Download Brief biography

Brief biography
Oeuvre and awards
The Dutch composer Géza Frid (1904-1989), of Hungarian birth,
was a key figure in the world of post-war Dutch music. Géza
Frid’s extensive and varied oeuvre – about 100 registered
compositions – does not lend itself to one simple description.
Characteristics of his style are in any case a striking feel
for rhythm and a melodic creativity rooted in the folklore of
his native land. His works, often commissioned, were inspired
by Bartók, Debussy and Ravel.
Christiaan and Dick
Bor at Frids home,
1964
A whole series of chamber works were written for almost all
settings imaginable, and include five quartets, but also a
considerable amount of music for the violin and the piano,
plus numerous works for orchestra, opera and ballet music,
vocal works, music for a wide variety of wind instruments, and
so forth.His first works received their premières in Budapest,
but the Orchestral Suite, opus 6 was first performed in Paris
Paris [program] by Pierre Monteux, followed by performances by
the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam) and the Boston
Symphony Orchestra in New York [program].
In 1969 Frid wrote for Emmy Verhey and the brothers Christiaan
and Dick Bor his Concerto for Three Violins and Orchestra,
opus 78 : “Unique in the literature of violin concertos”,
according to Wouter Paap in Mens & Melodie, April 1970. One of
his most frequently performed pieces is undoubtedly the
Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra, opus 55 , that
received its première in 1952 in the hands of the inimitable
duo Herman Krebbers and Theo Olof with the Residentie
Orchestra conducted by Willem van Otterloo.
He was awarded the Amsterdam Music Prize
twice: in 1949 and 1954 for his Paradou,
opus 28 for a large orchestra, and for
Etudes Symfoniques, opus 47 [Haagse
Post], also written for a large
orchestra. Frid received a second prize
in 1950 in the composition competition
run by the Dutch World Broadcasting
Service and the KNTV (Royal Dutch
Musicians
Association)
for
his
Variations on a Dutch Folksong, opus 29
for choir and orchestra. A further prize
was awarded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
for the Sonata for Violin and Piano, opus 50. Frid’s Third
String Quartet, opus 30 and Fourth String Quartet, opus 30a
won respectively third prize in 1951 and a fourth prize in
1956 at the Concours International à Cordes in Liège. In 1990
Géza Frid was awarded posthumously the prestigious Béla Bartók
prize by the Hungarian Government for his complete oeuvre as
“internationally renowned musician of Hungarian descent”.
Bartók and Kodály
Géza Frid gave his first public performance as a
7-year-old child prodigy on the piano in his
native town Máramarossziget. He was taught by
the director of the local music school. He
played everything effortlessly from memory:
“Mostly gypsy-like Hungarian songs of dubious
quality”, Frid remembered. In 1912 the family
moved to Budapest so that Géza could study at
the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music there.
1966 – Zoltán
Frids home
Kodaly
at
There he was taught by stars such as Béla Bartók (piano) and
Zoltán Kodály (composition), with whom he would maintain
contact as friends and colleagues even after his departure
from Hungary. In 1924 he was the first student in the history
of the academy to take final exams in two subjects
simultaneously: piano and composition. Because of the Nazi
escalation he very soon left his native country, living for a
time in France and Italy and completing a series of concert
toursthroughEuropewiththeviolinistZoltánSzékely.
In 1929 Frid settled for good in the
Netherlands. The cosmopolitan in him
chose in the end for Amsterdam rather
than Brussels, London or Paris, due to
the musical climate, but also, as he
confesses in his autobiography of
1984, due to “the exceptional and for me still acute
attraction of Dutch girls!”. In 1937 he married the singer
and pianist Ella van Hall in his home town, Amsterdam. In 1939
their son, Arthur, was born.
