I didn't realise Annie Fischer was born 100 years ago. I really admire her in the way I admire Clara Haskil, Géza Anda, Murray Perahia, Leon Fleischer, Maurizio Pollini and Stephen Kovacevich. As an undergrad in Toronto, I bought every Mozart piano concerto CD that she recorded for EMI (KV 466, 467, 482, 488, 491 and 595). She plays Busoni's cadenza in KV 482 and it's really out there in comparison to Géza Anda's tasteful cadenzas. I really love how she plays this concerto (Mozart's longest piano concerto I believe). The passage work is so clean and she doesn't play 'dainty' Mozart. It is quite a contrast to Wilhelm Kempff's recording from 1982 (when he was well into his 80s). I like that recording too, but I think Kempff's age kept him from playing it so fast and fluid like Annie Fischer did in 1959 with the Philharmonia. In grad school, my Hungarian colleague bought two Hungaraton CDs for me on a trip back to his homeland. One was a Mozart concerto disk (KV 456 and 466) and the other was Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto with some Mozart and Schubert solo fillers. I finally cracked open this 2 CD set. I listened to Opus 111 first and yes, it's a winner for me. I'm putting together an Annie Fischer MP3 CD for my car. Brava!
Annie Fischer: greatly underrated -- not even selected as one of the 72 Greatest Pianists in the 200cd Philips series. Kempff: rather overrated based on his recorded legacy, esp in Beethoven and Liszt.
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