Ida Tóth
Career of Lajos Lencsés
The number of Lajos Lencsés' recordings is close to one hundred, which alone makes the oboist, who has been touring the world for nearly sixty years, an exceptional figure among his peers. His concert experiences as a teenager, the suggestive stage presence of János Ferencsik and the playing of Yehudi Menuhin have shaped not only his musical taste but also his character as a performer. Among his masters, Nándor Schwáb, the solo oboist of the Operaház (Hungarian State Opera House), led him to discover unknown masterpieces, hence Lencsés' performance and recording of dozens of outstanding works from the Baroque period to the present day. He also succumbed to the lure of the unknown when, as a recent graduate, he set off on a journey into the world.
Lajos Lencsés was born on 18 January 1943 in Dorog, and although his ancestors lived in great need, his father was sold to a miner at the age of thirteen, he considers music to be a family heritage. “My ancestors, my parents, were miners, peasants, railwaymen; Hungarians, Swabians on my mother's side, from the Augsburg area, like Mozart's father. Perhaps they brought their love of music with them, because they all played music and sang, even my grandfather, although he was “only” a bass drummer, but he was proud to say that I was the heartbeat of the orchestra” recalls in his memoirs the oboist, who started playing in the local brass band at the age of nine. “The fact that I later became a musician is due to my father. [...] My father played music until his dying breath”, he confirms, and then confesses that he has made it his life's mission to make his father's dream come true. “To this day, many years after his death, I still take a bow in his name and on his behalf at concerts. We share any honour to date”.
French literacy
He studied at the Bartók Béla Konzervatórium (Béla Bartók Conservatory of Music) and Zeneakadémia (Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music). His career was influenced by his fascination for French culture: he was awarded several scholarships for master classes in France, after the French Institute in Budapest took notice of the young musician's activity. “To this day, I still marvel at the young man who had the courage to venture into the great unknown in the mid-1960s. But this is still my country: I was born here, into this language, into this culture” said the artist, whose first trip was to Nice, to the summer academy where he took a course with the legendary oboist Pierre Pierlot, about his ties. He was immediately captivated by the place, although he had no idea that decades later he would be teaching there and playing Schumann at magical evening concerts in the courtyard of the Franciscan monastery.
When he decided at the age of 24 that he wanted to live, study and play as much music as possible in the French capital, he was encouraged by the words “Fluctuat, nec mergitur” – “Float, but not submerge” – on the emblem of the city on the Seine. In 1967, he was admitted to the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris, a period he later told Gábor Fenyő, retired director of the MÁV Symphony Orchestra, about. It was not about Conservatoire education: I had already learned the oboe and musicianship well before then, as I had excellent teachers. [...] What was really great in Paris, and what I still benefit from today, was the culture shock. I went out every night: to the Opera, the Comédie Francaise... that's where I learned real French. I had a chance to see great actors and singers.” In the interview, Lajos Lencsés recalled his most memorable experiences: in Paris, he saw Tristan conducted by Karl Böhm and with the legendary Swedish dramatic soprano Birgit Nilsson, and on another occasion Debussy's opera Pelléas and Mélisande with Jean Cocteau's sets, and he also saw the world-famous composer Darius Milhaud conduct and Otto Klemperer perform with the Philharmonia Orchestra, London. In the meantime, he played in chamber orchestras, had the opportunity to perform solo, and helped out in orchestras, did hack work, but because he was not an EU citizen, he was not invited to audition. In search of a solution, he went to Germany, where he became first oboist of the Philharmonia Hungarica, a group of Hungarian emigrants.
