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Annie Fischer's EMI Recordings · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Dissler, and welcome to the Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  We're going to be talking about Annie Fisher
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  today, the Hungarian pianist who lived from 1914
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  until 1995. She was really a pianist's pianist,
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  or... Maybe it's more accurate to say that she
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  was an interpreter's interpreter. I think what
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  made her so special was that... She understood
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  the classical style and the need for balance
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  and proportion. Yet there also was a volatile
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  and temperamental side underneath her surface.
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  And you'd have these explosions from out of nowhere,
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  yet they never seemed to be done for effect or
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  shock value. It was like a volcano. bubbling
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  up inside of this pianist, waiting to erupt,
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  yet it would only cool down right away in the
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  performance. And she gave the impression of living
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  in the present, that her interpretations were
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  being conjured up on the spot, yet they nevertheless
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  were informed by a great deal of consideration
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  and planning in terms of detail. I only heard
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  Annie Fisher once live in concert, and it was
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  a recital that she gave in New York at the Metropolitan
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  Museum of Art. I think it was in 1988. I'm not
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  a zillion percent sure. Anyway, I remember I
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  was able to get a ticket, and the first half
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  was all Beethoven, and she seemed kind of off
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  form. kind of disengaged, and I felt tempted
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  to leave after the first half, but something
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  compelled me to stay, and I'm so glad that I
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  did, because on the second half, Annie Fisher
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  gave a performance of the Brahms Piano Sonata
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  No. 3. that had all of the quintessential qualities
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  that Annie Fisher displayed in her prime performing
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  years. There was real intense abandon, it seemed,
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  and risk -taking for sure. Yet there was the
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  utmost tenderness in phrasing when it was required,
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  and her sound just seemed to open up by many
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  degrees in this second half where she played
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  the Brahms. It just seemed to me that her sonority
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  was enveloping the entire venue. I can say that
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  that probably was one of the most three or four
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  memorable live performances I had ever heard
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  of the Brahms F minor sonata, including several
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  from Claudio Arau, and I think also I heard Yefim
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  Bronfman play it beautifully at the Lucerne Festival.
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  I also heard Jerome Rose rise to the top of his
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  form and play the bejesus out of this piece back
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  in 2011. But getting back to Annie Fisher, the
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  recordings that she made for the EMI label in
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  the late 1950s and early 1960s. helped to solidify
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  her international reputation. And they were all
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  collected into an eight -CD set, issued first
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  by EMI and then reprinted under the Warner Classics
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  logo. And that label's icon box set reissue series.
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  It's no longer in print, unfortunately, but secondhand
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  copies do turn up. And because this is a really
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  significant body of work from a major pianist,
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  I think that this is a box set really worth talking
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  about on this podcast. And besides, you can access
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  all of the material through downloading and streaming
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  platforms at the very least. There are so many
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  wonderful things in this collection, including
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  six Mozart concertos. And I especially like Annie
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  Fisher's treatment of the concerto number 27
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  in B -flat, Kershaw 595, where she gives the
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  rondo finale a relatively brisk and boisterous
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  treatment that contrasts to the way that way
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  too many pianists these days treat... the music
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  with kid gloves and really undermine Mozart's
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  allegro marking. And the Philharmonia Orchestra's
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  woodwinds are on really perky form in this concerto
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  under Ephraim Kurtz's direction. Annie Fisher's
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  recordings of the 21st and 22nd Mozart concertos
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  with Wolfgang Savalisch and the Philharmonia
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  are justly famous. I think her sensitive and
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  responsive pianism in these performances is just
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  a total joy. And in the C major, Kershaw 467,
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  by the way, she plays Busoni's Big Cadenza, which
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  is an interesting choice. And incidentally, you
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  hear this cadenza in this marvelous live broadcast
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  recording with Walter Gieseking and Guido Cantelli
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  conducting the New York Philharmonic. That's
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  been reissued several times, and you can find
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  that online. There are some Beethoven sonatas
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  in the set, too. And here, Annie Fisher is on
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  ever so slightly fresher form than in her later
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  studio recordings that she did for Hungaritan.
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  Those recordings were all edited together after
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  her death. But in the EMI recordings, we have
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  a terrific E -flat major sonata, Op. 31 No. 3.
