„The grand dame of the piano” (Sviatoslav Richter) was a celebrity as a child, but never became a fashionable celebrity. She was celebrated as a world-renowned pianist, yet she took to the podium with a beginner’s stage fright until the end of her life. Each time she performed the works, she almost recreated them, which made it difficult to record as much of them as her art would otherwise have deserved.
Her aim was nothing less than the full identification with the composer’s intentions, which is unthinkable without a high level of artistic empathy, the technical perfection required for its realisation and a culture of touch that conveys poeticism comparable only that of the greatest.
Her recordings are treasured items in the musical gourmets’ collections, and her CD album of all Beethoven’s piano sonatas, released shortly after her death, is a unique documentation of a special workshop that spanned many years.
Although she preferred to escape from a tiresome fan base, some admirers of her art were allowed into her circle, despite her reticence. Among them was legendary Anna Dévény, whose carefully guarded archive served as the basis for Dr György Székely to create a magnificent Annie Fischer book from the documents, the second edition of which, published in 2014, is only occasionally found in antiquarian bookshops. The excellent gastroenterologist, who has been a musician all his life, a writer-editor of high-quality music articles and publications, started another „avalanche” when he helped to enrich the collection of Fischer Annie fans by arranging never before published recordings and the MTVA’s preserved recordings into an album.
Fischer Annie on screen, a five-DVD album, offers real treats: four Beethoven piano concertos, Mozart, Brahms, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Bartók concertos, solo pieces, conversations, rehearsals, and commemorations. Looking at the omnibus edition, we can again (or actually for the first time) be part of the magic of the moment, as Tibor Tallián put it: „Annie Fischer’s concerts always have an unmistakable atmosphere… Her concerts are not part of the live music industry. When we see her, we immediately feel welcome and like her personal guests, and we are therefore personally and directly involved in the conversation that Annie Fischer is having with the work, not with us, but in front of us and for us”.
Although it will not be released commercially, a box of 6 CDs entitled Fischer Annie rarities is available and can be ordered from the Friends of the Liszt Academy, which, when opened, guides us to the treasures of Sesame. The performances recorded in a rather cunning way (including two different performances of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 503), and the recordings of the little-known chamber musician Annie Fischer, convince us again and again that there were only a few musicians of such high standards and humility in the 20th century. “She cares about what she plays. My God, it makes a difference! There are no lost beats, no unnoticed gestures, only the conviction that behind every note of Beethoven’s music lies a vivid emotional world and thought, agonies and reassurances, sentences bitten in half and unbridled, elemental passions.” (András Pernye)
Listeners of these recordings will also find this miracle in the Haydn, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Bach and other solo works, the Spring and Kreutzer Sonatas performed with Edie Zathureczky, Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major with the Bartók String Quartet and the Pistrague Quintet with the Tátrai String Quartet.
So we can rediscover Annie Fischer, in whose piano playing „every sound is a revelation.” (György Kroó)