The Philharmonia Hungarica orchestra, made up of so-called dissidents, was founded by the United Nations after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and its musicians were based in the industrial town of Marl in central Westphalia, Germany. Lencsés recalls that the orchestra had a particular atmosphere, for example, when conductor Antal Doráti came, they played brilliantly, but otherwise unmotivated. The oboist's mind kept thinking: if he had left his homeland, this could not be the end of the line. He kept asking himself: what could be his goal, what was the value of his knowledge, was he on the right track? In his search for answers, he tried his hand on the international stage, and succeeded. “The incredible concentration created a strange atmosphere” the artist recalled of the atmosphere at the 1968 Geneva oboe competition, “I was caught between dream and reality in those days, especially after the jury had made its decision. Eugène Bozza, one of the most prolific composers of wind chamber music, congratulated me and showed me his written opinion of me. He wrote: “Pierre Pierlot, plus Hungarian temperament”. As a result of this recognition, the temperamental Hungarian musician was offered a unique position with the Philharmonia Hungarica Orchestra: twelve solo concerts a year, which established his international reputation and his vast repertoire. His triumphs have brought him to the forefront of the music world, and as a soloist he has performed in concert halls around the world: Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Madrid, Brussels, Athens, Lisbon, the USA and Japan. His recordings include oboe concertos by Richard Strauss, Mozart and Haydn, and as a chamber musician he has enjoyed success with his French colleagues at the summer Festival de Provence.
37 years with the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra
In 1971, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra advertised a solo oboe position, for which Lajos Lencsés applied, but as a stateless person he was not invited to audition. It seemed that the Geneva Prize didn't matter, only the bureaucracy of not having German citizenship.... The musician nevertheless travelled to Stuttgart, where he was the last one to show off his skills at the end of the day. Lencsés, as the only one of all applicants, played the oboe concerto without sheet music, was applauded at the end of the piece, and was awarded the job. The Hungarian musician was the principal oboist of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra for thirty-seven years, until the age of sixty-five, and over the years he learned that “it is not the masterpiece where the conductor jumps to the highest point on the podium”, because playing good music is a multifaceted activity. Playing music with the world-famous conductor Karl Münchinger gave him the feeling of a sculptor conducting, sculpting Bach, Mozart, Britten with his mighty hands in the heat of the moment, and not resting until the malleable music had taken its true form.
In the past decades, Lajos Lencsés has regularly given concerts in Hungary, and his inaugural lecture entitled A zene és az emigráció (Music and Emigration) was held in December 2023 at the MMA's headquarters in Pesti Vigadó. He lives a multicultural life. After half a century, he is naturally attached to Stuttgart, while he can relax in the Provençal environment: ”Village people sit in the café and ask: Lajos, are you on a holiday again? Of course, if they don't come past my house, they don't hear the oboe” he said, describing his way of life. “I practice every day. It's a matter of honour, but I also need a time for rest and relaxation, when I immerse myself in languages and the intellectual creations of different cultures.”
Albums from the oeuvre
Lajos Lencsés plays oboe, oboe d' amore and English horn. His recordings number close to a hundred, and it is sometimes incredible how he his way to works. “At the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, I played a lot of English, French and Russian music directly from the sheets almost as a child, in the lessons of Nándor Schwáb. On one such occasion, I fell in love with an 18th century piece” he says. Years later I looked it up: it was Ivan Efstafyevich Khandoshkin's viola concerto transcribed for oboe.” But no portrait of Khandoshkin has survived. All that is known of his musical history is that he was born into a serf family, was an excellent violinist, served with Count Naryshkin and later in the orchestra of Tsar Peter III. Not many of his works have reached Hungary. Lajos Lencsés orchestrated the piece he discovered for string orchestra and recorded it, which was a great success.
In search of forgotten works, the oboist researched the library of the Biblioteca Estense in Modena, Italy, where he discovered works of historical importance. His discoveries were followed by requests from major record companies, and the resulting releases, twenty-five CDs with the Budapest Strings alone, have been distributed all over the world. His repertoire includes works by Richard Strauss, Francis Poulenc, Benjamin Britten, Domenico Cimarosa, Antonio Pasculli, as well as lesser-known works by composers such as Charles Koechlin, Jean Françaix, Guy Ropartz, Henri Dutilleux, Nino Rota and Johannes Wenzeslaus Kalliwoda.