Concert tours
As a successful concert pianist, but
also as an interpreter of chamber
music, Géza Frid made countless concert
tours over the whole world. In 1948 he
visited Indonesia, as the first Dutch
artist to do so, and in two months gave
more than forty concerts and piano
recitals, as well as standing in for
the sick conductor of the Radio
Philharmonic Orchestra in Jakarta, Yvon
Baarspul. In 1951 and 1956 he again
performed as a soloist in Indonesia.
Frid gave further concerts in, amongst
other lands, Italy (1926, 1955, 1965),
Siam and Egypt (1951), Israel (1962,
1965, 1967), South and North America
(2965, 1967), Turkey (1965), Surinam and
the Netherlands Antilles (1970), the the
USA (1970, 1974) and Hungary (1971,
1974). He accompanied among others the
pre-war vocal stars Ilona Durigo and
Elisabeth Schumann. He formed a duo with
the pianist Luctor Ponse . Their
collaboration is still recalled in the sparkling 1960
performance of Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and
Percussion with members of the London Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Antal Doráti (Mercury Living Presence, CD 434
362-2, 1995). Frid performed with outstanding soloists such as
the singer Guus Hoekman and the violinists Henryk Szering,
Elise Cserfalvi, Jo Juda and Christiaan Bor. He was at the
same time permanent accompanist of the soprano Erna
Spoorenberg. Together they went on tour through the Soviet
Union in 1963, the first Dutch musicians since the Second
World War to do this.
Versatile
During the occupation of the Netherlands, Frid, as a stateless
Jew, could not perform. He was active as a forger of coupons
and identity documents and took part in the artists’
resistance movement. In 1948 he was, at long last,
naturalized. The pianist Frid revealed himself to be a
versatile creative and performing artist, composer, teacher
and author/critic. After the war he taught for some years at
the Music Lyceum in Rotterdam and from 1964 to 1970 he was
head of chamber music at the Utrecht Conservatory. He occupied
various managerial positions in the music world, including 20
years with BUMA, the performing rights organization for the
Netherlands.
The
1950’s
saw
Frid
writing
increasingly
for
Dutch
music
journals, covering a range of topics
and musicians. He had, for example,
over the years eleven articles
devoted to Kodály and no less than 25
to Bartók. In 1955 the Bartók Society
was founded, with Géza Frid as
chairman. From 1954 to 1970 he was
music critic with Het Vrije Volk. Two
books – both unfortunately now out of
print – were published. In 1976 ‘Oog
in oog met …’ (‘Eye to eye with …) (Heuff Publishers,
Nieuwkoop, with a foreword by Theo Olof) about his contacts
with seven great personalities: Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, Bomans,
Mussolini, Mengelberg, Bartók and Ravel. In 1984 appeared his
bulky autobiography (291 pages, Strengholt Publishers,
Naarden, with a foreword by Lex van Delden): ‘In tachtig jaar
de wereld rond’ (‘Around the World in 80 years’). For his
promotional work, Frid received from the Hungarian government
both the Bartók Diploma [diploma] and the Kodály Diploma
[diploma] . On his seventieth birthday he was knighted by the
Amsterdam Alderman Evert Brautigam during a jubilee concert in
the Concertgebouw. Nico Schuyt gave the address on behalf of
the Society of Dutch Composers. Béla Bartók Jr. and the young
wife of Kodály spoke on behalf of his Hungarian musical
friends.
Géza Frid Foundation
Géza Frid was an erudite man with unmistakable flair, a
Dutchman who never belied his origins, bon vivant and widely
read lover of literature. Artist in heart and soul, a
romantic, too, who coupled an exceptional expertise with an
equally exceptional sense of humour. His music breathes this!
The
Géza
Frid
Foundation
was
inaugurated in 1998 with the objectives
(according to the statutes) to:
“Attract the attention of the public to
the extensive and varied oeuvre of the
composer Géza Frid and to secure an
enduring position for this in the dutch
and international music world.”
The three officers of the foundation are:
Sietse Steenstra, chairman
Han van der Leek, treasurer
Arthur Frid, secretary
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