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about ANNIE FISCHER (1914-1995)

A pianist of world wide reputation, shone prominently on the Hungarian firmament for seventy years.

She was the last representative of a great Central European performing tradition which was centered on Wienna. Her very own pitch was a century or more of music, from Haydn to Brams. The public, at home and abroad, respected her as the poet of the piano. Her aim throughout a long career was perfection of form and expressions. Her toutch was something caressingly soft, at other times hard steel, and always unbelievably characteristic.. There were contemporaries who told us something different about a Mozart concerto, a Beethoven sonata or a Chopin nocturne, but none said more. She set the standard, her cup owerflowed with feeling...

Annie Fischer did not care to record. In her opinion the magic of the moment was perhaps the most important element of a given interpretation, and this moment was near impossible to fix or 'can', and even if it could be done, this was not desirable. That helps explain why she recorded so seldom and why she refused to authorise the issue of many a recording she made...