# Website specially devoted to Hungarian pianist Annie Fischer



## Viardots

For fans of the great Hungarian pianist Annie Fischer (1914-1995), here is a paradise that you must visit. A special website devoted to her life, career, artistry and recorded legacy (both studio and live), together with many wonderful rare photos, has been developed and established by a devoted fan based in Toronto, Canada. The website can be accessed via the following link. Once you enter the website, it automatically plays a live recording of her performance of Schubert's Impromptu Op. 90, No. 3 in G flat major (played as an encore after an all-Beethoven programme in a solo recital in Toronto on 4 March 1986; since she never recorded this piece commercially and this is her only recorded performance of the work, it is all the more precious):

http://yuanhuang.wix.com/annie-fischer


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## Albert7

Thanks for sharing . I really enjoy her playing a lot .


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## Viardots

Annie Fischer is heard here in a live performance on 22 February 1981 of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58. She was accompanied by the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Mura.

Allegro moderato (00:38)
Andante con moto (19:23)
Rondo (Vivace) (25:05)


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## Viardots

(Recorded at a recital in Montreal, 9 March 1984)

Annie Fischer (1914 - 1995) is heard here in Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D. 959.


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## Viardots

(Recorded at a recital in Montreal, 9 March 1984)

Annie Fischer (1914 - 1995) is heard here in Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major, K. 332.


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## Viardots

(Recorded in BBC Studio 1, Maida Vale, London, 11 November 1987)

Annie Fischer (1914 - 1995) is heard here in Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109.


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## Viardots

(Recorded in BBC Studio 2, Maida Vale, London, 19 October 1977)

Annie Fischer (1914 - 1995) is heard here in Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32 in c minor, Op. 111.


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## Albert7

Nice, can you recommend any good iTunes downloads for me to listen to on my iPod?


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## Viardots

albertfallickwang said:


> Nice, can you recommend any good iTunes downloads for me to listen to on my iPod?


I would recommend the following titles:

1. 




Annie Fischer's Cologne Radio Broadcast recordings made in 1957-8. The Beethoven Eroica Variations (Op. 35) and Piano Sonata No. 30 (Op. 109) are transcendent. The Schumann piano concerto recorded with Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra under Joseph Keilberth in 1958 is one of the best recorded performances of this work. The start of the development section in the first movement has a most inward twilight poetry that is simply magical.

2. 




Hungaroton's centenary commemoration box set that reissues her recordings of two Mozart concertos (K466 & K467, recorded in 1965), Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 (1966), Schubert's last Piano Sonata, No. 21, D. 960 (1968), Liszt's Piano Sonata (1953), etc. Nearly all are highlights, with the Mozart concertos standing out.


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## Viardots

Annie Fischer live in Tokyo, Japan (16 October 1987): Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 in c minor, O. 37, with NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Miltiadis Caridis.


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## ptr

Her complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas on Hungaroton is one of my favourite of these, thoroughly recommended!

/ptr


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## Viardots

ptr said:


> Her complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas on Hungaroton is one of my favourite of these, thoroughly recommended!
> 
> /ptr


Many thanks for pointing out the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas set on Hungaroton. I really hope I could recommend this set wholeheartedly to anyone interested in this great pianist. Unfortunately and frankly, this set has two major issues that bother me - as I have heard myself through purchased FLAC downloads from the Hungaroton official website. These had been pointed out by a reviewer on amazon.com:

1. Being endlessly self-critical and in constant pursuit of interpretive and artistic perfection, Fischer often easily became dissatisfied over her renditions of this or that passage or movement and frequently demanded the Hungaroton recording engineers to do numerous short takes and re-takes until she was fully happy with the results. Despite the fact that the engineers did an admirable job of painstakingly splicing together the numerous short takes that constitute these recordings, the "cut and paste" recording method greatly undermines any sense of architectural wholeness that is so important to these compositions.

2. Fischer used a Bosendorfer, which, though one of the world's finest pianos, has an enervated and slightly wooden timbre that needs a soft, if not comparatively dry, acoustic to elicit its true qualities. But Hungaroton's rather murky and resonant acoustic has an adverse impact how the piano sounds on the recordings. To compound matters, Fischer's Bosendorfer is not tuned properly for many of these recordings, which particularly undermines the effectiveness of Beethoven's lovely bass parts and the resolution of melodic tension that, at many times, depends on the interplay of half-tones.