His first joint album with the Budapest String Ensemble: Oboaverseny (Oboe Concerto) by Nicolaus Stulick. The CD, released in 1993, was a milestone in the composer's life. The recording was made with heroic determination in the middle of the night in the ceremonial hall of the Town Hall, where the acoustics are superb, when the underground is no longer operating. The work was done in a dreamlike atmosphere from ten in the evening until three in the morning. “Not much is known about Stulick, the Czech composer, but one thing is certain: his oboe concerto is magically beautiful. The slow movement is one of the most beautiful I have ever played” recalled Lajos Lencsés.
The score of Amor és Psyche (Amor and Psyche) by Leopold Gassmann is retained in the library of the Biblioteca Estense in Modena. A special friendship led to the discovery of the Czech opera composer, and the story of the birth of the Gassmann CD also gives us an insight into the oboist's personality. “I was giving a concert at the Festival de Provence and a man approached me during the break. He congratulated me in English, and I was wondering: we're in France, why do we have to speak English here? It was Richard Pringsheim from Musica Rara. He introduced himself and I asked him if he was related to Thomas Mann since Thomas Mann's wife was Katharina Pringsheim. My brother-in-law” he replied, handing me his card. It turned out that we didn't live far apart. We went out for tea every month, although in my mind tea is related to illness, I bought a lot of music from him, and it always bothered me that he spoke to me consistently in English, because I don't speak English well, and it was awful. Anyway, we had a charming conversation, and when I read Doctor Faust for his sake, he gently remarked, “Thomas Mann is too complicated for me, I prefer to read Gogol.” One day he showed me a wonderful book, a collection of oboe works on his desk: chamber music, sonatas, concertos from 1685 to the 1800s, with an exact catalogue, source notes and descriptions. A sensational collection. “I am giving it to you because you are a natural born publisher” said Richard Pringsheim, “and from now on I will speak to you in German because I was born in Freiburg.” Now that's what I call a miracle, even if it did take a few years. And I still use the collection to this day” concluded Lajos Lencsés, who also found an 18th century opera by Leopold Gassmann among the oboe works. The story of Amor és Psziche (Amor and Psyche) also made the oboist realise that music is never alone, as it is in constant contact with the human soul and with literature, painting, architecture, basically arts. This unique musical piece is available on the album Oboa Quartets & Quintets in cooperation with the Szigeti Quartet.
The album Chamber Works for Oboe, released in Germany in 1999, brings the listener closer to French culture through the works of Charles Koechlin. In Paris, not far from the Hungarian Institute, Lajos Lencsés came across Koechlin's correspondence and autobiography in a music shop. “To this day, when I go to Paris, I don't want to see the city, but myself in the mirror that is Paris” he recalled the joy of discovery and recognition during our conversation.
Neville Marriner, the former music director and first conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, knew that the orchestra was made up of individuals. Because he saw the musicians in this way, the orchestra sounded better: the soloists performed their orchestral parts as if they were standing on the concert podium. “Lajos, what are we going to play?” Marriner asked one day. “Whatever is on the programme” replied the oboist, unsuspectingly. “I know” the music director continued, “but what concerto would you like to play?” Lajos Lencsés mentioned Oboaverseny (Oboe Concerto) by Richard Strauss, and soon afterwards he saw his name in the orchestra's Master Concert series, which otherwise featured world stars. He was shocked, but he deserved the credit. The album, conducted by Neville Marriner and featuring the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, includes Oboaverseny (Oboe Concerto) and Metamorfózis (Metamorphoses) by Richard Strauss.
The oboist is naturally linked to the composers of his homeland. Hans von Koessler, also known in Hungary as János Koessler, taught for a long time at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in two different eras (1882-1908, 1920-1924), where he was the master of renowned students who went on to become composers, including Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály and Ernő Dohnányi. Koessler's chamber songs (Kammergesänge, 1912) were recorded in cooperation with the Parisii Quartet and Lajos Lencsés.
Frigyes Hidas's music of 1951 is the most famous Hungarian oboe concerto. Emigrammák (Emigrams) by Kodály is also a product of the 1950s, and Melinda Kistétényi wrote a traditional text for the nine-movement set. Lajos Lencsés last played these popularly modern pieces at his 80th birthday concert at the BMC. The oboist's forthcoming CD of contemporary music will also be released by the BMC, composer Iván Patachich conducted electroacoustic and computer music experiments in Stuttgart and Utrecht in 1976-77.
