No. 266 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast266 |
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This week’s podcast features a pianist I find has been much
overlooked in recent years. Edwin Fischer (1886 –1960) was a Swiss classical
pianist and conductor who is regarded as one of the great interpreters of J.S.
Bach and Mozart of his generation, if not of the twentieth century.
Precocious, Edwin Fischer entered the Basle Conservatory at
age ten where he studied with the composer Hans Huber. When Fischer was
eighteen he moved to Berlin to study at the Stern Conservatory with Liszt pupil
Martin Krause (who would later teach Claudio Arrau).
After a period of teaching at the Stern Conservatory,
Fischer gave recitals and at this time appeared with such eminent conductors as
Willem Mengelberg, Arthur Nikisch, and Bruno Walter. He toured in Europe and
Britain, but gave only a limited number of concerts.
In 1931 Fischer succeeded Artur Schnabel as director of the
Berlin Hochschule für Musik, a post he held for four years. During World
War II Fischer returned to his native Switzerland from where he gave
master-classes for a number of later prominent pianists (such as Alfred
Brendel, Helena Sá e Costa, Mario Feninger, Paul Badura-Skoda and Daniel
Barenboim). He continued to tour until 1954 when he stopped performing in
public as he was suffering from a paralysis of his hands.
Fischer’s repertoire was dominated by Bach, Beethoven,
Mozart, and Schubert. He also played Chopin and Schumann, but had a wide
knowledge of the piano repertoire. Describing Fischer’s pianistic personality
is not easy. He was a genuinely honest and kind person whose humanity shone
through his music in performances that contained a beautiful, seamless legato,
and a pellucid tone quality that is unique to Fischer. He found all things
spiritual extremely important to his life as a musician, always searching for
the true inner spirit of the music he was interpreting.
Edwin Fischer was the first pianist to make a complete
recording of Bach’s Das wohltemperierte Klavier which he commenced in
1933. Perhaps the best adumbration of Fischer’s musical outlook is his
recording of Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue recorded in 1931. The Fantasy
sounds more like an improvisation with Fischer not fearing to double notes and
use extremes of dynamic, his pianissimo being almost hypnotic as it draws the
listener in. He makes this Fantasy into an improvisational poem, at times
creating moments of aching beauty. He brings the same qualities to Busoni’s
arrangement of Bach’s Chorale Ich ruf’zu dir.
In 1930 Fischer formed his own chamber orchestra of Berlin
musicians, which he conducted from the keyboard. In 1950 Fischer gave a series
of concerts in London and other European cities to commemorate the bicentenary
of Bach’s death. In these concerts he played all the concertos for keyboard.
Today’s podcast features his recording of three of these concerti with his
Chamber Orchestra.
I think you will love this music too.
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