But eventually, I guess many Annie fans out there won't mind these issues much and would rather see it as the triumph of her artistic will, strength and integrity over unfavourable circumstances and surroundings.


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## klavier

Thank you for promoting my Annie Fischer webpage, and I would love to say Annie's 1991 Japan Recital is already out in the market, available through hmv.co.jp and amazon.co.jp. It includes the first commercial release of her Schumann Fantasiestucke, Op.12. Besides the recording legacy, the concertography section and repertoire section will give you more knowledge of Annie Fischer's musical life. 

Best Regards
Yuan Huang


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## klavier

Regarding her Beethoven Sonatas, yes, it was a “cut and paste" recording, however, I would say there are many other "studio" recordings using the same method, including the famous Pollini Chopin Etudes which I always enjoy anyway. There were rumor among people saying Annie Fischer was not capable in recording all of the Beethoven Sonata and she was not well enough familiar with all of them and thus she mainly performed the popular "titled" ones. This was not ture, and Annie had known them for long and performed them as a cycle with other pianists as well as herself alone. The reason Annie would want to go with such process was she wanted to seek for the ideal interpretation in the recording. I used to NOT understand such idea, as I always believed a great musician would like a "REAL" performance rather than something manipulated using recording technology. However, one day I interviewed a renowned living pianist, he told me he prefered the studio recording, because althought the live performance is unique and represent the real atmosphere yet in many circumstances he may not able to deliver what he really wants to do. Factors affect his performance condition, like wether, mood, health condition, nervous etc. Only the studio would allow him perform freely and if he doesnt feel well, he could do it another time. I then understand Annie's case. She was never a technical perfect virtuoso (and in fact she didnt care wrong notes! She never lose the big picture anyway) and she never was the one favor in playing music as a "complete set". The Beethoven Sonatas was a big project as a complete set which she never think of until she gave cycles of them. I can tell these pieces are so important to her that she finally decided to leave recordings of all of them. She wanted them to be perfect in this case as she understand she might not be albe to deliver all of them equally well if that was a live. I dont blame on this and yet, if one should judge such process, then one may not stand for any Studio recordings anymore as they are mostly cut and paste. Also, nowadays, the so called "LIVE" recordings are also cut and paste, recording company would combine sections from different live concerts to make a single "LIVE" recording. I would say this is even worse. It was commonly said that Annie did not allow these set to be released, it is not quite accurate. The fact was she was not satisfied to release them during her life, but she did say many times that she allow them to be released after her death, according to authorities. 

The Annie Fischer sonatas, are among the top versions of the available complete sets in my opinion. However the problem was Hungaroton priced them too high that, it makes it a less affordable set for many people.


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## Viardots

klavier said:


> Thank you for promoting my Annie Fischer webpage, and I would love to say Annie's 1991 Japan Recital is already out in the market, available through hmv.co.jp and amazon.co.jp. It includes the first commercial release of her Schumann Fantasiestucke, Op.12. Besides the recording legacy, the concertography section and repertoire section will give you more knowledge of Annie Fischer's musical life.
> 
> Best Regards
> Yuan Huang


A warm welcome to the forum Huang Yuan! You have done a great service to all who treasure the legacy of the great pianists of the past and our appreciations for your wonderful work know no bounds. :tiphat:

I first came to know Annie Fischer through commentaries in the Gramophone magazine and elsewhere that she had been woefully unjustly left out from the Philips Great Pianists series. These aroused great curiosity on my part about what makes her so cherished by many cognoscenti of great pianists and in turn led to my first purchase of her recordings - Mozart's K467 & K482 with the PO under Wolfgang Sawallisch. I was deeply impressed by her unvarnished way with Mozart, simple, direct, yet going straight to the heart of the matter. Then came the two Palexa CDs featuring her live recordings, which drew me even closer to her. The sheer magic of the twilight poetry at the start of the development section of the first movement from Schumann's Piano Concerto (1957, Cologne, with Keilberth) skyrocketed her to the very top among the great pianists in my mind. I simply have never heard anyone else (not even Lipatti and Haskil) playing the passages in such a way that touches one's soul and yet everything is achieved within a discreet economy of means.