Lencsés described Hommage L.L. 80. születésnapjára (Hommage for L.L.’s 80th birthday) by György Kurtág as a miniature. “I consider meeting 97-year-old György Kurtág one of the best days of my life. On the occasion of my 80th birthday, I performed at the BMC and stayed there, on the very floor where Kurtág, one of the greatest composers of our time lived. After the rehearsal, I got a message from him: “Come to my place at 10:30 p.m. tonight.” He was mentally fresh, he was really radiant, and he told me that he had written a miniature piece for me, which is actually a ballad. I was smitten. We drank on first name terms and he told me that he was working on a setting of an early poem by Attila József, and read out the poem Kukoricaföld (Cornfield): “...The cool twilight covers me with silent blue, / I think of you with great delight.” Kurtág spoke in a voice of pure poetry, without any frills. “Come in again tomorrow” he begged me, as I headed back to my room before midnight. The next evening I took the English horn to him and played the little piece I had received as a present, Hommage L.L. 80. születésnapjára (Hommage for L.L.’s 80th birthday). “Bring the oboe tomorrow” the master said in farewell, and the next day I played the piece for him on oboe. “I think the oboe d' amore would be the most beautiful” Kurtág mused. The so-called oboe of love belongs to the family of reed instruments, with a sound somewhere between the English horn and the oboe. It is a beautiful instrument, and Bach's cantatas, for example, are mostly played on it. After the birthday meeting I made a recording: I played Kurtág's gift first on oboe, then on oboe d' amore, then on English horn. The whole thing is a three-minute recording, the same piece in three versions. The first version is rational, the second sentimental, the last more prophetic. This will also be heard on the next album.”
Eighty-year-old Lajos Lencsés played the first movement of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Oboe Concerto in B-flat major at the MMA's round birthday musicians’ concert on 12 November 2023 at the Pesti Vigadó (Vigadó Concert Hall, Budapest). After the concert, he said: “It's not like I get on stage and, like a cowboy shooting from the hip, I blow a long run. It's a wonderful saying that the silence after Mozart's symphony is still Mozart. As a player of reed instruments, I can tell you that the silence before the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach work is already part of the work, so there is no hurry to get it over with. Although the fingers move, the soul makes music. This festive concert made me think: how long is it allowed to play music? Music is timeless, of course, but we musicians are finite. The audience expects us to make a kind of well-managed, 'sporty' show, rightly so, but are we allowed to showcase our vulnerability?”
Contemporary works dedicated to Lajos Lencsés
Every era has its spirit, and if you understand it, the performance will be convincing” says the oboist, who is at home in many styles from baroque to contemporary music and has a number of performances to his name. In 1994, at the age of almost 90, Ferenc Farkas dedicated a version of his Aria e rondo all'ungherese to Lajos Lencsés, in which the soloistic oboe and violin solo is accompanied by a string orchestra. (Two versions for violin and string orchestra have also been written.) Sándor Balassa's Kettősverseny oboára, kürtre és vonószenekarra (Double Concerto for oboe, horn and string orchestra) was premiered in 2004 with Lajos Lencsés on oboe and Imre Magyari on horn. The Swedish composer Anders Hillborg wrote a piece for Lencsés entitled Meditáció egy Petrarca témára (Meditation on a Petrarca Theme), the oboist finished his orchestral career in Stuttgart with this work. Georges Hugon dedicated his solo oboe piece Chant de la solitude to Lencsés, and Italian composer Bruno Maderna's Solo contributed to the renewal of the oboe repertoire. Lajos Lencsés, who inspired these works, also considers it important to pass on his experience and professional knowledge to the younger generation: he has taught at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, and has given master classes in Europe, the USA and Japan at the Sakuyo, Kunitachi and Toho universities. He was awarded numerous prizes for his recordings (including the Diapason d'Or 1990, “Choc” du Monde de la Musique). In 2003 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary and in 2004 he was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit. Since 2023, he has been a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts.
[2024]