Artist database

This is the Artist Database of BMC, which includes information about composers, musicians, orchestras, choirs and groups that are either Hungarian or Hungarian by origin or live in Hungary, as well as information about releases recorded with them.

Frankl Péter


piano

Place of Birth
Budapest
Date of Birth
1935

 
2 October 1935, Budapest

Worldwide known Hungarian-born British pianist.

He graduated at Ferenc Liszt Music Academy under the guidance of Lajos Hernádi, Zoltán Kodály and Leó Weiner. He emigrated from Hungary in 1958. In the late ’50s he won many international contests, he came in first in Paris (1957, Marguerite Long), in Munich (1957) and in Rio de Janeiro (1959).

His international career started in the ’60s – he debuted 1962 in London, then 1967 in New York with the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by György Széll. Subsequently he got requests from the world’s leading orchestras – he was on tour in the U.S. with the Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. He also performed with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Leipziger Gewandhaus, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Orchestre de Paris, the Israeli Philharmonic, with all the orchestras of London and numerous other European orchestras as well. He worked together with such famous conductors as Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barbirolli, Boulez, Davis, Doráti, Ferencsik, Fischer, Haitink, Kempe, Kertész, Leinsdorf, Maazel, Masur, Muti, Sanderling, Solti and Széll.

He was on tour in Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He performed more than twenty times on the BBC Promenade concerts in London, besides he is a frequent guest on the festivals of Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, Aspen, Chautauqua, Hollywood Bowl, Marlboro, Norfolk, Ravinia, Santa Fé, Verbier and Kuhmo. Of his numerous performances in Edinburgh emerges the concert when he played Britten’s Piano concerto, conducted by the composer himself. On the Bukarest Enescu Festival – co-operated with the Budapest Festival Orchestra – he performed at one of the last concerts of Yehudi Menuhin. His main chamber partners are György Pauk, Péter Csaba, András Schiff, Tamás Vásáry, Ralph Kirshbaum, Kyung Wha Chung, as well as the Bartók, Amadeus, Fine Arts, Lindsay, Guarneri, Borogyin, Tokyo, Panocha, Takács and Vermeer String Quartets.

He first returned to Hungary in the early ’70s and ever since he regularly participates at orchestral, solo and chamber music concerts. He holds master courses all over the world and takes part in the jury of prestigious international contests. He recorded all the piano works by Debussy and Schumann, besides solo works by Chopin, Schubert, Beethoven and Bartók, piano concertos by Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Chopin, chamber works by Mozart, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Dvořak, Dohnányi, Martinu and Bartók. In the ’90s there was a record published with the title “Hungarian Anthology”, where pieces by Bartók, Kodály, Weiner and Kurtág were recorded, as well as András Szőllőssy’s Paesaggio con morti, which was dedicated to Péter Frankl.

For the time being he lives in London and teaches as guest professor at the Yale University in the USA. For his artistic performance he was awarded with the Officer’s Cross and Medium Cross of the Hungarian Republic. He is professor emeritus of the Ferenc Liszt Academy.

He was awarded in 2021 Pro Cultura Hunarica Prize.
 
Year Title Publisher Code Remark
Schumann, Robert: Piano Music (Complete) Vol.4 Vox Box VOX-ED-5188
Schumann, Robert: Piano Music (Complete) Vol.5 Vox Box VOX-ED-5189
Schumann, Robert: Piano Music (Complete) Vol.1 Vox Box VOX-ED-5185
Schumann, Robert: Piano Music (Complete) Vol.2 Vox Box VOX-ED-5186
Schumann, Robert: Piano Music (Complete) Vol.3 Vox Box VOX-ED-5187
1979 Schubert, Franz: Impromptus - Moments musicaus - Wanderer Fantasy - Piano Pieces Vox Box CD3X-3011 3 CDs
1981 Bartók Béla: Centenáriumi kiadványok Hungaroton LP
1990 Chopin, Franz: Ballades Nos.1-4 - Fantasy in F minor Allegretto ACD-8151
1991 Schumann, Robert: Piano Concerto - Violin Concerto - Cello Concerto - Concertstück for 4 Horns Vox Box CDX-5027
1992 Debussy, Claude: Solo Piano Music Vol.2 Vox Box CDX-5063 2 CDs
1994 Debussy, Claude: La Mer - Prélude a l'apres-midi d'un faune - Arabesque No.2 - Clair de lune Allegretto ACD-8041
1996 Schubert, Franz: Chamber Music - String Trio D.581 - Duo Sonata D.574 - 3 Violin Sonatinas Vox Box CD3X-3042 3 CDs
1998 Zempléni Művészeti Napok 1992-1998 Antenna Hungária AH CD 007
2001 50 éves a Hungaroton - Zongoraművészek (1951-2001)
(Fifty Years of Hungaroton - Pianists)
Hungaroton HCD 32088-90 3 CDs
2002 Brahms, Johannes: Négy szimfónia; Hegedű- és zongoraversenyek; Német requiem; Változatok egy Haydn-témára; Tragikus nyitány Akadémiai ünnepi nyitány Hungaroton HCD 32137 6 CDs
2002 Szőllősy András: III. Concerto, Tristia (Maros-sirató), Fabula Phaedri, Miserere, Töredékek Hungaroton HCD 31727
2003 Paganini, Niccolo: Vox Box CD3X-3020 3 CDs
2009 Schuman, Robert: Piano Duos (Complete) Vox Box CD3X-3001 3 CDs
2018 The Brahms Project Hungaroton HCD 32808 Own