Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, Franz Joseph Haydn :: Fischer Plays Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin, Kodály, Mozart

An Absolute Pleasure

BLee | HK | 11/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
Annie Fischer, somewhat like Busoni, didn't enjoy playing in the studio making records. With few commercial records around, she was was therefore not presented as one of the greatest pianists of the century by Philips. And after her husband died in 1968, she grew increasingly reclusive, avoiding almost all microphones. So, that makes this BBC Legends transfer of her recital particularly precious.



Like her teacher Dohnanyi, she was not just a magician of the keyboard, she was also a absolute musician and supreme artist who made music not just in accordance with the score and also behind the lines: a breathtaking crispness with supreme simplicity laced with a degree of nobility, something which would only come along with improvisation -- Dohnanyi's insistence on all his piano students to learn composing obviously had paid off.



It is easy to see from these recordings that Fischer possessed an absolute sense of pace, atmosphere, and emotional power: the very essence of human communications and all that music is about. No wonder that a conductor once remarked that, this is exactly how the piano instead should be played! And with respect, few of the great pianists in the Philips series could claim to be able to play better than her. Her Haydn is one of the best that could ever expect, and her Beethoven may be off the main stream. Yet like Casadeusus's, it is so full of life and so evocative that one might even doubt the legitimacy of the mainstream. Her Kodaly is intimate and poetic to the extent of being rapturous and her Mozart here may not be too exciting but nonetheless so pleasantly unpredictable, especially with the contrast of 2nd movement...



In short, this CD is absolutely a pleasure."