Ferenc Farkas

Ferenc Farkas was born on 15 December 1905 in Nagykanizsa (Hungary). He was born into a musical family and began his musical studies in Budapest at the Protestant Gymnasium and later attended the Music Academy, where he studied composition with Leo Weiner and Albert Siklos.
After his graduation in 1927, he worked as a repetiteur and conductor at the Municipal Theatre of Budapest and collaborated with the Diaghilev Ballet. From 1929 to 1931, he attended Ottorino Respighi's masterclass at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Farkas returned to Budapest in the autumn of 1931. As he could not find any other assignments, he played the piano in various theatre orchestras. In 1932 he met the director Paul Fejos for whom he composed several film scores, first in Hungary, then in Vienna and Copenhagen. This collaboration was to be for Farkas the beginning of an impressive series of “applied” music (music for around 75 films and 44 theatre plays and radio plays).
From 1935 he taught at the Budapest City Music School. From 1941 to 1944 he was professor of composition and director at the Conservatory of Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napoca in Romania) and he conducted the city's Opera Chorus. At the end of 1944, because of the war, he had to flee to Budapest, where he worked as the deputy conductor of the Royal Opera Chorus during the siege of the city. In 1946, he was sent to Szekesfehervar where he founded and managed the Conservatory. He was nominated professor of composition at the Franz Liszt Music Academy of Budapest in 1949, a post he held until his retirement in 1975. As a professor he was to have his greatest influence in the second half of the century. Among his notable students were György Kurtag, György Ligeti, Emil Petrovics, Sandor Szokolay, Zsolt Durko, Attila Bozay and Miklos Kocsar.
Ferenc Farkas received multiple awards for this works throughout his lifetime. He was awarded for example the Kossuth Prize twice in 1950 and 1991, the Ferenc Erkel Award in 1960, the Herder Prize in 1979 and the Hungarian Heritage Award in 1997.
Ferenc Farkas died on 10 October 2000 in Budapest (Hungary).

Ferenc Farkas' work catalogue consists of 800 compositions of all genres. He composed three operas, bllat and other stage music, several orchestral compositions, concertos for piano, Alphorn, oboe, trombone, cello, harpsichord and baryton, chamber music for all settings, masses, cantatas and oratorios as well as choral music, songs and film music.

Trittico concertato for cello and string orchestra

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the piano reduction of the Trittico concertato for cello and string orchestra. The work was composed in 1964 and is dedicated to the renowned cellist Gaspar Cassado. Ferenc Farkas and Cassado met in 1963 at the Casals Cello Competition in Budapest where both were members of the jury. Cassado commissioned a cello concerto from Ferenc Farkas and Farkas completed the work the next year. The world premiere took place on 11 September 1965 with Gaspar Cassodo (cello), the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under Edmond de Stoutz (conductor) at the International Festival of Contemporary Music as part of the Venice Biennale.
While composing the work Ferenc Farkas already consulted the Hungarian cellist Vera Denes for advice. Gaspar Cassado passed away in 1966 and so it was Vera Denes who performed the Hungarian premiere of the Trittico concertato in 1967.
The manuscript in my possession comes very likely from the estate of Vera Denes and consists of the piano reduction and two cello parts in the hand of Ferenc Farkas. The piano reduction is also signed by Farkas on the title page and dated 29 September 1966. Below this signature on the title page is a longer text by (very likely the Hungarian composer and arranger) Matyas Kovacs. The text deals with some compositional questions and is dated 30 September 1966.
The score of the work was published in 1968 by Editio Musica Budapest.