[1][2] His military service was spent playing in the orchestra of the army's Central Arts Ensemble (1950–51).

[4] Shortly after winning the Carl Flesch competition he participated in a Bartók memorial concert in London, in which he was described by Henry Raynor as playing with "aplomb".

[1][2] Described in Grove's as "pre-eminent among Hungarian violinists",[1] Kovács premiered several works by 20th-century Hungarian composers, and he also recorded works by Gyula Dávid, Frigyes Hidas, Pál Kadosa, András Mihály and István Sárközy.

2 with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ervin Lukacs, describes both performances as "distinguished", especially the "cogent, well-shaped performance" of the concerto; however, he characterises the first movement as "uncomfortably fast", preferring Szerying's version.

Samson criticises Kovács' interpretation of the rhapsodies as "rather too 'straight', lacking the discreet touches of rubato and telling variations in tone colour" of an earlier recording by André Gertler.

[6] Antoine Goléa, in a review of the complete Bartók set, describes two discs by Kovács as "essential" ("indispensables"): Violin Concerto No.

[2] In a 1972 publication, he was one of several academics to criticise the Kodály method, universally used to teach music in Hungary at that date, considering that the drilling of solmization did not impart artistic understanding – "Learning the alphabet does not create a desire for reading".