Much thanks also for sharing your thought on her complete Beethoven sonatas cycle on Hungaroton. This at least makes me feel that I should re-think about how I respond to this set. Regardless of the issues concerning the recording method, the sonic quality of the acoustic and the Bosendorfer, I have no doubt that this IS a great cycle, worthy to be placed alongside those of Schnabel and Arrau (for me the two other truly great cycles of the Beethoven sonatas).

I am considering getting her 1991 Japan recital on hmv.co.jp, as you have pointed out in your posting. Meanwhile, it's apparent that Lynn Ludwig of Meloclassic knows several unreleased live recordings, many of which featuring Beethoven's 4th piano concerto. They are really mouth-watering. At the moment it seems that her plan to release the promised new batch of CDs is suffering from a delay. One could only hope that these CDs could become available eventually and that Lynn would be able to include more of Annie's previously unavailable live recordings in a future batch of planned releases.

Best regards,
AF (this is not my real name; as can be understood, I chose this as my username on Talk Classical because I count myself as an ardent fan of this great pianist)


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## Viardots

Just uploaded to YouTube: Annie Fischer's live performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K488, at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Romania, on 15 September 1961. She was accompanied by the Romanian National Radio Orchestra conducted by Constantin Bugeanu.


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## staxomega

klavier said:


> Regarding her Beethoven Sonatas, yes, it was a "cut and paste" recording, however, I would say there are many other "studio" recordings using the same method, including the famous Pollini Chopin Etudes which I always enjoy anyway. There were rumor among people saying Annie Fischer was not capable in recording all of the Beethoven Sonata and she was not well enough familiar with all of them and thus she mainly performed the popular "titled" ones. This was not ture, and Annie had known them for long and performed them as a cycle with other pianists as well as herself alone. The reason Annie would want to go with such process was she wanted to seek for the ideal interpretation in the recording. I used to NOT understand such idea, as I always believed a great musician would like a "REAL" performance rather than something manipulated using recording technology. However, one day I interviewed a renowned living pianist, he told me he prefered the studio recording, because althought the live performance is unique and represent the real atmosphere yet in many circumstances he may not able to deliver what he really wants to do. Factors affect his performance condition, like wether, mood, health condition, nervous etc. Only the studio would allow him perform freely and if he doesnt feel well, he could do it another time. I then understand Annie's case. She was never a technical perfect virtuoso (and in fact she didnt care wrong notes! She never lose the big picture anyway) and she never was the one favor in playing music as a "complete set". The Beethoven Sonatas was a big project as a complete set which she never think of until she gave cycles of them. I can tell these pieces are so important to her that she finally decided to leave recordings of all of them. She wanted them to be perfect in this case as she understand she might not be albe to deliver all of them equally well if that was a live. I dont blame on this and yet, if one should judge such process, then one may not stand for any Studio recordings anymore as they are mostly cut and paste. Also, nowadays, the so called "LIVE" recordings are also cut and paste, recording company would combine sections from different live concerts to make a single "LIVE" recording. I would say this is even worse. It was commonly said that Annie did not allow these set to be released, it is not quite accurate. The fact was she was not satisfied to release them during her life, but she did say many times that she allow them to be released after her death, according to authorities.
> 
> The Annie Fischer sonatas, are among the top versions of the available complete sets in my opinion. However the problem was Hungaroton priced them too high that, it makes it a less affordable set for many people.


Yes, it seems like it went out of print very quickly. Fortunately I was able to secure a set at a premium, but not the outrageous amounts they go for now. It is one box set that is without question a desert island pick for me.


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## klavier

Yesterday, I made a huge update to my website dedicated to the Great Hungarian Pianist Annie Fischer. Now the Full Discography and a newly added Cover Arts section are available online. It contains all the released and unreleased materials information to my knowledge, including details of all possible releases (that I can find) of the same recording and and as many cover arts as possible I could gathered. Hope you will like the new updates and will continuously update other sections.


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## klavier

Yesterday, I made a huge update to my website dedicated to the Great Hungarian Pianist Annie Fischer. Now the Full Discography and a newly added Cover Arts section are available online. It contains all the released and unreleased materials information to my knowledge, including details of all possible releases (that I can find) of the same recording and and as many cover arts as possible I could gathered. Hope you will like the new updates and will continuously update other sections.

Web Address: http://yuanhuang.wix.com/annie-fischer


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## Pugg

Thanks for letting us know :tiphat:


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