Annie Fischer was born in Budapest in 1914 and died there in 1995. She
made a relatively small number of commercial recordings. The best known are
probably the Mozart concertos that make up three of the discs in this
wonderful box. All are played with immense character, poise, wit and, above
all, beauty and variety of tone. Despite being accompanied by a larger
orchestra than is common today there is no sense of the heaviness or
coarseness that sometimes occurred at that time, still less of the blandness
that still affects too many performances of these works. Fortunately the
three conductors involved ensure a genuine partnership between soloist and
orchestra with the result that these remain amongst the very best
performances of these works on disc. The box would be worth having for them
alone.
If the remainder does not always reach these exalted heights it is never
less than worth hearing. The best are probably the solo Schumann works. The
title of the box does not do full justice to what is included as the
Kinderszenen and
Kreisleriana were both recorded in Vienna
in 1964 and were therefore not part of her London recordings. They and the
Carnaval recorded in 1957 are wonderfully communicative
performances, with every phrase adding to a continuous musical story.
Fischer’s ability to vary tone colour, weight of tone and internal balance,
especially in repeated sections, ensures that the listener’s attention is
never allowed to wander. The performance of the Piano Concerto is perhaps
not so outstanding, lacking some degree of the
brio which is an
essential part of its character. Even then it is worth hearing for the
imaginative way in which soloist and orchestra interact and for its
unsentimental poetry.
She recorded the complete Beethoven Sonatas for Hungaroton. I have not
heard those performances but the seven Sonatas included here surely whet the
appetite to do so. There is a total absence of any feeling of routine and an
abundance of imagination at work here. The same applies to the Schubert
Sonata in which the opening is allowed a deceptive degree of innocence
before the composer springs one surprise after another. The other two
concertos are perhaps the odd ones out but each comes up with real
freshness. It is worth remembering that she won the First International
Liszt Piano Competition in Budapest in 1933 and that she often played the
music of Bartók. Both of the performances here make one wish that she had
recorded more of the music of these composers.
The discs are well filled and the sound is more than acceptable. The
booklet includes a lengthy and interesting essay by Leslie Gerber about the
pianist. Each of these eight discs contains playing of supreme imagination
and musicality. Whilst listening to them makes one regret that Annie Fischer
did not make more recordings, there is more than enough in this wonderful
box to give enormous and continuing pleasure.
John Sheppard
Full Contents
CD 1 [57:37]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor K466 [31:30]; Piano Concerto No. 23 in A
K488 [26:00]
Philharmonia Orchestra/Sir Adrian Boult
recorded at No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London in February and April
1959
CD 2 [64:31]
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C K467 [30:05]; Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat
K482 [34:14]
Philharmonia Orchestra/Wolfgang Sawallisch
recorded at No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London in February and March
1958
CD 3 [60:19]
Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor K492 [30:58]; Piano Concerto No. 27 in B
flat K595 [29:13]
New Philharmonia Orchestra/Efrem Kurtz
recorded at No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London in May and June 1966
CD 4 [64:50]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Piano Sonatas – No. 8 in C minor Op. 13 “Pathétique” [18:47]; No. 14 in C
sharp minor Op. 27 No. 2 “Moonlight” [15:53]; No. 18 in E flat Op. 31 No. 3
[22:11]; No. 24 in F sharp minor Op. 78 [7:38]
recorded at No. 3 Studio, Abbey Road, London in October and November 1958,
February 1959 and June 1961
CD 5 [67:17]
No. 21 in C Op. 53 “Waldstein” [23:21]; No. 30 in E Op. 109 [18:26]; No.
32 in C minor Op. 111 [25:10]
recorded at No. 3 Studio, Abbey Road, London in June 1957, November 1958
and June 1961
CD 6 [74:45]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Impromptu in A flat D935 No. 2 [7:23]
Impromptu in F minor D935 No. 4 [5:51]
Piano Sonata in B flat D960 [33:18]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Fantasy in C Op. 17 [29:00]
recorded at No. 3 Studio, Abbey Road, London in October 1958 and November
1959
CD 7 [74:39]
Carnaval Op. 9 [25:21]
Kinderszenen Op. 15 [18:22]
Kreisleriana Op. 16 [30:25]
recorded at No. 3 Studio, Abbey Road, London in June 1957 and Vienna in
December 1964
CD 8 [75:24]
Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 54 [32:16]
Franz LISZT (1811-1886) Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat
[18:40]
Schumann and Liszt - Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer
recorded in No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London in May 1969 and May and August
1962
Béla BARTÓK (1881-1945) Piano Concerto No. 3 [24:11]
London Symphony Orchestra/Igor Markevitch
recorded in No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road, London in November 1955
