Miklós Forrai

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Miklós Forrai (born October 19, 1913 in Magyarszék ( Komló small area ), † December 27, 1998 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian conductor, choir director and music professor. In 1980, Miklós Forrai received the Robert Schumann Prize from the city of Zwickau .

education

In addition to his secondary education, Forrai studied piano and composition at the Városi Zenede , the music school of the city of Debrecen . From 1931 he studied at the Music Academy in Budapest, first majoring in trumpet, then two years in the church music department and another year in training as a choir director. He earned a certificate as a singing teacher. In 1935 Zoltán Kodály accepted him into his composition class, straight into the third academic year.

Work and life

In 1934, according to other sources in 1936, Forrai founded a chamber choir with 16 singers named after him. This choir popularized the Renaissance repertoire with over a hundred concerts and numerous radio broadcasts up until 1948. Forrai led the first self-sustaining chamber choir in Hungary.

He joined the circle of Hungarian choirs (Magyar Kórus), through whose music professors Laos Bárdos and Artúr Harmath choral music was published. In 1936 he published the handbook Karvezető , The Choir Director , in 1939 the Fallalla madrigal collection and in 1939 the anthology Karvezetó ezer év kárusa (Choral Works from a Thousand Years). For several years he was the choirmaster of the Cistercian Church Szent Imre , today Villányi and president of the Society for Certified Kapellmeister, founded in 1936. He was the central person around the Kis Filharmónia called youth concerts, which were carried out under the patronage of Magyar Kórus . From 1941 onwards Forrai has given 11 courses at the Hungarian Music Academy. Between 1957 and 1963 he headed the singing department of this music academy.

Forrai acquired an enormous knowledge of musicology; he also had great organizational skills. Bence Szablocsi selected him as co-editor for his music history recordings, Musica Hungarica (1965) and Musica Mundana (1975). Lajos Bárdos entrusted Forrai with the management of Budapesti Kórus in 1948 . The new director preserved the excellent image of this oratorio choir for over thirty years. In 1978, when he put down the baton, he was made an honorary conductor for life. His repertoire ranged from Bach and Handel to contemporary Hungarian and foreign composers. In the spring of 1956 Forrai conducted the Hungarian premiere of Kodály's Missa brevis . In 1958 he performed the Arthur Honegger Oratorio Jean d'Arc at the stake . Forrai was familiar with the music of William Walton , Carl Orff and the Hungarian oratorio compositions from Ferenc Farkas to Ferenc Szabó . He worked with Otto Klemperer , Vittorio Gui , Hermann Scherchen and Zubin Mehta .

Personal

Miklós Forrai was married to the soprano Mária Gyurkovics .

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Forrai, Miklós
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian conductor and choir director
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Magyarszék ( Komló small area )
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1998
Place of death Budapest