of music magazines as well as official publications. In the 1990s Björn Westberg took part in founding the Swedish musical quarterly “MELOS” as co-editor and critic. DISCOGRAPHY by John Hunt SPONSORING by Lennart Ericcson (born 1940, civil engineer, having a family business, living in Stockholm). As youngster he listened to classical music in the fifties (as a teenager). - He felt that Fricsay conducted and  performed with  great energy, - with special rythm. - Realizing that Fricsay had died only 48 years old, he wanted to know more about the conductor and searched for more knowledge after having read in “FONO FORUM”: ”Ein vergessener unter der Grossen ”. -  In the nineties he met Björn Westberg who had written two articles in a Swedish music-paper and Lennart Ericcson decided to finance ”Ferenc Fricsay- recovering a legacy.”

- INTRODUCTION:
 
           “Fricsay was one of very few of my younger colleagues
                                                    that could still display humility”        -  BRUNO  WALTER

           “Fricsay was one of the world’s greatest conductors
                                  - certainly, no conductor had greater talent”       -  YEHUDI  MENUHIN

- PREFACE: (few lines of article clipping)
…. Comparisons are often made with recorded interpretations of other conductors or artists and orchestras, a few of which are described in greater detail, this to put Fricsay into perspective …

… Fricsay was an enlightened artist, but he has been handicapped by type-casting as a specialist on contemporary music and by rumours of being an austere and different conductor …     he is cerebral, stern and exacting but also a deeply emotional conductor. He displays tremendous power, buoyancy an élan, but beneath there runs a dark vein of melancholy …

- CONTENTS:

        - COMET CAREER, ILLNESS AND EARLY DEATH

        - FRICSAY IN STOCKHOLM …

        - CONDUCTORS – A HUNGARIAN EXPORT …

        - FRICSAY CREATES HIS OWN ENSEMBLE …

- PART  2      A GUIDE TO FRICSAY’S RECORDED LEGACY
                                         “The past is not dead, it is not even past”  - ANONYMOUS

- CONCLUSION    by   Björn Westberg

In the fullness of his mental power Fricsay made his final recording at the age of 47. – This was in November 1961 …. It is reasonable to assume that we have misses say four decades of an anticipated further development of Fricsay’s art. This would certainly also have resulted in a far greater and more varied recorded legacy …

Fricsay’s energy, incisiveness and articulation make other performers’ efforts often pale in comparison. – There is in his art a singular tension between discipline and expression, will and obsession, reason and emotion. – Fricsay expands listening to music:

                      “IHR  SOLLT  NICHT  TÖNE  SPIELEN,  IHR  SOLLT  SINGEN!  –
                                                                             Fricsay     ("Don't play notes, just sing!")