The preceding interview with Hans Swarowsky was published in my book Muzsikusportrék (Musicians' Portraits) by Editio Musica Budapest (EMB) in 1979. I was in loose contact at the time with his Hungarian pupils, the brothers Ádám and Iván Fischer; their father, the translator and conductor Sándor Fischer, had been my colleague in Hungarian Radio.

One day, the three of them came to my office at EMB and I recorded a conversation with the younger Fischers, to draw a portrait of Swarowsky from their perspective. They were relentlessly frank in their opinions (I can still hear in my mind's ear their father's chuckle in the background). Also, they were remarkably polite: they never interrupted one another. What could easily have been a debate were instead two separate interviews.

Nearly forty years have passed since, and both Ádám and Iván have established themselves as conductors of international prestige—they have done Swarowsky proud. Ádám, for instance, has founded the orchestra Österreich-Ungarische Haydn Philharmonie and has given some exemplary performances of Haydn's symphonies. He has also appeared in Bayreuth and conducted much admired concert performances of Wagner operas in Budapest.

Iván established the Budapest Festival Orchestra in 1983 and has developed it into one of the top European ensembles. Miraculously enough, he has succeeded in keeping it alive under the most adverse circumstances in a politically and economically unstable country and has in addition carried on an international career quite independently from his orchestra, restricting his conducting to five groups, including the Berlin Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw.