Philharmonia Hungarica

Emerging from the Cold War’s most harrowing chapter, the Philharmonia Hungarica originated in the wake of World War II. Hungary, after aligning with Nazi Germany, endured Red Army occupation that installed a Communist government. When a popular uprising expelled the Communists in 1956, the Soviet Union responded in October with a massive tank offensive that overwhelmed resistance within days and crushed the short-lived free administration. Tens of thousands fled the advancing forces; Austria, Hungary’s only non-Communist neighbor, reopened its borders and reactivated displaced-persons camps unused since the postwar years.

Among the refugees were many of Hungary’s finest musicians. Zoltan Rozsnyai conceived the idea of an orchestra in exile and gathered 75 players from the camps. On May 28, 1957, they appeared as the Philharmonia Hungarica at the Vienna Konzerthaus. Although the performance revealed the group’s ad-hoc character, Rozsnyai and the musicians committed themselves to building a permanent professional ensemble, motivated both by artistic standards and the urgent need for stable employment.

International Refugee Aid Organizations and numerous musicians of various nationalities lent support, among them the tireless humanitarian Yehudi Menuhin and conductor Antal Dorati. Having left Hungary before World War II, Dorati had already earned recognition as one of the era’s leading orchestra builders. He became artistic mentor, guided the first recordings—of works by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály—led the initial international tour, and helped secure a guaranteed operating loan. The small West German city of Marl on the Ruhr then invited the orchestra to become its resident ensemble, providing a permanent base.

The Philharmonia Hungarica remained active in the studio with Rozsnyai, Dorati, and others, participating in the landmark first integral recording of all Joseph Haydn symphonies under Dorati, a project that collected virtually every major international recording prize. Since then the orchestra has released more than 130 discs and performed in 250 cities worldwide, accompanying such artists as Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Heinrich Schiff, and Menuhin.

After Dorati’s death in 1989, the ensemble named Menuhin honorary president and artistic mentor. Menuhin devised a plan to redefine the orchestra’s purpose, establishing it as the cultural ambassador of the newly united Free Europe.