Annie Fischer - The Centennial Collection (2013)

Fischer studied under Ernő Dohnányi and Arnold Székely at the Academy of Music, graduating at the age of eighteen. Meanwhile she had debuted outside the country in Zürich in 1928, playing concertos by Mozart and Schumann. In spring 1933 she won the first prize at the first International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Budapest, which launched her international career. After the years of World War II, which she spent in Sweden in emigration, she returned to Hungary in 1946. From then on, concerting took her to nearly all countries of Europe, to the United States and to Australia. She was invited as a solo artist on a permanent basis to quite a few highly praised music festivals (Edinburgh, Luzern, Salzburg). Over the years she came to work with numerous world-famous orchestras and conductors such as Willem Mengelberg, Fritz Busch, Ernest Ansermet, Otto Klemperer and Herbert von Karajan. The core of her extensive repertoire consisted of works of Viennese composers in the mature Classical era (Mozart and Beethoven) as well as works from the Romantic era (Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms). “She is the most perfect at something that so few in the world can do: playing Mozart” - András Pernye wrote about her (Magyar Nemzet, 1965). “A miracle happened during the performance of Beethovens piano concerto in G major - there is no other word fit to describe this rendition. The purest humanism, that is what Annie Fischers playing embodied” - Janos Breuer mused (Népszabadság, 1967). “Liszt's piano concerto was full of glamour, thunder and ambitious solutions (…). Her playing was crystal clear, perfectly proportionate and radiated wisdom” - Charles Reid wrote (News Chronicle, 1959).

Throughout her long and prolific career, Annie Fischer's amazing talent for music was accompanied by a sound foundation in the art, exceptional skills, precision and an outstanding intelligence as a performer. Her well-rounded knowledge of music included symphonic and opera literature as well. She spoke excellent German, English, French and Italian, and was interested in the history of art as well as in polite literature. This knowledge informed her choice of repertoire and inspired the complicated process of learning the pieces and performing them on the stage. Her interpretations were still invariably characterised by spontaneity, a deep immersion in the moment. As Vera Lampert concluded in her summarising study The Art of Annie Fischer (2002): “one of her secrets was the wonderful balance of control and inspiration: she never let skill put limits on her musical imagination. She trusted her musical judgement: when on the stage, she never relied on routine but went with the inspiration born out of the momen.
This made her performances infinitely natural and informal.” Her art was also characterised by an unerring sense of proportion and the meticulous building of musical structures. This gave excellent results for genre miniatures just as for grandiose sonatas. Despite her superior technical skills, Fischer never indulged in virtuosity for just virtuosity’s sake: she complemented her brilliant technique with varied key-pressing and a refined, sophisticated sound. Critics often praised her no-frills, elegant and still extremely suggestive way of playing, very atmospheric on stage.

Annie Fischer disliked recording. She felt that possibly the most important component of any interpretation was the magic of the moment, and to record or “conserve” a moment like that was impossible or at least undesirable. This is why she made relatively few recordings, the publication of some of which she later refused. Her first recordings are from 1953. Subsequently, for one and a half decades, she went on to record the most important items in her repertoire in a studio as well; these included some of Mozart’s piano concertos, Beethovens sonatas, Beethovens Piano Concerto in C minor, Schumann's Piano Concerto, Bartók's Piano Concerto No 3, Liszt's Sonata in H minor and Schubert's Sonata in B major. Later, in the CD era, Hungaroton published three discs with selected works from among these recordings.

Fischer stopped recording for some years; then from the mid-1970s she started working on an ambitious project, wanting to record Beethoven's 32 sonatas for piano. She worked enthusiastically in the unlimited studio time provided by Hungaroton, but was never wholly satisfied with the results. Although she considered the interpretation of some of the sonatas final, she did not allow the release of the full series. Thus the label only started to publish the Beethoven sonatas after her death, in 1996. The nine-disc series garnered much success with audiences and critics worldwide and significantly contributed to the revival of Fischer’s international fame. Of her international recordings, the discs recorded for EMI are especially valued. Over ten such discs, with recordings of predominantly Viennese classics and of pieces from the early Romantic era are still available. Her talent is also preserved on CD editions of rare recordings of concerts given in the USA and Western Europe: the BBC Legends series, for example, published a compilation of works by Liszt, Brahms, Bartók and Dohnányi at the turn of the millennium. In conclusion it is fair to say that the honesty, artless simplicity, purity and deep musicality of Annie Fischer's piano performances can still be enjoyed today through the studio recordings she disliked.

Tracklist:

CD 1:

01. Mozart / Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 - I. Allegro [0:14:24.60]
02. Mozart / Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 - II. Romance [0:10:21.00]
03. Mozart / Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 - III. Rondo. Allegro assai [0:07:45.27]
04. Mozart / Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467 - I. Allegro maestoso [0:15:33.63]
05. Mozart / Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467 - II. Andante [0:07:19.50]
06. Mozart / Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467 - III. Allegro vivace assai [0:07:07.10]
07. Mozart / Rondo in D major, K. 382 [0:09:37.55]

Annie Fischer - piano
Budapest Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ervin Lukács

Recorded on March 7-11 (1-6) and April 5, 1965 (7) at Hungaroton Studio.



CD 2:

01. Beethoven / Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor Op. 37 - I. Allegro con brio [0:16:30.40]
02. Beethoven / Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor Op. 37 - II. Largo [0:09:21.35]
03. Beethoven / Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor Op. 37 - III. Rondo. Allegro [0:09:16.05]
04. Mozart / Fantasy and Fugue in C major, K. 394 [0:08:28.65]
05. Schubert / Impromptu in F minor Op. 142 No. 1 D. 935/1 [0:09:26.30]

Annie Fischer - piano
Budapest Symphony Orchestra (1-3), conducted by Heribert Esser (1-3)

Recorded on June 2-5, 1966 (1-3), April 5, 1965 (4) and March 28-31, 1968 (5) at Hungaroton Studio.



CD 3:

01. Schubert / Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960 - I. Molto moderato [0:13:26.32]
02. Schubert / Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960 - II. Andante sostenuto [0:10:08.58]
03. Schubert / Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960 - III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace [0:04:06.20]
04. Schubert / Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960 - IV. Allegro ma non troppo [0:08:00.47]
05. Liszt / Sonata in B minor, S. 178 [0:31:35.43]

Annie Fischer - piano

Recorded on March 28-31, 1968 (1-4) and January 9, 1953 (5) at Hungaroton Studio.



All thanks to the original uploader: hixius