Peter Pongracz, Academy oboe professor and pupil Jozsef Bombai with Marta Szaboky and Istvan Joob in background.
Editor's Note: During a sabbatical leave Mr. Knepper visited in Budapest with Gabor Janota, first bassoonist of the Hungarian State Symphony and professor of bassoon at the Franz Liszt Academy, which is the National School of Music. During this time, he also visited some oboe lessons of Peter Pongracz, professor of oboe at the Academy and first oboist of the Hungarian State Symphony. Mr. Knepper is a member of the faculty of Texas Christian University and is first oboist of the Fort Worth Symphony; he has been treasurer of the IDRS.
There is a thrill to walking the halls of a famous institution which was the training ground of many great musicians of our day, such as Bartok, Kodaly, Dohnanyi, Solti, Dorati, Ormandy among others. The Academy is still an eminent music school in Europe and the oboists (and bassoonists) I heard were of first rank.
Professor Pongracz and several students use Buffet plateau model oboes, with full Conservatory fingering system and the automatic octave key mechanism (as do many Europeans). One of the students played an open-hole Moennig (East German) also with the automatic octave key.
Their reeds are about the same shape, equal or slightly longer than U.S. reeds and their tubes appear to be the same as ours. They place a thin wire quite near the binding, but it did not sound as if it restricted much vibration. The reeds are scraped so that about one-half is bark and the other half is tapered to the tip. The reeds freely crow a B or B-flat, and the tip opening is similar to ours. While I did not play the reeds, from what I heard I think I could have comfortably played them.
The embouchure is an exaggerated smile, with most of the reed in the mouth and with the oboe held at a 45 degree or more angle. The tone they produced was on the dark side, quite even in size from bottom to top, free and seemingly easy to control. When professor Pongracz demonstrated a point it was with a very pleasant sound, but much like we hear from a student who has too much reed in his mouth. I was unable to hear Pongracz with his own orchestra, which was inactive during my visit.
Each oboe student receives two one-hour lessons per week with Pongracz. One lesson is devoted to scales, etudes and orchestral excerpts; the other is for the study of solo literature. I heard three students performing solos with faculty accompanist Marta Szaboky.
Gabor Dienes played the first two movements of the Martinu Concerto with technical ease. He also played from "do" to "do" and returning, "re" to "re", "mi" to "mi", etc., to the top of the instrument, reversing the pattern while descending. He also played thirds, fourths and octaves using various articulation patterns, including double and triple tonguing.
Several of the students were planning to enter the prestigious 1977 Prague Spring International Competition. The competition is held annually with the woodwind (no saxophones) and piano contest being held every four years, alternating with brass, strings, organ and singing. l also heard student Istvan Joob play the Martinu Concerto, a first round elimination requirement which also includes the Haydn Concerto. Second round elimination requirements included a pre-classic or classic composition, and an important 20th-century composition by other than Czech or Slavic composers, and a choice of one of ten compositions by Czech composers.
Student Jozsef Gombai played two of these in making a choice from the ten. I didn't care for the Suite by Kalabis or the Four Compositions by Barta, they being mostly collections of folk-like melodies, lacking in range, challenge, and mostly lacking in any musical interest.
Finals of the competition include only two works, the Mozart Concerto and "any other composition of a concertante character," as the competition brochure states. All phases of the competition are accompanied by piano and need not necessarily be from memory.
Cane is a problem everywhere of course, but more so for Hungarian players who must purchase only from government owned music stores and at a price of $1.00 each for gouged and folded cane. On occasions, some cane is brought back by touring players, but since Hungary has no currency exchange with the West, it is not possible to order cane or music by mail.
Music published in Hungary, Russia or by the Czech government is quite a bargain. Their own recordings are equally low priced (I purchased 3 LPs for $8.50 total price), while imports are impossibly high, thus promoting National Music. l followed Istvan through the Martinu using a piano accompaniment (Russian edition) which had the printed price of 19 forints (less than $1.00) while the last price I can find on an edition imported to the U.S. is over $8.00. The Russian edition had numerous errors in the oboe part and probably in the piano part as well.
Just as women have taken their places in orchestras here, so are they doing in much of Europe. Emilia Csanky, who is now just 25, was a student at the Academy in 1973 when she won the position of first oboe of the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, receiving her Academy diploma in 1975. She may be heard on Hungarian records, and is one of a growing number of fine woodwind players being heard today.
While the Hungarian players and students I met are friendly and seem content with their life style, they are not able to keep up with Western happenings. For example, the Los Angeles Philharmonic played two concerts in Budapest at the time I was there, and according to reports, was the first American orchestra to play there in twenty years. Professor Pongracz asked if Bruno Labate (who retired 30 years ago and died in 1968) was still oboist with the New York Philharmonic, having seen a TV telecast of a Bernstein concert and noted that the oboist (Harold Gomberg) didn't look like Labate!