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Géza Frid was born in Hungary in 1904. His father was employed at a wood factory, his mother was a good musician and she started to teach young Géza at the age of four. He made his piano debut as a child prodigy at the age of six and he played a.o. at Leo Tolstoi’s house. Eight years old he moved to Budapest to study piano and composition at the Ferenc Liszt Academy. He had impressive teachers as Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály who were in the centre of a fermenting artlife on which they put a stamp in many respects. Frid graduated in 1924. At that time, the Hungarian capital was a sparkling cultural centre wich offered the young Frid with his early developed talents a chance to take cognisance of diverging artistic currents in music, as well as in literature and theatre.
His first compositions, a string trio and quartet, date from 1926. When in 1929, Géza Frid choose Amsterdam as his final residence, he was only 25 years old. Nevertheless, he already had started a career that unmistakenly showed the germs of his ever increasing cosmopolitic artistry. In 1930 his Suite for Orchestra was performed for the first time in Paris and conducted by Pierre Monteux.
In 1948 he received the Dutch nationality and in that same year he made a concert tour to Indonesia, a country which he would visit several times. He was a renowned interpreter of Bartók and a much sought-after accompanist. Comprehensive concert tours brought him through the whole of Europe and the United States, as well as in the Soviet Union, Israel, Turkey, Surinam, the Netherlands Antilles and Latin America. They confirmed the image of his cosmopolitic nature.
In 1964, he started to teach chamber music at the conservatory in Utrecht. He continued composing all through his life together with his performances as a pianist. In his compositions he strives for an accessible style. His works comprise almost 100 opus numbers and cover a wide range of forms and casts. Although he wrote many works for the piano in different settings, also compositions for choir are notable in his oeuvre. In 1948 and in 1954 he received the Music Prize of the city of Amsterdam.
Some major orchestral works are Paradou (1948; Music Prize Amsterdam); Concert for two violins and orchestra (1952); Études symphoniques (1954; Music Prize Amsterdam); Concert for two pianos and orchestra (1957); concerts for three violins and orchestra (1970; 1979).
His chamber music includes a.o. a sonate for violin (1955) and some string quartets. His choral works include "Hymne aan de arbeid" (1951; for male choir and orch.); 10 laments (1951; female choir).He wrote two books in Dutch: "Oog in oog met ... Tolstoj, Thomas Mann, Bomans, Mussolini, Mengelberg, Bartók en Ravel" (1976); and "In tachtig jaar de wereld rond: herinneringen (1984).
Géza Frid died in Beverwijk, The Netherlands, in 1989. After his death he was awarded the Bartók Prize of the Ferenc Liszt Academy in Boedapest.
(Contribution by Hein Moors <moors.petegem
home.nl>.)