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  there is one of the most involving and intense
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  renditions of the Opus 111, the final sonata,
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  and especially in the concentration and the tension
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  that Annie Fisher brings to the introduction
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  of the first movement. I picked Annie Fisher's
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  EMI recording of the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata
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  as my primary recommendation a few years ago
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  when I wrote a gramophone collection piece about
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  the Moonlight on record. The little F -sharp
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  major Sonata Op. 78 Annie Fisher does very well
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  on EMI, and I have often written about her. EMI
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  recording of the Opus 109, the Sonata No. 30,
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  and I very often mention that she was one of
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  the few pianists in the prestissimo movement
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  to accurately observe the composer's alternating,
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  detached, and legato phrasings. A lot of pianists
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  just play them all the same way, but she really
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  differentiates them, and it really does make
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  a difference when you're listening. The other
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  pianists who I know do that on record are Charles
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  Rosen and, surprisingly perhaps, Freddie Kempf
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  in his recording on bis in the Waldstein Sonata.
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  Annie Fisher's outer movements maybe fall a little
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  short of those by her contemporaneous competitors
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  like Rudolph Serkin and Solomon and Eve Knott.
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  But the way that she sustains the introduction
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  into the finale is so haunting and so gorgeously
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  introspective. It's worth... the whole price
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  of the box set, or at least the price of this
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  performance of the Waldstein. When I reviewed
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  this box for classicstoday .com, I talked about
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  Annie Fisher's flexible, poetic, and technically
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  impressive Schubert B -flat sonata D960, which
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  I think is one of the great versions in the catalog,
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  even though it doesn't have the first movement
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  repeat that became fashionable and politically
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  correct. And, you know, it's an extraordinary
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  repeat because you have that first ending with
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  the sudden interruption and those two -note phrases
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  and then the trill in the left hand is loud for
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  the first time. Annie Fisher... plays the A -flat
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  impromptu, the Deutsch 935 No. 2, in a very expansive
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  and reposeful way that I think is really lovely
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  in the outer sections. But then the volatility
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  comes up in the central minor key episode. And
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  she plays the fourth impromptu in this set wonderfully.
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  And she combines some of Rudolf Serkin's metrical
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  rigor and absolute technical honesty with Artur
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  Schnabel's strong emphasis of the syncopated
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  accents. It's a marvelous performance. There's
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  also some excellent Schumann in this collection.
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  And aside from some slight rushing and a few
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  snatched -at chord... leaps in the second movement
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  of the C major fantasy. Annie Fisher's performance
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  breathes and sings and really communicates. I
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  really like this a lot. Her Kindersehnen is wonderful
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  too, and her studio recording of Schumann's Carnival,
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  I think, is more accurate than in various broadcast
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  and concert versions that we have on disc, but
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  it isn't quite as characterful and spontaneous.
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  Her Christloriana is fabulous, except for the
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  final movement, where her basic tempo, I think,
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  is just way, way too fast. There are two concerto
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  recordings, which I think are rather duds, unfortunately,
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  because Otto Klemperer's stodgy and unyielding
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  orchestral support really prevents the Schumann
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  A minor and the Liszt E -flat major concertos
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  from taking wing. I think here Annie Fisher definitely
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  would have benefited from a different conductor.
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  And that's not to put down Klemperer, because
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  he is one of my favorite conductors, and there
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  are many examples of him being a fantastic accompanist.
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  in this, but just not in these two performances.
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  But the Annie Fisher Bartok III concerto in this
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  set with Igor Markievicz conducting is an absolute
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  classic. And Fischer's phrasing constantly brings
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  out the speech -like patterns and accentuations
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  of Bartok's melodic thinking, even in the finale's
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  scampering unison lines. And Markievicz, of course,
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  you know, no detail escapes him. He was... one
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  of the greatest conductors on record. So, this
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  is a collection that's well worth seeking out,
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  or at least trying to source the individual performances
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  from various online sources. You know, I've recently
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  been purging a lot of CDs from my collection
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  that have been sitting around for years, ignored
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  and unplayed and even unopened. But, You can
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  bet the farm that I am holding on to my copy
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  of the Annie Fisher icon box on EMI or on Warner
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  for Dear Life. This is Jed Disler, and you've
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  been listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly
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  podcast guide to piano recordings. Thanks so
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  much for tuning in, and I do look forward to
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  being with you for our next episode.